The book contains many references to Biblical prophets, but none is mentioned as frequently as Jonah. In the Old Testament, God sends Jonah to warn the people of Nineveh to cease their sinful ways or else face divine wrath. When Jonah attempts to shirk his responsibilities as a prophet, God casts him into the sea where he is swallowed by a whale. There he remains in the whale’s stomach for three days before God commands the beast to vomit, allowing Jonah to escape.

Like Jonah, Tarwater is a reluctant prophet, charged with castigating the sinners of a city, who only accepts his mission following enormous pain and suffering. When this suffering does not promptly arrive, the friend references Jonah in mockery, telling Tarwater, “If you are a prophet, it’s only right you should be treated like one. When Jonah dallied, he was cast three days in a belly of darkness and vomited up in the place of his mission” (161). This suffering does eventually afflict Tarwater, beginning shortly after he desecrates the rite of baptism by drowning Bishop. Sitting in the cab of a truck on the way to Powderhead, Tarwater suffers convulsive nightmares: “He might have been Jonah clinging wildly to the whale’s tongue” (216).