The Book of Jonah is generally considered by scholars to be a fictional tale written in the Persian era, however, the version in the Septuagint indicates the story likely dates back to the Assyrian era, between 720 and 612 BC. There are several reasons why Jewish, Christian, and secular scholars have questioned the book's origin, not the least of which is the fact that Jonah spent several days inside some sea creature and survived. As such, it reads more like a fictional tale, such as the Words of Ahikar and the book of Tobit, which was connected to Ahikar by its author.

The concept of free will is central to all Judeo-Christian religions. Although refusal to follow God's directions will lead to some kind of negative consequences, the right nevertheless exists. However, in the book of Jonah, Jonah had no free will. He was forced to go to Nineveh, to tell the Assyrians that the Israelite God was going to destroy their city, three days after the prophecy. Naturally, no one would be enthusiastic about being told to do that, however, in the Greek translation, the issue is compounded by the fact that Jonah is a slave. In the Masoretic version, the expression "Slave of a master I am" was replaced with "Hebrew I am," which makes no sense, as he was talking to the sailors of the ship he boarded in Jaffa, who would have known his ethnicity.

The fact that he was running away from his master's face also proves in the original version of this text Jonah was running from his human owner, and not God, unless one accepts that he thought his god, who he claimed made the sea and the dryness, couldn't find him in Tartessos (southwest Spain). In the Masoretic version, the term master's face was replaced by "before Yahweh," indicating that Yahweh didn't know where Spain was, at least in the opinion of the author. The Masoretic reading is confirmed to date back as early as the Hasmonean dynasty by the Dead Sea Scroll 4QXIIᵃ, however, this scroll dates 40 to 140 years after the Book of Jonah was translated at the Library of Alexandria.