Jonah and Columbus

 

by

 

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

 

 

 

The name Colombo is synonymous with

the name “JONAH,” which means, “dove.”

 

 

 

In “America’s Hebraic Heritage And Roots. The Hebraic Prophetic Roots Of America’s Discovery”, we read of an apparent Jewishness in Christopher Columbus:

http://www.threemacs.org/docs/Americas%20Hebraic%20Roots%20-%20Columbus%20and%20the%20Discovery.pdf

 

1. Christopher Columbus was believed to have been of both Jewish and Italian descent. Born in Genoa, Italy, his roots actually were from Spain.

2. His paternal grandfather was a [converso] who had his name changed from Colon to Columbo.

3. Conversos were Jews who had, by choice or necessity, converted to Christianity.

4. To survive Jewish annihilation during the Spanish Inquisition, Columbus was raised a Christian.

5. His use of the Spanish form of his name in his dairies and letters along with certain oddities lend great credence to the fact that he was Jewish.

6. Colon is a Spanish-Jewish name.

7. The name Colombo is synonymous with the name “JONAH,” which means, “dove.”

8. Jonah was the first Hebrew prophet sent to a Gentile nation but rebelled and found himself thrown overboard by lots during a fierce storm.

9. Prior to discovering America, Columbus found his fleet being tossed at sea by a violent storm on his return from the New World. The storm was so strong he recommended that the crew appease God with a sacrificial vow. One from among them was to vow to make a pilgrimage to a particular monastery if they survived. Columbus took 39 beans and marked a cross on one of them. They drew lots a total of four times and each time Columbus drew the marked bean.

10. Jonah’s mission was to go to a Gentile nation and be a light but when he disobeyed, God intervened with a storm. God used a storm to likewise push Columbus to discovering what we know today as North and South America.

11. Columbus sometime signed his name in a peculiar triangular form. Some historians believe this alluded to his Jewish heritage.

12. In 1484, Columbus was 33 years old. This is the year of a man’s life known in Italy as “anno de Christo,” the year of Christ, which according to tradition is reserved for revelation.

13. He felt he had received divine revelation to sail west and to take the name of Christ to the ends of the earth. Later in his dairies he likened himself to a modern day Moses.

14. It is possible that Columbus quest for gold was in his heart more for the restoration of Israel and the Temple than just lust for riches. ….

 

{Speaking of Colon, I am reminded of the famous Australian poet, professor James McAuley, my English teacher at the University of Tasmania around 1970, who - ever the grammarian - is reputed to have quipped, after he had had part of his colon removed due to bowel cancer, ‘better a semi-colon that a full stop’}.

 

In 1503, Columbus and 116 sailors were stranded on Jamaica with little prospect of recue. According to Ronald A. Reis (Christopher Columbus and the Age of Exploration for Kids, p. 112): “The Spaniards, after four days of hell, felt as if they had been delivered from the whale’s belly, like the prophet Jonah”.

 

Perry F. Stone writes (Nightmare Along Pennsylvania Avenue: Prophetic Insight into America's Role, p. 61-62):

 

… Christopher Columbus … Spanish … Cristóbal Colón … was Jewish. … Research of the name Colombo reveals that it is synonymous with the name Jonah, which means “dove”. It is interesting to compare Jonah’s story in the Bible to the events surrounding Columbus. (See the Book of Jonah in the Bible).

The book The Light and the Glory says that on the return journey home from the New World, Columbus, having been deceived by the lust for gold, found his fleet being tossed at sea by a violent storm. …. The storm was so strong that Columbus recommended they appease God with a sacrificial vow that one of them would make a pilgrimage to a particular monastery. The men agreed, so Columbus took thirty-nine beans and marked a cross on one of them. They put the beans in a hat, drew lots, and the first time the beans were drawn, Columbus drew the marked bean. They drew lots three more times, with the marked bean being drawn by Columbus twice more. The odds of this happening are rare. It seems that Columbus was living up to the heritage of his namesake, and God was trying to get his attention!

Jonah was the first Hebrew prophet sent to a Gentile nation. His mission was to go to Nineveh and be a light unto them. When Jonah strayed from this, God intervened with a storm. Likewise, Columbus’s mission was to open the curtain on the New World. This New World would create a nation that would further the mission of bringing Christ to the nations, and God would not allow greed to undermine His plan. ….