Theodore of Mopsuestia, on Jonah 3:5

“And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least.”

“They could never have believed in God on the basis of this remark alone, from a completely unknown foreigner threatening them with destruction and adding nothing further, not even letting the listeners know by whom he was sent. Rather, it is obvious he also mentioned God, the Lord of all, and said he had been sent by him; and he delivered the message of destruction, calling them to repentance. When they accepted instruction in this, then, they were naturally told to believe in God; when they accepted both the sentence and the instruction from the prophet's sermon, they set their eyes on better things so as to give evidence of a decisive and serious repentance.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.