The author recalls the reception history of the small prophetic book of Jonah, and in particular of its main actor, the prophet Jonah. Many and diverse have been the identifications proposed for the prophet Jonah. In the reception history Jonah has become a true metaphor to represent a vast array of figures, characters, attitudes, possibilities of being. Many of these identifications reflect what Bathkin called “dominant reading traditions”. Applying the theory of social memory (Halbwachs), the author explores a new way of seeing Jonah and his role in the book and asks in which measure Jonah should be seen as a bearer of the social memory of the little ones, those that are sacrified for the benefit of the big empires.