JONAH & THE FISH

Is Jonah’s story of being swallowed by a fish true? That a fish swallowed Jonah is mentioned as a fact and not as an allegory in the Bible.

Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17)

From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. (Jonah 2:1)

And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (Jonah 2:10)

Jesus makes a reference to Jonah, attesting to its truth,

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:40)

The first way to look at this story would be to say that this was a miracle that is completely in the supernatural realm. We see the work of God in creating the storm, preparing the fish to swallow Jonah and then commanding it to vomit him out. Whatever supernatural creature the Lord prepared in the ocean to swallow Jonah appeared best to him to be a fish and hence the description. The narrative of the Bible logically allows for miracles as it centers on a God who works both in the natural and the supernatural realm. Much like we believe the miracles of the virgin birth and the resurrections mentioned in the Bible, we can believe in the story of Jonah as a miracle that God performed outside the realm of nature.

But could this have happened naturally? There are whales and big fish that can swallow objects as large a human. Though there are no whales in the Mediterranean now, it is understood that whales used to frequent that sea in the past. There are also unsubstantiated historic reports of sailors being swallowed by fish to escape with their lives. Much like in the case of Jesus, three days and three nights could be a reference to 3 days, lasting a period of as little as 38 hours. Can a man survive in that environment where digestive mechanisms come into play? It can be argued that if the fish did not feed further and had air inside the belly, providing for oxygen for Jonah to breathe, staying alive could have kept the digestive process at bay for a while.

It also possible that Jonah actually died and was brought back to life, much like in the resurrections we read of in the Bible. Interestingly there is a reference to ‘Oannes’, very similar to Jonah, in Babylonian mythology of a fish god who instructed people. It is interesting that Jonah was headed to Nineveh where the fish god was worshipped. Imagine a few Ninevites watching as a huge fish vomits a man out on land, who then proceeds to proclaim destruction of the city. In their minds this was none other than a messenger from their God. Perhaps that explains the miraculous turnaround of the people as everyone from the king to the least person dons sackcloth and repents. Till the 1800’s no one knew of the existence of Nineveh and no one believed a city that large could exist which required 3 days to cover as mentioned in the book of Jonah. Archaeologists have since uncovered the city of Nineveh near Mosul in Syria, that in fact was that large and the largest city of that time.

There are no impossibilities with God and Jonah’s story is one incredible story of God’s concern for all people, working to bring those who are lost back to him.

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