I always thought Jonah was a bit mythical or allegorical.

[Terabith]

Maybe I need to rethink that!  

https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/06/11/cape-cod-fisherman-ok-after-whale-gulps-him-down-spits-him-out/?fbclid=IwAR20LbAaNLvnHPTF0jZRszsjIaY3Jct6s_wHhS68ms55utap5ip6RFrkoIY

[*Jessica*]

Can you even imagine?!

[Terabith]

I hope he goes to Nineveh now!

[Farrar]

It was a fluke! Oh, newspaper reporters! 😂

[Faith-manor]

Wow! Just wow!

[MercyA]

Wow! So glad he is okay!!! A story to tell the grandkids, for sure.

p.s. I believe Jonah was a real guy. 😉 

[bibiche]

Here’s a really short and simple article from The Smithsonian explaining how it happens. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/could-a-whale-accidentally-swallow-you-it-is-possible-26353362/
 

Good thing he got he met a baleen whale and not a toothed whale!

eta and I’m a dunce, because that’s talking about a whale shark. 😳 But all the other articles I read since reading Terabith’s story basically say the same thing about baleen whales. And the same about the unlikelihood of either Pinocchio or Jonah surviving inside a whale’s stomachs. 😉 

Edited June 12, 2021 by bibiche

[MercyA]

So, I was looking up the Hebrew word used for the sea creature in Jonah, which is sometimes translated whale and sometimes "giant fish." I happened upon two interesting things I don't remember hearing before.

One is the theory that Jonah actually died in the fish and was resurrected. Some people point to the verse in which Jonah says "from the depths of the grave I called for help." I always took this to be a metaphorical reference to the inside of the fish, but who knows? Also, Jesus compared His time in the grave to the time Jonah spent in the fish. I'm personally going to stick with the traditional interpretation of Jonah actually living inside the fish for three days, since the Bible doesn't specifically say he died, but it's interesting to think about.

Secondly, I found this speculation fascinating:

"Apart from the Bible, there is no conclusive historical proof that Jonah was ever swallowed by a fish and lived to tell about it; however, there is some provocative corroboratory evidence. In the third century BC, a Babylonian priest/historian named Berosus wrote of a mythical creature named Oannes who, according to Berosus, emerged from the sea to give divine wisdom to men. Scholars generally identify this mysterious fish-man as an avatar of the Babylonian water-god Ea (also known as Enki). The curious thing about Berosus’ account is the name he used: Oannes.

Berosus wrote in Greek during the Hellenistic Period. Oannes is just a single letter removed from the Greek name Ioannes, which happens to be used in the Greek New Testament for Jonah. As for the I being dropped from Ioannes, Professor Trumbull writes, 'In the Assyrian inscriptions the J of foreign words becomes I, or disappears altogether; hence Joannes, as the Greek representative of Jona, would appear in Assyrian either as Ioannes or as Oannes' (ibid., p. 58). [....]

Berosus claimed to have relied upon official Babylonian sources for his information. Nineveh was conquered by the Babylonians under King Nabopolassar in 612 BC, more than 300 years before Berosus. It is quite conceivable that record of Jonah’s success in Nineveh was preserved in the writings available to Berosus. If so, it appears that Jonah was deified and mythologized over a period of three centuries, first by the Assyrians, who no doubt associated him with their fish-god, Dagon, and then by the Babylonians, who appear to have hybridized him with their own water-god, Ea."

Edited June 12, 2021 by MercyA

[Chris in VA]

I will have to look it up but I do recall a story of a fisherman/sailor being swallowed by a whale and found later alive (idk exactly how long later). They thought he was a lump of ambergris. 

[DawnM]

I saw that.   Amazing.   He had scuba gear on, so he could breathe.  Jonah didn't....hmmmm

[Murphy101]

2 hours ago, DawnM said:

I saw that.   Amazing.   He had scuba gear on, so he could breathe.  Jonah didn't....hmmmm

Just saying most scuba divers die with plenty of air available. No amount of air will save him getting a case of the bends going down and then up too fast. 

Glad he is okay!

I’m mildly amused it says there’s not much evidence of whales swallowing people. And I’m like, welllll if the whale swallows you and does NOT spit you back out  - what evidence would there be?!

[Scarlett]

On 6/12/2021 at 11:46 AM, MercyA said:

So, I was looking up the Hebrew word used for the sea creature in Jonah, which is sometimes translated whale and sometimes "giant fish." I happened upon two interesting things I don't remember hearing before.

One is the theory that Jonah actually died in the fish and was resurrected. Some people point to the verse in which Jonah says "from the depths of the grave I called for help." I always took this to be a metaphorical reference to the inside of the fish, but who knows? Also, Jesus compared His time in the grave to the time Jonah spent in the fish. I'm personally going to stick with the traditional interpretation of Jonah actually living inside the fish for three days, since the Bible doesn't specifically say he died, but it's interesting to think about.

Giant fish is also how I was taught……..as far as is it possible……I am always amused by that question…..if God was involved, I am pretty sure he could make it happen.