why does the bible refer to the whale in story of jonah as a giant fish. aren't whales mammals, not fish?
2007-04-25 08:44:23 · 12 answers · asked by just curious (A.A.A.A.) 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Who is to say that god did not create a giant fish just for Jonah?
However, feel free to laugh at those who say it was a whale, or that the description of the Behemoth is that of a dinosaur.
But bats are not birds, and rabbits do not chew the cud. So god gets an F anyway.
2007-04-25 08:54:27 · answer #1 · answered by Simon T 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, the story itself only mentions a big fish, which some have come to believe was a whale. But even if it was a whale, there's no compelling reason for one to expect that God would need to explain the difference between the two to the Jews of that time when it wasn't a matter of grave importance. Would knowing or not knowing affect their relationship with God? No, so the detail is trivial for the purposes of the Old Testament. The story was written in Hebrew of the time period, so what other classification system could God have used?
2007-04-25 16:28:00 · answer #2 · answered by Deof Movestofca 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God did not write the Bible, He inspired people to write the Bible, and back in those days people probably didn't have the scientific knowledge to distinguish mammals, amphibians, etc. Also, there might not have been a word for "whale" so the translators just made it simple, "giant fish" knowing that you "A" student biology students could figure it out.
2007-04-25 15:56:21 · answer #3 · answered by beattyb 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well, whales must have been magically turned into mammals after the Jonah story was written and the story wasn't revised to record the magical change.
same thing with bats being birds. the Bible god turned bird like bats into mammals later on.
and when the Bible stories were written rabbits had cuds to chew.
2007-04-25 15:55:56 · answer #4 · answered by nebtet 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Bible never says its referring to a whale.
2007-04-25 15:55:27 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
God might call whale a fish and we just call them mammals ; )..who knows if the whale was a submarine, but the people just did not know how to call it...
However, Jesus confirmed the Old Testament...so to me "fish" is close enough. : )
2007-04-25 18:09:29 · answer #6 · answered by SeeTheLight 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Im not a religous person, however the Bible was writen by men not god. In thoes times a whale was a fish as far as humans were concerned... it came from the ocean. This mistake in the Bible is human error not gods (if you believe in it).
2007-04-25 16:10:46 · answer #7 · answered by shadowsthathunt 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The story is a folktale, not a historical narrative or treatise on biology. Once you get the genre, you realize the meaning is not about the fish, or even so much about Jonah, but about what it means to say that God is merciful. You do know what literary genre is and what it means for the interpretation of a text?
2007-04-25 16:01:01 · answer #8 · answered by Timaeus 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it refers to the giant fish as a giant fish. people assume its a whale. a whale cant swallow a man
2007-04-25 15:54:13 · answer #9 · answered by charles b 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It never says whale it just says "giant fish" (differs according to translation).
2007-04-25 15:51:59 · answer #10 · answered by Joe S 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋