Is Jonah and the Whale story true?

Answer 1

Yes it is, Jesus referred to it as fact.
I found this article:

"Some say, ‘Impossible! No creature in the sea could swallow a man.’ But either a sperm whale or a great white shark could. National Geographic (December 1992) offered another possibility—the whale shark. The largest known shark, it can grow to 70 feet [20 m] in length and weigh 70 tons.

“The whale shark’s unusual digestive anatomy lends itself to Jonah stories. It is easy to imagine yourself being inadvertently sucked into a whale shark’s mouth, which is huge . . . The cavernous mouth of even a small adult whale shark could easily accommodate a pair of Jonahs.”

The whale shark feeds on tiny plankton and krill, which “wash down through the esophagus into the immense and elastic banquet hall that is the cardiac stomach.” Yet, how could anyone get out? National Geographic says: “Sharks have a nonviolent way of getting rid of large objects of dubious digestibility they swallow . . . A shark can slowly empty its cardiac stomach by turning it inside out and pushing it through the mouth. . . . So, you could come gliding out on a mucus-covered carpet, slimier but perhaps wiser for the experience.”

Today whale sharks are not found in the Mediterranean, though they have been found as far north as New York City. Were they present in the Mediterranean in Jonah’s time? Who can say? The Bible does not specify what kind of sea creature Jehovah used, but Jesus himself confirmed that the account of Jonah is true.—Matthew 12:39, 40."

Answer 2

It never says it's a whale.It was a specially designed fish.I believe Jonah was written more than 100 yrs before the Babylonian Captivity even before Assyrias capture of No. Israel.I also believe he died in there and God restored his life.That's why Jesus used Jonah as an example a couple of times ,"As Jonah was 3 days in the belly of the fish ,so will the Son of Man be in the grave",and he was restored to life also.I'd take the Scriptures a little more literal.

Answer 3

Some of these answers are quite amusing. Think about this: Even IF it was a BIG FISH and not a WHALE, how the hell would Jonah be able to breath under water? Fish don't need air, thus they would not come up to the surface of the water at all. IF it WAS a whale, the acids in the stomach would have killed Jonah fairly quickly. I don't quite understand how people accept this stuff without questions.

Answer 4

Hello, Me being a fisherman can tell you of many stories of the one that got away and the fish get bigger all the time. Maybe Jonah was grabbed by a "whale" but was removed in time to save his life. Being swallowed and been swallowed can be that (ing) can make a vast difference over days, weeks, years, or centuries how the story unfolds.Even today we hear stories of people being ate by sharks not true in the sense that shark tears the body apart and consumes the body part by part. So you can imaging Kev talking to Fred the fish grabbed him and ate him swallowed him whole the imagination goes haywire. Yes i believe it's true Jonah was grabbed by a "whale" but over the maybe days imagination kick in and they saw what they wanted to see. No disrespect intended to anybodys faith.xx

Answer 5

It's very implausible at the least. For one thing, I believe it is characterized as a "big fish," and the largest fish is considerably smaller than the largest of the whales. Also, I could possibly buy it if it was claimed he stayed in a large whale's mouth; but a belly has digestive juices, and he would have been poisoned.

Still, it is not the least plausible story in the Bible. It's in the running, but I still think Adam & Eve and Noah are both even less likely to have any basis in truth. As to the stories of the New Testament, well, I won't compare those to the Old Testament, but I find most of those highly implausible as well.

Answer 6

It's true, but the Bible doesn't say a whale, specifically, but rather, "a great fish" that was prepared for Jonah.

Jesus even referred to the event as an actual event, and not just a story.

Answer 7

A whales throat is not big enough to accommodate a person. Whales stomachs are filled with digestive acids that would eat the skin. so no.

Answer 8

It is impossible for someone to stay in a whale and come out unscathed. The stomach acids immediately go to work digesting whatever's in them. There is a documented case of a man being swallowed by a whale, but by the time they caught and killed the whale and got the guy out, his skin and hair had been bleached by the stomach acids and he wasn't doing so great.

Answer 9

Actually, according to the bible it was a large fish, but maybe it was a whale. There have been modern-day cases of persons swallowed by fish, so why not 2500-3000 years ago?

Answer 10

jonah and the whale: NO

jonah and the big fish: YES

on cnn they were talking about sum starving fish in ancient times that actually tried to eat humans but couldnt b/c they either dont have throats or they are very small..so they just held them there i guess...