The Fallacy of Biblical Stories, Part 4: Jonah and the Whale
For Part 4 of the series, I will be examining the story of Jonah and the Whale (or is it a "big fish?"). On the surface, this story seems like it came directly from a children's fairy tale book. Popular culture portrays Jonah being swallowed by a whale. Some religious texts use the term "great fish" instead of whale. But the idea of being swallowed by a whale is one which has been a part of popular culture for decades, probably most notably, in the 1940 Walt Disney animated feature "Pinocchio." Other media has portrayed the scenario in different forms one way or another. But I'm going to look at the biblical version of being swallowed by whale and see if the evidence actually makes this tale plausible or not. So let's briefly look at the story as follows:
In the Book of Jonah, God orders Jonah to go to Nineveh (why does God always need a middleman to do his dirty work?) to preach to the people there and warn them that God is pissed off at them. Apparently God hates it when his mortals are having fun. But Jonah, feeling a little rebellious (and has no love for Nineveh to begin with) did the biblical version of flipping God off by not following God's instructions and instead sailed to Tarshish. Naturally, God becomes irate about it and overreacts as usual by creating a big storm at sea, which threatened the ship Jonah's was on and its crew. The crew become convinced it is not a natural storm (this was before meteorology became a science) and decided to toss Jonah overboard after drawing lots (and people say Carnival cruises are bad?). Afterwards, a "great fish" (other sources say "big fish" or "huge fish") appears and swallows Jonah whole, where Jonah spends 3 days and 3 nights in the whale/fish belly. During that time, the smell of fish becomes too much for Jonah to bear. So he prays and repents to God, after which the whale vomits Jonah out. After Jonah falls in line, he fulfills God's earlier command and travels to Nineveh.
So that's the gist of it. Now lets look at the circumstances surrounding the story and examine the evidence to determine if this story is hard to swallow (cue bad pun groans) or not.
1. Was it a whale or a "great fish?" : This is an important distinction to make, as whales and fish can be vastly different sizes. They must also be large enough to swallow an adult human male whole, without chewing him up. According to Jean Paul Morel, director of the French archaeological team at Carthage Byrsa, the average height of a male in biblical times was approximately 5' 6" tall, give or take 2 inches. Granted, there are other factors to consider for height. But to keep it simple, we'll use the 5" 6" as a baseline. Let's start by assuming it's an actual whale in the story. Most whales are generally incapable of swallowing a human and will not include humans in their diet.
The largest whale (and largest animal) in the world is the blue whale , capable of growing over 100' long. These enormous mammals have a mouth capable of taking in a human. But it's esophagus is too small to swallow a human whole. Not to mention Jonah would likely be crushed by the mouth or baleen of a blue whale when it closes its mouth, assuming it didn't spit Jonah back out. Even if Jonah did survive that, he would quickly reach crush depth when the whale submerged. The second largest whale in the world is the sperm whale, reaching a length of over 60'. Sperm whale s typically feed on cephalopods and not humans. They must dive deep to feed and only surface to breathe, usually for about 10 minutes. Jonah would have to have bad timing to be thrown overboard only to be swallowed by a sperm whale. However, sperm whales do have large throats for swallowing and can be capable of swallowing a human whole . But a sperm whale has 4 stomachs full of digestive enzymes and no air (except for methane). So if Jonah was swallowed by a sperm whale, he would basically suffocate before being digested, which is precisely what does NOT happen in the biblical story . What about a humpback whale? They can grow to almost 60' long and have a maw capable of sucking in 20,000 liters of water-definitely capable of sucking in Jonah. But their esophagus is too small to swallow a human or other larger marine animal. They are filter feeders and will likely spit a human out.
If we assume the aquatic beastie in question is a fish, then it too must be capable of swallowing a tasty human. The whale shark is the largest fish in the world. It can measures up to 40' long. The largest confirmed length was 62' (talk about the catch of the day). It's mouth can be 5.1' to 5.6' across. That seems to be within the Jonah swallowing range. The whale shark is also a filter feeder. So it doesn't have teeth for man-chewing. So far, it fits the story: a big fish with a big mouth and no teeth. Check! Here is where it falls apart though: a whale shark esophagus only measures several inches across . Which means it is incapable of swallowing a human. According to an article in Smithsonian Magazine , a whale shark closes its mouth around larger fish and would probably spit a person out if it did swallow someone. They also tend to be picky eaters and will refuse man-meat. Also, their feeding habitat is not in the Mediterranean Sea, where Jonah would have sailed. The second largest fish in the world, the basking shark , can also reach lengths up to 40' long and live within temperate zones and along coasts, including the Mediterranean. However, like the whale shark, the basking shark is also a filter feeder and only has a mouth size of 1 meter, less than your average Jonah. So it too is unlikely to make a meal of Jonah. It's also non-aggressive and generally calm around humans. The third largest fish in the world is the Great White Shark. While the Great White can reach a length of up to 20', their rows of serrated teeth will ensure Jonah is swallowed in chunks, rather than whole. Based on the characteristics and anatomy of these 3 large fish types, it is unlikely that any of them would be capable of swallowing Jonah whole.
2. No confirmation of whales/fish swallowing humans whole : Aside from the bible, there is no proof or confirmation of Jonah (or anyone) ever being swallowed by a whale/fish, much less living through it. There are a few old stories of people (see: James Bartley ) being swallowed by whales and living to tell the tale. However, like the Jonah story, there is no confirmation or proof of this ever happening. Such stories, while dramatic and entertaining in their own right, are spurious at best.
So there it is. I looked at the 3 largest species of whale and the 3 largest species of fish to determine if Jonah could have been swallowed, lived, and then be regurgitated. Out of all 6 aquatic animals, only the sperm whale is physically capable of swallowing a human whole. And if Jonah did take the gullet ride, he would have died in short order by the lack of breathable air, the pressure or weight of the water and other gastric contents pushing on him, and the travel through the digestive tract and digestive enzymes which probably would have given the whale some serious indigestion. On top of that, there is nothing to collaborate the biblical story. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely Jonah was swallowed whole and escaped relatively unscathed to tell the tale. I think most theists would agree this story is too fantastic to be taken literally and is meant as an allegory.
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Part 4 of the series is now posted and ready. Enjoy.
OMG! I guffawed at that and thought, "There's women like that too."
Sorry, off topic.
If it were the Great Lakes that they were sailing in and "the gales of November came early," [Gordon Lightfoot reference], a large channel catfish might be large enough to swallow a man whole, but alas it wasn't the Great Lakes region.
No worries. I'm glad you liked it.
Don't forget to check out Part 1 , Part 2 , & Part 3 of the series if you haven't already. Thank you.
Obviously Jonah was swallowed by a goldfish that was fed too much...
Well, that makes much more sense.
And Balaam's talking donkey was obviously just a transformed child from Pleasure Island...
I put up info reflecting mine and the Jewish/Christian views of what happened with Jonah and the great fish in one of my own religion seeds and will not be engaging the issue in this format. #2 is clearly wrong as covered where I have my info.
You say that and yet do not demonstrate how it's wrong. It's just an empty declaration.
Gee, I wonder why that is?
Good news, less spam.
Less BS too.
[Meta]
You've repeatedly demonstrated a refusal and/or inability to address the points made and instead go meta. And unsurprisingly, you continue to do so.
[Deleted]
I can tell you this: Many people are saying that nothing happened with Jonah and the alleged "Great Fish"-- that I can tell you!
Like the so-called "Chem-trails" and "the Illuminati"-- Its all just one big Fig Newton of their deranged imagination!
And people who say it did happen can offer nothing to refute the points against the plausibility of the story. The best you get is "because I believe," which strikes me as intellectually lazy and a total disconnect from reality.
I will be back tomorrow to comment, but I just had to make this opening note:
Just another example of an omniscient God somehow being surprised. A perfect, all-knowing entity would (of course) know what Jonah would do before Jonah did it.
Looking forward to it.
Indeed. Fallacies in one story only seems to lead to more fallacies elsewhere. It seems the bible is just chock full of fallacies.
Perhaps for the next part, I'll address what is possibly the biggest fallacy of them all: God himself?
Indeed. For example, the direct contradictions between how God is defined (omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, eternal, perfect, arbiter of objective morality) and the accounts of God in the Bible. Also the direct contradiction of the attribute omniscience and the granting of free will.
Those contradictions alone seemingly dispel the notion of God. Or at least, of God as God is typically portrayed in religion.
They do. In particular, an omniscient entity knows all. Therefore it cannot learn (it already knows), it cannot be surprised (it already knew) and it cannot be disappointed (it was already aware). The God of the Bible is claimed to be omniscient yet God learns (and even changes His mind based on human interaction), is surprised and disappointed (and then gets pissed and does nasty stuff like flood the entire planet).
The God of the Bible is defined as a contradiction. A contradiction cannot possibly exist. Therefore the God of the Bible does not exist as defined.
There might be a sentient creator, but it is not the God of the Bible based on how the Bible defines that God.
I think you would be better at writing that particular part in the bible story fallacy series
Perhaps I'll focus on the Tower of Babel instead for another part?
Required Movie Watching: "Big Fish", starring Albert Finney as a teller of wild and unbelievable stories, that his son discovered too late WERE in fact true. Finney was known as "Big Fish".
Many fishermen believe in "catch and release" (although I personally believe in "catch and eat"), so I wonder if those fishermen were and are really only repaying the dwellers of the sea for their kind act of releasing Jonah after catching him.
This is one Biblical story I always had a problem with as a kid and decided at around the age of 9 or 10 that it was simply made up to teach children a lesson about disobeying your parents
Most seem to consider the story a morality lesson in obedience and consequence.
Perhaps.
But in any event-- where is PETA?
Where are the animal-rights activists when you need them?
(There's something very fishy about this entire story-- perhaps those animal rights people should scale back their activities a bit...???)
I inferred the same question in the Noah's Ark (Part 1) article I wrote. In that story, god wiped out entire species of animals in a mass extinction event.
Is that the only one you found problems with? I found problems with all biblical stories I've covered thus far, to varying degrees. The Jonah story is probably one of the more problematic stories. Even many theists and biblical scholars do not take it literally, but rather as an allegory. But then, that's probably the best way to take biblical stories. Otherwise, they fall apart on the empirical and logical level.
No, of course not.
The Loaves and Fishes? C'mon! Did he have one of those food generators like they had in Star Trek?
Walking on Water? He must have had very wide feet that were made of wood
The rising of Lazarus? I'm pretty sure nobody comes back from the dead except zombies
He had *magic* powers.
I actually briefly addressed the issue of walking on water and alluded to the pedal anatomy required to pull it off in a previous article.
The Lazarus story is another one where we can draw on medical science to determine the veracity of the story, as well as get a better idea of what might have actually occurred.I tend to think biblical stories are quite exaggerated or embelished, based on how I've analyzed them thus far.
And then there is the whole issue of Jesus (PBUH).
(Are we allowed to mention him here on NT?)
That's a whole series of articles in itself.
Yes.
I think the Biblical Jesus may have been based on a real person. But that's just an opinion of mine
That is possible. Although I doubt he had magic powers as the bible depicts. The biblical Jesus may also be an amalgam of other people of the era.
I certainly don't believe "Jesus" was born of a virgin, turned water into wine, raised Lazarus from the dead, healed the sick and was resurrected after he was killed. To say I'm not a Christian would be an understatement.
But I do believe there may have been a man who wandered around Judea preaching a message of love and peace who knew the Scriptures and thought he could fulfill them. Who knows? There's really no historical documents that speak of him. And he really could be an amalgam of many people.
I certainly don't think he was White, blonde, and blue-eyed and he surely didn't speak English
I tend to agree. But having a Virgin birth, rising from the dead, ect., certainly makes for some entertaining reading.
Almost like a Stephen King novel!
Exactly. If nothing else, biblical authors were quite imaginative.
I can remember when I was young and in bible class me and the others being taught this story was literal truth, we were also assigned to make paintings of Jonah riding in the mouth of a whale.
Oh to be that young and naïve again.
Not to mention indoctrinated.
Most theologians appear to consider this story to be a parable — a work of fiction. My guess is that the story is too ridiculous to 'swallow'. But of course this then raises the question of fiction in the balance of the Bible. Why is Noah's ark not fiction? The Tower of Babel? Jesus replicating fish and bread? Jesus himself?
Oddly, but predictably, our friends at Answers In Genesis ( who hold the Bible to be literally true ) do indeed believe that a man lived 3 days in the digestive center of a great fish:
The defense, of course, is that God can do anything so of course God could keep Jonah alive inside the digestive organ of a fish. Applying this to anything in the Bible, any issues of impossibility are resolved by 'God did it' miracles. And, any obvious errors, contradictions, etc. are similarly resolved by: 'God works in mysterious ways' and the adjunct 'Errors are just the result of human minds being limited'.
What it boils down to is lazy thinking and a need to hold onto a belief, no matter how illogical it might be.
More the need to believe IMO.
Yep, ant to the exclusion of rational and critical thinking.
So the story of Jonah and the whale is not meant to be taken literally. It is a parable. It has several major themes:
This is the original way to regard this story.
Tell that to certain individuals whom actually do take it literally. And even try to support or defend it.
I like when you add the Jewish perspective to a Bible story. It helps explain things better
Both the Torah & the Quoran have some variations in terms of depiction and interpretation from the bible. This alone strongly suggests that not only is the Jonas story not likely true, but also the bible itself is just the work of ancient men with pens and not divine.
I think you can make an argument that the bible was divinely inspired, but ultimately it was written by man. Personally, I think it was written by individuals who tried to bring civility to an uncivil world.
I would love to read such an argument.
I don't know. That seems like it would be a weak argument. Basically, it comes down to someone claiming a divine inspiration. Arguing an actual divine influence would be quite difficult to prove.
First they would have to prove that the divine entity exists. That is why I would like to read the argument.
As would i. Id bet the "argument" would be something like "I believe and that's it!"
That's not an argument.
OK let me give you an Indian POV. Indians don't have a written religion in the sense of a bible. What they believe is that when you look at nature, and you see the perfection of it, that is the "Great Spirit". Their proof is that is the perfection of creation. Can this be proved? No. But it is hard to prove that it was an accident, too.
Another POV is that of the mathematician. Nature is bound up in prime numbers. From the number of orange slices to the year of cicadas broods, it's always a prime number. Now obviously this is not "proof" of a god, but it does lead one to wonder why.
Now obviously I am a bit of a doubting Thomas, but given these examples that go beyond the usual "religions" POV, kind of shows where someone could have been inspired.
LOL... love that skit!
Nice, LOL
While I get your point, some people treat "inspired" (especially if by god) as somehow making something more credible or valid in terms of establishing truth.
Depends on how the Great Spirit is defined. If the Great Spirit is an unknowable sentient entity who created nature, then that is a very reasonable hypothesis given available information (especially given the information known at the origin of the tradition) albeit speculative. However, as attributes are added to the Great Spirit, the likelihood that contradictions might exist increases.
In general, deism matches what we know reasonably well and is certainly a defensible hypothesis for those who feel there must be something behind the beauty of our reality.
Trouble is we see this happen routinely on social forums. Some people think that intellectual dishonesty (the underlying method used by Cleese in the sketch) is a perfectly acceptable foundation for discussion / debate.
Or perhaps some people don't know that intellectual dishonesty is not a foundation for debate or not an acceptable debate tactic. Unfortunately, many continue to use such a tactic.
( I am confident that they know. )
You are being far more generous than i.
Not so sure that I am. I am suggesting that the problem is most likely not ignorance, sloppiness or stupidity but rather (IMO) intentional deception.
I tend to think it's all of the above. Especially when we point out where and how one is being willfully ignorant and/or deceptive. But they continue to use the same tactics anyway.
With the fact whales do not use their mouths to breath it would also make Jonah being "swallowed' impossible. If he were "swallowed" while the Sperm Whale was eating, that means Jonah would have to be at a crushing depth for that to happen.
Even if Jonah was swallowed on the surface, he would quickly be crushed by the pressure and gastric contents when the whale submerged, especially if it started to feed.
No doubt.
Maybe it was The Meg. Just kidding...... I have always had trouble with many of 'stories' from the Bible - this being one of the biggies for me.
With the "loaves & fishes" mentioned above I put it in my mind that what happened was that Jesus spoke - made people feel guilty & shared the food they were hoarding. Just my take - although I do have a hard time with Jesus existing all together.
Oh, I think Jesus probably existed, but he was just a really awesome dude that people found refreshing.
Also equally plausible. If he did have followers, it makes sense for him to be charismatic.
Maybe, maybe not - but I will not tell anyone NOT to believe. I can see your point, I could explain how I believe the Christian god does exist, but is not the ONLY one. But that may get too lengthy.
You would have to write a book for that thesis
Yea, when I try to explain my beliefs I tend to lose people, so I try to keep the explanations simple.
I wholeheartedly agree.
I never thought of that but that's a good theory
Indeed. And that would coincide with the concept of "christian charity."
It was one of the reasons I got in trouble with the priest. I told my 2nd grade Faith Formation class that it could been what happened. Jesus quilting people into giving up their selfish ways and showing compassion for those less fortunate. I was scolded & told to teach the miracles or else. I did not volunteer to teach again.
I'm surprised he didn't force you to go to confession for being such a heretic!
We had to attend the Act of Reconciliation before every school year began - it was done and then the teachers were blessed at a special Mass. And of course confession before every Sunday was expected, but not mandatory. In other words we went. I look back now and remember how stressed I was when I was Catholic.
Seems our parish was pretty lax. We were only required to attend Reconciliation one time a year, but the Sunday School teachers were blessed by the priest before the new year began.
This comment probably belongs on MsAubrey's article, but here we go - I think since the teachers of Faith Formation were all women (until my final year when my hubby taught 6th grade) making Reconciliation part of the beginning of the year was a way for this priest to maintain control over the women. This guy hated when women were the lay lectors (my daughter was one of the best) and when girls were alter servers (my daughter was one of the ones that filled in when the scheduled ones didn't show up).
Yep... they want control.
Control seems to be the underlying theme to many religions, especially those that advocate a system of divine reward or punishment to those who don't follow a particular religion's tenets.
I'm going to try to publish Part 5: The Tower of Babel, this weekend if I get the chance. So stay tuned.