A Whale of a Tale? #11

Friday, November 17, 2023

“For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40 KJV).

Let us consider one of the most misunderstood and most ridiculed accounts presented in the Holy Bible….

To quote one of my university geology professors from long ago, “We know more about the Moon than we do our own oceans!” Nearly three-quarters of Earth’s surface is water, and these areas and their contents are still largely unfamiliar to us. Oceans tend to be deep and dark, with the immense pressure at those depths making exploration even more difficult. It is impossible to imagine what strange lifeforms of all sizes are down there right now—or were down there and have since gone extinct (died off entirely).

Consider the Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific Ocean (east of the Philippines and southeast of Japan). In one place (known as Challenger Deep), this underwater canyon is actually deeper than Mount Everest is high! In the case of the Mediterranean Sea (on which Jonah’s ship floated—notice it launched from Joppa, Israel [Jonah 1:3]), there are similar underwater trenches or canyons. The lowest point of the Mediterranean is called Calypso Deep, south of Greece and in the Hellenic Trench, with a maximum depth of some 3 miles (5 kilometers)! What kind of organism could have possibly lurked in the Mediterranean Sea to swallow the Prophet?

As touching the precise identity of the creature with which Jonah interacted, there has been a great deal of dialog and derision. The whole matter can be summed up as this. On four occasions, the Book of Jonah reports it was a “fish” (read it twice in Jonah 1:17, once in Jonah 2:1, and once in Jonah 2:10). However, some have stumbled over the Lord Jesus’ remark in today’s Scripture because He calls it a “whale.” It is thus complained these are not exactly the same animal. Surely, they say, Jonah or Jesus was mistaken. Is there any way to resolve this alleged discrepancy? Again, we must do some study, make an effort to allow ourselves to be taught, and be thankful for the resulting enlightenment….