Did Jonah Swallow the Whale Pt 3

[Dad Ernie]

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE BOOK OF JONAH BEING TRUE

A website declares:

"Jews at the time of Jesus viewed Jonah as history. For example Jesus once said:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will arise in the judgement with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. (Matthew 12:40-41

That the Jonah account was intended as history rather than allegory is the more obvious conclusion. Jonah is classed among the "Prophets" and all the other prophets of the Bible are presented in the Bible as literal persons. Furthermore, Jonah is named, his father is named, the town where they lived is named (2 Kings 14:25) and the period in which they lived is given. In other words the times places and characters are not vague and unspecified as they are in, say, the parables spoken by Jesus. The degree of detail associated with Jonah would anywhere in the Bible indicate that the writer is presenting alleged history and not parable or allegory.

The main intent behind the book might still be to give a moral lesson—but it’s a moral lesson based on events which are offered as real. Let’s consider then whether most of the report can, sensibly, be taken as literal history.....

ASSYRIAN MONOTHEISM

Critics sometimes argue that the alleged repentance of the people of Nineveh capital of the Assyrian Empire would have been a bigger miracle than Jonah surviving being swallowed by a "fish".

Assyria was one of the most barbaric of ancient empires. People of captured cities were routinely burned alive, skinned alive, or had ears, noses, hands or feet chopped off.

Jonah was already a prophet during the reign of King Jeroboam of Israel. (2 Kings 14:23) Jeroboam reigned 787 to 747 BC. This places Jonah after Shalmanezer III of Assyria who during his blood-stained reign, 859 - 824 BC, led 32 war campaigns. It also puts Jonah before the equally bloody Tiglath Pileser III who ruled 745-727 BC. Jonah therefore lived when a number of comparatively weak kings ruled Assyria.

Furthermore, for about 50 years during the first half of the 8th century BC, Nineveh was repeatedly torn by civil unrest, palace intrigues, religious strife and even civil war. The book of Jonah confirms that Jonah arrived at Nineveh during a period of internal strife and violence. (See chapter 3:6-9)

Among the gods of Nineveh were Ninua the goddess of waters, Oannes a god with the head and body of a fish attached to the top of a human head, Dagon god of the sea, and Anu the highest or chief god.

We therefore have a setting in which the population of Nineveh might have listened to Jonah and turned to — at least superficially — the God Jonah proclaimed.

Consider: News of Jonah’s survival in the "fish" precedes his arrival. Different religious factions attribute Jonah’s survival to Anu, Ninua, Oannes or Dagon. Jonah arrives—possibly with a ghastly bleached, appearance (like Bartley). The King hears of great crowds listening to Jonah preaching and sees this as a means of ending civil strife and religious division and reunifying the city and the empire. The King and high officials therefore set the example, respond to Jonah, and publicly express remorse for the violence in the city. (See Jonah 3:6-9)"

taken from:

http://www.adam.com.au/bstett/BJonahDebate.htm


DETAILS AS FAR AS THE ASSYRIANS TURNING TOWARDS A MORE MONOTHEISTIC VIEW PLUS OTHER FACTORS THAT WOULD HAVE MADE JONAH'S AUDIENCE MORE RECEPTIVE

Here is a academic work that I felt was well done. It speaks on a number of matters including the environment that Jonah would have been preaching in. Please see page 4 and paragraph 4 for details (it is copyrighted). I offer both PDF and non PDF formats. Please see the links below:


PDF Format: http://home.att.net/~natespdf/jonah.pdf

Non-PDF format:

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:hxYjF...&hl=en&ie=UTF-8


MORE INFORMATION IN REGARDS TO THE BOOK OF JONAH BEING HISTORICAL

A website declares:

"There is no adequate reason to regard Jonah as non-historical.

1. The form of the book is clearly historical.

2. Jonah was an actual person.

3. Nineveh was an actual city.

4. Jews regarded Jonah as historical (Josephus Antiquities IX, 10, 2).

5. Christian tradition viewed Jonah as historical.

6. Historical record, 2 Kg 14:26

7. Real kings, nations and places

8. Christ view the book as historical, Mt 12:39-41; Lu 11:29-32. If we reject the book of Jonah as literal, we reject the authenticity of Christ’s statement.

9. Archeology dovetails with facts of Jonah.

· References to Jonah in 2 Kings 14:25; Mt 12:39-41; Lu 11:39-32

· One of four Old Testament prophets referred to by Jesus. The others were Isaiah (Mt 15:7), Elijah (Mt 17:11-12) and Elisha (Lu 4:27).

· 4 chapters, 48 verses and 1328 words

· It is not the prophecy at issue, but the prophet.

· There is no prophecy in the book except the prophecy that God will destroy Nineveh."

taken from: http://www.crusade.org/word/word2310.html


OTHER COMMENTARY REGARDING THE BOOK OF JONAH BEING HISTORICAL

"Nineveh might have been ready to hear Jonah. Gerhard F. Hasel, in Jonah: Messenger of the Eleventh Hour (1976), writes, "It has been suggested that during the reign of the Assyrian king Ashur-dan III (772-755 B.C.) the population of Nineveh would have been psychologically prepared to expect a total catastrophe, since a serious plague had befallen the city in 765 B.C. and a total eclipse of the sun had taken place on June 15, 763 B.C. with another plague in 759 B.C. If any or all of these events had already taken place, a monotheistic message by a foreign prophet may have had a congenial atmosphere." They were, in other words, wicked but broken."

taken from: http://www.empowerministry.com/ej_1102/journal/tb_03.htm


ARCHEOLOGY AND THE BOOK OF JONAH


AN ARCHEOLOGICAL FIND IN REGARDS TO JONAH AND NINEVEH:

A website declares:

"From 1845-1854 young British adventurer Austen Henry Layard explored the ruins of Nineveh.

For years skeptics questioned the existence of the city since it could not be found."

taken from: http://www.crystalinks.com/nineveh.html


Another website declares the following:

"The preservation of the name "Yunas" or "Jonah" at the ruins of Nineveh also confirms the historicity of the Jonah story. As soon as modern discoverers unearthed the mound that had been known for centuries by the name of "Neby Yunas," they found beneath it the ruined palaces of the kings of Nineveh."
[/u]

taken from: http://www.bible-history.com/links.cfm?cat=13&sub=88


HERE IS WHAT ANOTHER WEBSITE DECLARES:

"Archeology attests that the Ninevites were a cruel and bloody people and the earth was well rid of them, that's for sure."

taken from: http://www.cliffordaweber.com/repentan.htm


MORE IN REGARDS TO ARCHEOLOGY AND NINEVEH

A website declares the following:


taken from: http://www.wwy.org/wwy1200.html


MORE IN REGARDS TO ARCHEOLOGY AND NINEVAH

http://www.bible-history.com/assyria_archa...ia_nineveh.html


TH KING OF NINEVEH REFERENCE PLUS MORE INFORMATION REGARDING NINEVEH:

www.wls.wels.net/library/Essays/Authors/G/GawrischNineveh/GawrischNineveh.pdf

REGARDING THE SIZE OF THE CITY OF NINEVEH AND JONAH'S TRAVEL THROUGHOUT IT:

There seems to be a diversity of opinions regarding the size of the city of Nineveh and regarding if Jonah was referring the the central city or was also referring to some of the surrounding area (Please see the websites for the Biblical exegesis). There also seems to be a diversity of opinion regarding commentators regarding the archeology. I plan on updating this material with additional information from my written sources plus give the matter further study before I am willing to render my full opinion. Based on my Biblical exegesis of the relevant passages, however, I do believe that it is not easy to say the exact area that Jonah was referrring to. Here is some webiste commentary:

http://www.tektonics.org/ninsize.html

http://www.seminary.georgefox.edu/courses/...llerNineveh.pdf

http://answering-islam.org.uk/Shamoun/jonah_historicity.htm

http://www.biblequery.org/jon.htm (see notes on Jonah 3:3)

http://www.pilgrimcovenant.com/weeklyQA/wklyQA_020414.htm

http://www.bibleteachingnotes.com/ot/jonah/jonah3.asp


JONAH WAS NOT NECESSARILY IN THE SEA CREATURE FOR 72 HOURS AND PERHAPS WAS IN THE SEA CREATURE FOR AS LITTLE AS 30 HOURS

A websitete provides the following commentary:

"Here it should be noted that the Hebrew idiom, ‘three days and three nights,’ only requires a Portion of the first and third days."
(Nelson’s Complete Book of Bible Maps & Charts 1993 p. 257)

whale’s stomach.
(Whalers No More 1987 W A Hagelund p.177)


According to an oriental method of reckoning, parts of days are included in a total of days as if they were full days. Thus in idiomatic Hebrew, as in Jonah 1:17, and in the Jewish manner of speech, as in Matthew 12:40, ‘three days and three nights’ means merely one full day and parts of two others. On this matter read 1 Samuel 30:11-13; compare Esther 4:16 with 5:1; and see Tobit 3:12-13 in the Lutheran text."
(Jonah and the Whale c. l965 P Schulze p. 4)

...Others argue that the Jews counted part of a day or night as one day. If Jonah, for example, was swallowed an hour before sunrise then the previous night and the previous day-time would be included in the calculation. Jonah’s total time in the "fish" would then be as little as approximately 30 hours. "

taken from: http://www.adam.com.au/bstett/BJonahDebate.htm

More commentary regarding the 3 days and 3 nights not necessarily being a literal 72 hour period:

http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/_PDF...es/BD3W0802.pdf

http://www.apologeticspress.org/abdiscr/abdiscr49.html


CONFLICTING TESTIMONY AND ISSUES REGARDING THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM ACIDITY


I am getting conflicting testimony in regards to the digestive system acidity levels. I do think this is a vital issue due to their clearly being evidence of divine intervention while Jonah was in the belly of the sea creature (discussed earlier).

Here is the testimony I am receiving from one website:

"Wilson [ according to the website http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologeti...onah.shtml?main Ambrose John Wilson was "a schoolmaster from South Africa who went on to become a Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, was also an Anglican rector"] wrote that the temperature inside a whale is 104-106° Fahrenheit (about 410 Centigrade) and that the gastric juice would be unpleasant but not deadly...."

and

"In addition there is the problem of digestive juices—would they have killed Jonah and digested him? A scientific answer seems unavailable. Would digestive juices with their digestive enzymes, for example, cease to flow if the whale were near death [the reader may remember that whales vomiting up material is a symptom of a dying whale and the sea creature that swallowed Jonah vomited him up]? Possibly the acidity of the stomach juices would also be unpleasant unless their secretion were also inhibited.

Acidity is measured on the pH scale which varies from 0 to 14. For example:

Concentrated nitric acid 0 Orange 3.5
Gastric secretion 1 Tomato 4
Lemon juice 2 Saliva 6
Stomach juice 2 Pure Water 7
Coca cola 3 Intestinal secretion 7.5
Vinegar 3 Sea Water 8

It shouldn’t be too hard to do an experiment of placing a hand or finger in lemon juice, cola, or vinegar for varying intervals and seeing if any damage occurs."

taken from: http://www.adam.com.au/bstett/BJonahDebate.htm


A BBC website declares:

"Once inside, the advice seems to be to sit tight and try not to touch anything if at all possible. Gastric processes are invasive and skin does not recover well from encounters with organic acids. The process by which gastric acid handles food is slow and wearing clothing, especially of the synthetic variety, is likely to buy you some time."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/hub/A449345


Another website using Robinson, a senior marine science instructor at Seaworld, as a source indicates the following:

"Think of "all the digestive juices, hydrochloric acids, the heat,
just suffocating heat, the lack of air..."

A whale's stomach would be no place for a human to spend three days,
Robinson said. Not to live to tell about it."

taken from: http://www.jewishsightseeing.com/usa/calif...13-02jonah.html

 

[ThePhoenix]

Interesting. The Jonah story certainly has a very real theological lesson, an I see no reason for its occurance to be prevented. God certainly could have kept Jonah alive in the belly of a whale/shark. I don't think he would have been all that comfortable, but that's kinda the point, right?

 

[lucaspa]

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE BOOK OF JONAH BEING TRUE

A website declares:

"Jews at the time of Jesus viewed Jonah as history. For example Jesus once said:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will arise in the judgement with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. (Matthew 12:40-410

That doesn't prove historicity. It only means that Jesus was using a very well-known story to make a point about allegedly prophecying his own resurrection.

That the Jonah account was intended as history rather than allegory is the more obvious conclusion.

Let me ask this: if the story of Jonah is not literal, does it make a difference? As I read the story, the point is that when God desires you to do something, He will arrange things so that they are done. Or, IOW, there is no avoiding God's Will.

Now, if Jonah was not really swallowed by a whale, does that make the point invalid? Are you saying that, if Jonah was not swallowed by the whale, that we can avoid God's Will?

It seems that you are tying two separate concepts together that don't have to be tied. And in the process of insisting on the literal reading, you seem to have forgotten the whole point of the story.