For Those That Doubted The Jonah Story

a reply to: ketsuko
For what it's worth, Herman Melville suggests (Moby Dick, ch83) that he could have sat in the whale's mouth, temporarily.
"For, truly, the Right whale's mouth would accommodate a couple of whist tables, and comfortably seat all the players."

a reply to: DISRAELI

It could have been that, or it may have been a sperm whale too. There is no reason why it has to have been a baleen whale except everyone assumes the lack of teeth.



Not easy to do, but theoretically possible if everything went perfectly.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: TzarChasm

Jonah is OT, not NT. There was no Jesus to have a relationship with at that point. It would be faith in God.

You are being pedantic. My original point still stands, human engineering saved that man's life with no supernatural assistance whatsoever.

originally posted by: Klassified
a reply to: Blue_Jay33

For Those That Doubted The Jonah Story

That Jonah was said to have been swallowed by a whale is not the unbelievable part of the story.

That guy will never have to pay for another beer for the rest of his life!

I'd buy him a beer to hear the story firsthand.

The actual text said "great fish", not "whale". There are large fish that could possibly swallow an adult human, but not really filter feeding whales.

a reply to: chr0naut
This is true and a good point.

a reply to: chr0naut

When the bible was written millennia ago, the biological distinction between all large fish types swimming in the oceans were not well known like they are today. It's a laymen's expression, not a biological species identifying statement meant to be analyzed for accuracy.

originally posted by: Blue_Jay33
a reply to: chr0naut

When the bible was written millennia ago, the biological distinction between all large fish types swimming in the oceans were not well known like they are today. It's a laymen's expression, not a biological species identifying statement meant to be analyzed for accuracy.

Precisely.

So why are so many posters talking specifically about whales?

The error is not in the Bible's account, it is in the modern interpretation.

a reply to: chr0naut

Other contenders for the task are the Whale Shark and the Sperm Whale

One man, Marshall Jenkins, was swallowed alive by a sperm whale in 1771 and survived. Another incident concerns James Bartley. In 1891, Bartley was swallowed by a sperm whale that his whaling crew had harpooned. The whale slipped away, was found and killed a day or so later. Bartley was found alive, but unconscious, in the stomach of the whale. He was revived and in a few weeks regained his health

Either way the air quality would be terrible in there.

originally posted by: Blue_Jay33
a reply to: chr0naut

Other contenders for the task are the Whale Shark and the Sperm Whale

One man, Marshall Jenkins, was swallowed alive by a sperm whale in 1771 and survived. Another incident concerns James Bartley. In 1891, Bartley was swallowed by a sperm whale that his whaling crew had harpooned. The whale slipped away, was found and killed a day or so later. Bartley was found alive, but unconscious, in the stomach of the whale. He was revived and in a few weeks regained his health

Either way the air quality would be terrible in there.

I suspect that most fish would float to the surface if they contained enough air for someone to survive for any appreciable time (unless they were very, very large).

The thing is, we do know that whales are mammals and air breathers, but most of them could not swallow a human being.

Also, most bony fish that have a swim bladder, have it as a separate chamber, and probably not accessible for a human to get in there via the esophageal or digestive tract.

Usually, in modern fish, swim bladders are aerated from the blood, by counter-current exchange. This means that the gas mixture is often higher in Oxygen than in the atmosphere, in most species, and so may have assisted survival?

However, it is believed that the swim bladder was the organ that evolved into lungs, and so, perhaps, the species was a very large intermediate evolutionary stage towards the larger semi-aquatic, but air-breathing dinosaurs such as the Brontosaurus (in a piscean precursor there would not have been the need for the long neck - to reach high branches, etc)?

Perhaps there was already an esophageal bridge to the swim bladder in place (a requirement in the development of lungs)? A transitional fish/aquatic dinosaur species now extinct?

Such is possible, I suppose? God is noted for "moving in mysterious ways".

a reply to: chr0naut

Yes it is possible because of what one verse in Genesis says.

Genesis 1:21

God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind; and God saw that it was good and He affirmed and sustained it.

It's interesting that it is separated from the standard living creatures that inhabit the sea.

This is they only verse in the bible that could allude to what we know as dinosaurs of the aquatic variety.

a reply to: ketsuko

As a diver myself, you'd have to be absolutely INSANE to go diving anywhere near a sperm whale!!! The clicking noises they make for their echo-location are so loud they would absolutely shatter your eardrums without exception! Sperm whales can be heard from hundreds of miles away just because of this. The diver in that picture is either insane...or he/she is already deaf!

On a serious note...the lobster diver from the OP allegedly had one of those small SCUBA apparatus on him. They only last a few minutes, but he stated it was enough to give him a couple breaths while inside the whale.

Regardless, I think the story is complete BUNKO! He doesn't have a single scar on him, and whales are covered in barnacles, not a single visible mark. He might have gotten bumped by a whale, or possibly a shark, but there is exactly zero proof this dude was actually "swallowed" by a whale! He's just trying to be a modern day Jonah.