What kind of fish swallowed Jonah (Jonah 1:17)?

Question

A Great Fish Swallows Jonah 1:17 [c] And the Lord appointed[d] a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah's Prayer 2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. Footnotes: Jonah 1:17 Ch 2:1 in Hebrew Jonah 1:17 Or had appointed --ESV (English Standard Version) I take Jonah 1:17 literally and think it was a big, huge fish. It was big enough to swallow Jonah and keep him in its belly for 3 days and 3 nights. More contemporary examples of this actually happening to a man can be cited.

Answer 1

I agree with you that this Bible account must be taked in a literal way. Nothing in the text suggests it could be understood in a metaphoric, parabolic, or - anyway - symbolic talk.

However, your question revolves around the search for the kind of 'fish' swallowed Jonah. There were a number of 'fishes' responding to that task. I think the shark family included the more probable individual to perform the Jonah's swallowing. For some examples, search for (Google images and text) the Charcarocles megalodon, about 18 metres long, or, the Leedsichtys problematicus, about 22 metres long, both with a proportional width, capable to swallow more than one man.

Answer 2

The article in the link below presents evidence to link the biblical account of Jonah as a reality. Part of the article says this:

There are at least two species of Mediterranean marine life that are known to be able to swallow a man whole. These are the cachalot and the white shark. Both creatures are known to prowl the Mediterranean and have been known to Mediterranean sailors since antiquity. Aristotle described both species in his 4th-century B.C. Historia Animalium.

As for Jonah’s success in Nineveh, Orientalist Henry Clay Trumbull made a valid point when he wrote, “What better heralding, as a divinely sent messenger to Nineveh, could Jonah have had, than to be thrown up out of the mouth of a great fish, in the presence of witnesses, say on the coast of Phoenicia, where the fish-god [Dagon]was a favorite object of worship? Such an incident would have inevitably aroused the mercurial nature of Oriental observers, so that a multitude would be ready to follow the seemingly new avatar of the fish-god, proclaiming the story of his uprising from the sea, as he went on his mission to the city where the fish-god had its very centre of worship” (H. Clay Trumbull, “Jonah in Nineveh.” Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 2, No.1, 1892, p. 56).

Jonah needed only to cause enough of a stir to gain himself admittance to the king who, upon believing Jonah’s message of imminent doom for himself, would have the power to proclaim a citywide day of fasting and penance. According to the biblical narrative that’s exactly what happened (Jonah 3:6-9). So we see that, given the caveat that Jonah was spewed upon the shore by a great fish, Nineveh’s repentance follows from a very logical progression.

The article also points out that Jesus spoke of Jonah’s ordeal as a real historical event. He used it as a typological metaphor for His own crucifixion and resurrection, itself a miraculous event. Matthew quoted Jesus as saying, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea creature, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, Someone greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:40-41; cf. Luke 11:29-30, 32).

Source: https://www.gotquestions.org/Jonah-whale.html

Answer 3

In Matthew, Jesus tells us that the "fish" was indeed a whale. Since Matthew was originally written in Greek and Greek is easy to translate (far easier than ancient Hebrew), I insist that this is the more relevant description of the "fish". I also believe the story of Jonah to be literal. Many miraculous things happened in the Old Testament many of which we just can't say didn't happen. So if Moses split the Red Sea and dry land was there for the Israelites to walk on for a full day, then why couldn't there be a whale swallowing Jonah? Or if Moses received the Ten Commandments and destroyed them on the golden calf, and those that followed Korath were swallowed up by the earth, why not a whale?

Matthew 12:38-40 KJV

³⁸ Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. ³⁹ But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: ⁴⁰ 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.

Answer 4

I believe that it’s impossible to tell what type of fish swallowed Jonah but my response would be does it really matter. Whether the story of Jonah is literal or not does not detract from the spiritual significance of the story. If the account actually happened, yes, there would be a fantastic event to go along with the story but God would be seen as going to extremes at the expense of one of His children. However, if the story of Jonah is an allegory, the story is not diminished in any way. In fact, the story is enhanced since God would not be seen as actually putting someone through that harrowing experience. The same thing can be said of Job.

The most important factor in the story of Jonah is the concept of grace and mercy. In Jonah Chapter 2, Jonah prays a prayer incredibly similar to that which Solomon prayed in 2 Chronicles 6. In that prayer, Solomon is asking for mercy. He asks the Lord to be merciful when Israel sins in the future. Note verses 36-39:

36 If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near; 37 Yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done amiss, and have dealt wickedly; 38 If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name: 39 Then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee.

In these verses, Solomon requests that when Israel sins to such a degree that God will carry them away from Israel to a foreign land, that if the people would then turn toward the land and toward the temple and asks once again for mercy, then God forgive their sin.

In the next chapter (2 Chronicles 7): God tells Solomon that He has heard his prayer of mercy and now has selected the temple as a house of sacrifice; not animal sacrifice but a sacrifice of prayer. Here is 2 Chronicles 7:

12 And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. 13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; 14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 15 Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attend unto the prayer that is made in this place;

Jonah is applying the same truth to himself. He is acknowledging his sin of disobedience of refusing to go to Ninevah and that he has now been carried off to a foreign place far from Israel. He acknowledges that God has made the temple a house of sacrifice, a sacrifice of prayer. Note Johan’s words in Jonah Chapter 2:

1Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, 2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. 3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. 4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. 5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. 6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. 7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. 8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. 9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. 10 And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

When God heard Jonah's prayer of mercy which he prayed symbolically “looking toward” (as Solomon requested) the temple, God responds by having the fish release Jonah from his bondage. I believe that when you see the incredible link between the two events (Solomon and Johah) you get an even more impactful story than if an actual fish swallowed Jonah.

Answer 5

The Old Testament was written by Jewish Prophets/ authors, so its best to look at things through their eyes and take their guidance. RAMBAM MAIMONIDES a Jewish Sage, said in his 1190CE Book on the Hebrew Bible "A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED", that the Book of Jonah was allegorical in nature (at least the first part) and this is corroborated by another Jewish Sage closer to Jesus` time, the Rabbi Meir 135 CE, who gave this guidance to his Jewish students on where to start unlocking the secrets to the Book of JONAH " One pearl was suspended inside the belly of the great fish, and it gave illumination to JONAH, like the sun which shines with its might at noon”.

The Book of JONAH is a story of two halves as evidenced by God calling Jonah twice, each calling begins each half of the story with the first half being an exact allegorical version of the second real event - its why God does not reprimand JONAH for seeming to take the wrong direction by travelling West to Nineveh when it is in the East! Jonah has to go West in the allegorical story otherwise the stories deeper meaning would not make sense - the deeper meaning of this story was to link it allegorically with the Hebrew festival of the Passover/Exodus which was at the westerly equinox of spring, whereas the easterly direction was the equinox of Autumn and its Hebrew festival of Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement (Nineveh also had an AKITU festival of atonement). There are many Hermeneutic references to both within this text, too many to quote here (ask a new question if this is of interest to you)

JONAHs 3 days and 3 nights within the PIT of the great fish`s belly – is an allegory for the Great City of Nineveh. When JONAH is inside the great fish praying to YHVH to save him and again when the great fish vomits JONAH up onto dry land, the word used by the author to describe the fish changes gender from

male DAG ( ד ג) to the female DAGAH ( ה ד ג )

– in Hebrew Hermeneutics of QBLH this addition of the letter “H” without a grammatical reason is asking us to “BEHOLD – LOOK HERE”. This is to allegorically denote that the “Great Fish” holds some secret meaning for us to interpret. The Great City of Nineveh that JONAH has been sent to, was the home to the Temple of the female “Goddess INANNA of Nineveh” and NINA was one of the Sumerian and Assyrian names for that Goddess. The Assyrian cuneiform for NINA (𒀏) is a fish within a house. Therefore, JONAHs great fish becomes the GREAT FEMALE CITY that is also the HOUSE OF THE FISH/NINA (the Hebrew term HOUSE was reserved only for describing a Temple e.g., the HOUSE OF YHVH or in this case the HOUSE OF INANNA (see 2 CHRONICLES 35: 8). Nineveh was a great city that we are told by the author was of three days and three nights travel across, this is the allegorical significance of the word fish (male & female) being mentioned three times in the text and the meaning of JONAH being inside the whale for 3 days and 3 nights (it also links this story to the EXODUS story as the 9th Plague was the plague of darkness that lasted for 3 days and 3 nights). The great fish has swallowed JONAH but it appears to have been sent by YHVH to allegorically rescue JONAH because he has travelled far enough west now to make the required allegorical point of the story.

Answer 6

There is an argument based on the New Testament retelling that it could have been more than just a big fish:

Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a κῆτος (kētos), so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

The Greek word kētos refers to any type of sea monster. The argument is that Greek had many specific words for different types of sea creatures but they chose the word for sea monster.

That said, a big fish capable of swallowing a man also fits in this category. Also, in the Jonah account the author could have called it a tannin (תַּנִּין), a commonly used in the Bible for sea monster word but they didn’t.

This leads me to conclude that it was indeed just a big fish (dag דָּג gadol גָּדוֹל).

Answer 7

There have been cases of whales or big fish actually swallowing someone and the person coming back out. In one case the skin color was changed by the stomach acids.

I remember hearing this from D. James Kennedy (Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church? Ft Lauderdale Fl.?) 20-30 years ago.