Learning from the Book of Jonah

Jonah 1:1-17
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 
2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil[a] has come up before me." 
3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 
6 So the captain came and said to him, "What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish."
7 And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. 
8 Then they said to him, "Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?" 
9 And he said to them, "I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land." 
10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, "What is this that you have done!" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
11 Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?" For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 
12 He said to them, "Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you." 
13 Nevertheless, the men rowed hard[b] to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. 
14 Therefore they called out to the Lord, "O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you." 
15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. 
16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17  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.

The Book of Jonah records three major miracles: 1) Jonah was swallowed by a large fish and remained in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, 2) the people of Nineveh were converted in an instant, and 3) sesame trees grew overnight and withered overnight.

The story of Jonah being swallowed by a big fish and staying in the fish's belly for three days and three nights is so famous that not only Christians but also ordinary people know it. However, the general public only thinks of it as a "fairy tale. Even some Christians do not regard it as a historical fact. I would like to learn to explain clearly that it is not a fairy tale but a fact.

Was Jonah a real person? Is this story a parable (fable), a cautionary tale based on fantasy, or history? Did Jonah really live three days and three nights in the belly of a fish? Today, we would like to study these things together from the book of Jonah.

Point 1: Was Jonah a real person?

 In chapter 1, verse 1, we read, "And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, as follows." and we can see that Jonah was one of the prophets. In , we see that Jonah was one of the prophets,

2 Kings 14:23 and 25
23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. 

25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher.

Jeroboam II (793-BC753) became king of Samaria and reigned for 41 years. He restored the territory of Israel from Lebo Hamath (170 km north of Samaria, the northern border) to the Sea of Arabah (the Dead Sea, the southern border). This was almost a restoration of national prestige in the Davidic era. But it was not because Jeroboam II was a great king that Israel was restored, but because of God's mercy toward Israel, as prophesied through Jonah son of Amittai: "The son of Amittai, the prophet Jonah, will be the prophet of the Lord.

The possibility that there were two "Jonah the prophet son of Amittai" with the same name is extremely unlikely, and we know that Jonah son of Amittai, one of the prophets in the Northern Kingdom around 760 B.C., is the Jonah mentioned in the Book of Jonah and that Jonah was a real person.

Point 2: Is this story a parable (allegory), a didactic tale based on fantasy, or history?

 There are three views on the interpretation of the Book of Jonah. Let me briefly summarize, 

1) Figurative interpretation (interpretation as a parable)

The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35) is interpreted as a story designed to teach faith and moral lessons.

However, if it is a "parable," the appearance of real historical figures in the story raises serious questions. 

2) Allegorical interpretation (interpreted as an allegory)

This is a position that interprets the story as containing a more meaningful message than simply a parable conveying moral or spiritual lessons, and that the characters, animals, and events contain meanings and lessons.

Jonah" means dove, and the dove represents Israel. The "great fish" represents Babylon/Nineveh, and the deliverance from the fish is interpreted as representing the return from the Babylonian captivity. 

3) Historical interpretation (interpreted as fact)

This is the position that interprets the book of Jonah as the fact that what is described in this book happened in the 8th century B.C. as written in the book.

We believe that the Book of Jonah is not a parable, not an allegory, but a historical fact.

A detailed explanation will be given in point ④.

Point 3) Did Jonah really live three days and three nights in the belly of a fish?

Here is a report by M. Parville and Francis Fox, editors-in-chief of the Journal des Debats, a Parisian scientific journal. 

In February 1891, the British whaling ship "Star of the East" was operating off Falkland Island when it spotted a huge whale about 5 km offshore. The two boats immediately gave chase, one of which launched a harpoon, and as the other approached the whale, it was struck by the whale's tail fin and capsized. James Bartley, one of several sailors thrown overboard, was lost.

After two days, the stomach was removed from the disemboweled whale. After two days, the stomach was removed from the disemboweled whale, but when they noticed what looked like a human being inside, they rushed to pull him out and found that it was James Bartley. He was unconscious but still alive. He was immediately doused with sea water and eventually regained consciousness.

For the next two weeks, he was treated in the captain's quarters and kept at rest. After four weeks, he recovered and was able to return to duty.

His face, neck, and limbs were white as a dead man's, having been poisoned by the whale's stomach juices. He remembered what it was like to be inside the whale's body until he passed out from fear. He was thrown overboard and eventually drowned and found himself in total darkness, his body hot. He touched his surroundings and tried to find a way out. Once he realized that it was inside the fish's body, he was so terrified that he fainted. He testified that it was never due to lack of oxygen.

I realized that events like Jonah's could happen in real life. More than that, if God wills, we can believe that it is true that Jonah was swallowed by a large fish, just as the Bible says. 

Reference - 1

There is a type of whale that has a space in its body for a human being to squat comfortably, separate from the stomach by passing through the throat.

When a whale swallows something, the mass can be 80 cm in diameter.

A 5-meter-long shark bone was reportedly found inside a whale.

Certain species of whales sometimes expel the contents of their stomachs when they die. On one occasion, the size of the ejected contents was 2.4 m (length), 1.8 m (width), and 1.8 m (height) (the volume of six adults).

Reference - 2

The Lord prepared a large fish, which swallowed Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights (1:17).

Some may think of three days and three nights as 72 hours, but in the Jewish tradition, the middle day is 24 hours, and the days before and after are also described as three days and three nights, even if they are only a few hours apart. Therefore, the first and third days are one hour long, and the middle day is 24 hours long, adding up to 26 hours (1+24+1).

Jesus was crucified on the day before the Sabbath (Saturday), and He breathed His last around 3:00 p.m. He rose 24 hours after the Sabbath, early in the morning of the first day of the week (around 6:00 a.m.), so the three days and three nights at the time of His crucifixion can be considered about 39 hours. (Mark 15:33-16:2)

*(Jewish style) 39 hours = 3+24+6+6 or (Japanese style) 39 hours = 9+24+6

Point 4: Jesus accepted the events of the book of Jonah as historical fact!

 The scribes and Pharisees had no doubts when Jesus accepted the events of the book of Jonah as historical fact and made a statement as a matter of course. The scribes and Pharisees must have taken it as historical fact. If we look at Matthew 12:38-41,

Matthew 12:38-41
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you."
39 But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 
40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 
41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

It is unthinkable that Jesus would cite fiction when speaking of His "resurrection" and "warning of the Last Judgment. Remarkably, Jonah is the only prophet Jesus speaks of in comparison to His death and resurrection. Jesus sees Jonah's experience and mission as of great significance.

Jonah was reluctant to preach for the salvation of the Gentile city of Nineveh, but God used him for a great revival. God saved the entire city through the ministry of this reluctant prophet. We share the gospel not with the Gentiles but with the same Japanese people, their families, friends, and acquaintances. We believe that God will use us to save the people of Japan if we keep praying faithfully and willingly sharing our testimony of Christ! Let us trust our Lord, who works with us for His Kingdom ministry!