Is the Story of Jonah Fact or Fiction?

Is the Story of Jonah Fact or Fiction?

In the book of Jonah, we read of a reluctant prophet, thrown into the sea and being swallowed by a whale:

[Jon 1:17 KJV] 17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Did this really happen, or is it merely a Biblical fable? From the earliest centuries of the faith, theologians have debated this question. Jewish traditions generally acknowledge that Jonah existed but question whether the whale of a tale, as it were, actually took place. Interestingly Jewish theology in antiquity believed that Jonah was the boy brought back to life in 1 Kings 17, or perhaps the boy resurrected by Elisha in 2 Kings 4. Every year on Yom Kippur, the book of Jonah is read in its entirety. Nonetheless, most Jewish scholars agree with medieval rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra that the book of Jonah records a spiritual vision and not actual events.

Throughout church history, great leaders have differed on the historicity of Jonah while emphasizing its symbolic meaning. Whatever be the case, science eventually weighed in with the insistence that a whale couldn’t possibly swallow a man, and if it did happen, no way could a man survive due to lack of oxygen, etc. The discourages and controversies go along with those who claim, for instance, that the children of Israel crossed the
Red Sea at a point that it was only a few inches deep. True believers laugh at this with the follow-up observation that God then consequently drowned Pharaoh’s army in that same few inches of water!

We have to notice that our verse says God PREPARED a great fish for Jonah. That means that there may likely have never been a fish such as this before or after the Jonah experience. However, we have incidents such as James Bartley in 1891 who was documented (with some controversy) to have been swallowed by a whale and been consequently rescued after some time.

What is the lesson? The lesson is that God is God, and He can do whatever He wants anytime He wants, and He doesn’t have to check with anyone. All I know is when I read the book of Jonah; I am reminded I never want to be “that guy” running from God’s will lest I wind up giving a great fish indigestion myself – how about you?