Is the story of Jonah actual history, or is it a whale of a tale?
We should note that most translations do not have a whale as the creature which swallowed Jonah. It is rendered as a fish prepared by God.
And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. Jon 1:17
Years ago, when I attended a Catholic school, the nuns taught us that the story of Jonah was an historical event just like the flood, the parting of the Red Sea and all the other miraculous events of the Bible. Now many Bible Study teachers are telling students that the story is an allegory. Ironically, Catholic Answers states that: “Catholics are free to understand the story of Jonah and the whale as literal history or as didactic fiction.” It cites Catholic Apologist Karl Keating:
The most common interpretation nowadays, and one that is held by indubitably orthodox exegetes, is that the story of the prophet being swallowed and then disgorged by a ‘great fish’ is merely didactic fiction, a grand tale told to establish a religious point. Catholics are perfectly free to take this or a more literal view…keep reading
Sadly, most “orthodox exegetes” do, indeed, fictionalize many biblical accounts. They render them as simple teaching examples used by biblical writers to get certain points across. However, the book of Jonah gives no hint that it is to be used as a parable – it is an account which is firmly rooted in history. Those who insist the story is parabolic teaching, do so arbitrarily; and likely because of bias against the miraculous.
Another problem with this view is that it undermines Jesus Christ’s plain teaching.
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For 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. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. Mat 12:38-41
Not only does Jesus affirm the story of Jonah as history but He also treats that event as a forerunner to His death and subsequent resurrection. How can Jonah’s story be a sign if it’s only a parable? Moreover, the story is inexorably linked to Nineveh’s repentance. Jonah disobeyed God by running away from his commission to witness to Nineveh which is why God had to deal with him.
There’s a great danger involved in arbitrarily attributing an allegorical interpretation to something which is written as history. These types of interpretive views can and do potentially undermine the necessity of the gospel message. If Jonah is an allegory, then why wouldn’t the resurrection also be a parable?
Recommended resources:
Introduction to Jonah (John MacArthur)
Jonah: The World’s Greatest Fish Story
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