What body of water was Jonah in when he was swallowed? What fish is in that body of water that could have swallowed him?

It wasnt real.

It wasnt real.

I know lots and lots of Chriatians who would disagree. It was a miracle he survived.
So, what fish could have eaten him?

There's no fish actually large enough to swallow a man whole without biting him to shreds in the process. Whales, as we all know, are not fish.

Well considering that SOME bible stories are based on events that really did occur....
A whale, or maybe it was just a muttering fool who claimed to be eaten by a fish...
OR
It was all made up, just look at some of the crazy shit people have made up, all the monsters, dragons and what not in movies, we are master of imagination.

OK, I bet they didn't know whales were mammals, so it was a big fish to them. Are there whales in the Meditteranian? Or the Red Sea?

They do get around.

They go up rivers here in the US and weren't they in the Thames as well?

Whales are awesome....
:cool:

The body of water was most likely the Mediterranean. Jonah was supposed to go to Nineveh on the Tigris River but instead went to Joppa and Tarshish. Joppa is the modern seaside city in Israel and Tarshish is thought to have been located in the Mediterranean Sea.

The fish could have been a Great White or a Basking Shark, both of which are found in the Mediterranean. Great Whites have been know to bite a human and almost instantly release him with no problem and Basking Sharks move slowly through the water with their enormous mouths open.

It is quite possible Jonah was taken into one of the two above fish's mouths and spit out. I doubt if the fish swallowed him and then took him to shore. The Great White would have bitten him into swallowable pieces and the Basking Shark has too narrow a throat since it is a plankton eater.

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:6RzRdPEJNGj8CM:www.mcss.sc/images/Newsletter/Basking_shark_AJ.jpg
Basking Shark

no whale??

Sharks are awesome.
:cool:

this story always makes me think of long john silver's filet of fish and hushpuppies.

Fish is tasty
:cool:

What I'd like to know, is where do they get fish fingers from? I've never heard of a fish with hands, but I guess there must be loads of them, somewhere:shrug:

jonah (jehovah) survived 3 days and 3 nights in the whales belly the same way that jesus survivided 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth.

What body of water was Jonah in when he was swallowed? What fish is in that body of water that could have swallowed him?

It wasn't real.

jonah (jehovah) survived 3 days and 3 nights in the whales belly the same way that jesus survivided 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth.

Did they have day-lights savings times? Cuz the days had to have been shorter...

Sperm whale. But yeah - bullshit story.

Sperm whale. But yeah - bullshit story.

According to you but not according to everyone.

[QUOTE=Till Eulenspiegel;1634431]According to you but not according to everyone.[/QUOTE*************
M*W: This is one big fish story!

Yes it is, it is the story of Jonah and the Big Fish.

According to you but not according to everyone.

According to logic and reason.

I didn't say that I believe in the literal truth of the story. However others do. I think is is a story whose intention is to teach a lesson about those who refuse to do what God asks. If you believe in God it is a story about the consequences of disobeying him. If you don't believe in God it is simply a story about a man and a big fish.

According to you but not according to everyone.

It's not possible, and as you yourself pointed out, the only even remote possibility of any truth whatsoever in this made up story was that he was bitten and immediately released.

That's my belief. It is not the belief of everyone. I cannot presume to speak for anyone but myself.

That's my belief. It is not the belief of everyone. I cannot presume to speak for anyone but myself.

Well I understand that, but surely if you believe that you have an idea of what actually happened. There are people on this board who believe the government has an interplanetary travel program up and running, and while most people would agree this is not possible, at least those people have some sort of argument for it, however inaccurately. So I would like to know whether it is actually possible to survive for 3 days in a whale, I don't think so, but if you do then you must have some sort of support for that?

Even if he was swallowed by some fish (or whale) and was spit out three days later, how would he have survived ? It's a bullshit story indeed.

What I'd like to know, is where do they get fish fingers from? I've never heard of a fish with hands, but I guess there must be loads of them, somewhere:shrug:

:) It's the same place they get buffalo wings from.


Wouldn't Jonah have suffocated to death? or have been digested?

:) It's the same place they get buffalo wings from.


Wouldn't Jonah have suffocated to death? or have been digested?

Yep, I really wonder how anyone can believe in the truthfulness of that story.

As someone said before...it's a story to teach a lesson. Do what god says or you'll end up as whale poop.

As someone said before...it's a story to teach a lesson. Do what god says or you'll end up as whale poop.

:D

I think most, if not all, stories in the bible are that way. It's pretty dumb to take everything written in the bible as literal.

Even if he was swallowed by some fish (or whale) and was spit out three days later, how would he have survived ? It's a bullshit story indeed.

Would it not have been possible for you to say you do not believe the story without calling it a bullshit story. You chose a phrase you knew would be imflammatory to certain people. That is not the way to foster dialogue. Say you don't believe it. Say you think it is impossible. Spare us the excrement references.

Would it not have been possible for you to say you do not believe the story without calling it a bullshit story. You chose a phrase you knew would be imflammatory to certain people. That is not the way to foster dialogue. Say you don't believe it. Say you think it is impossible. Spare us the excrement references.

You are right, I apologize.
But it was a reference to someone that said it earlier.

Jonah was the one that got away...

Jonah was the one that got away...

Yeah but did he though? That's the question...read the thread before you reply...

If you accept the story as literally true, yes, Jonah did get away. We know this because he later appeared in Nineveh on the Tigris River where he preached to the king. Jonah had further dealings with God. (Read about the growing shade plant and the worm.)

people take this stuff too literally. it's incredible how stupid people are.

If you accept the story as literally true, yes, Jonah did get away. We know this because he later appeared in Nineveh on the Tigris River where he preached to the king.

Well yes, that's what it says, but I want to know whether you personally think that it is possible to survive three days and three nights inside a whale?

Till, the story is part ripoff from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Like many "bible stories". This is because the Hebrew are a splinter of old Sumerian civilization these hand me down stories somewhat change in Torah texts and change even more in the numerous translations(Aramaic - Greek - Latin - English - etc).

Very telling is the part in the epic of Gilgamesh, in which Gilgamesh obtains a plant from the bottom of the sea.

Christianity is a piggyback of Judaism(+pagan tradition/religion), a piggyback of Hebrew tradition, a piggyback of Egyptian and Sumerian religions.

All in all, the great adaptation of ancient to modern crowd control. Personally, I do not need a fearsome story of a becoming whale shit, in order for me to act morally. I hope in the near future most people are able to obtain morality from within. Self imposed discipline and not imposed discipline. We are in this together, we are not in this for "God".

i am suprsed M*W had so little to say about the symbolism of fish.
an enlightening time for old jonah. :)

i am suprsed M*W had so little to say about the symbolism of fish. an enlightening time for old jonah. :)
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M*W: The symbolism and myths of the fish gods are very ancient and prolific. Ea ruled the waters of the deep in Babylonian myth. He arose every morning and dropped behind the Earth each evening beneath the waves like a fish. Ea is depicted as half-man half-fish, and most likely evolved from the myth of the Constellation Aquarius.

In later myths, Ea appears as Ioannes and the fish god Dagon who was worshipped by the Philistines. Ea/Ioannes were symbols of the primeval sun god who created and nurtured the Earth.

Hindu Brahamism worships the god Vishnu who allegedly appeared to man in the form of half-man half-fish exactly as Ioannes or Dagon were represented among the Chaldeans. In the Indian version, Manu, the Hindu Noah, was saved by Vishnu in the form of a fish and saved Manu by dragging his boat to the top of a rock. Sounds hauntingly familiar like Noah's Ark atop Mt. Ararat). Then we have Davkina, the consort of Vishnu who seems to be the same name of Dav-ki or Damkina, the consort of Ea.

The Greek myth of Hercules and Hesione the daughter of King Laomedon of Troy) tells of the slaying of darkness by the sun god. The King bound his daughter to rocks by the sea as a sacrifice to Poseidon's destroying monster of darkness. Hercules represents the sun who saved the king's daughter by leaping into the fish's wide mouth and cutting his way through the monster's belly. This same myth is found in the rescue of Andromeda by Perseus.

Jonah being swallowed by the whale then thrown on shore at Joppa three days later is very similar to the myth of Hercules and Hesione. The same myth applies to Oannes being swallowed by Tiamat, the dragon of darkness, at the time of the winter solstice.

In Tylor's Primitive Culture, he explains... "In early Christian centuries, a Greek scculpture of Andromeda's monster was used as a model for Jonah's whale. In Pliny's time, the remains of Andromeda's chains were exhibited on a rock along the shore at Joppa and the bones of a whale were taken to Rome as relics of the monster."

In the Talmud, the coming Messiah is called Dag (remember Dagon)?. The stories of the myth of Jesus from childhood onward relate to incidences with fish and fishermen, and the story of Jesus walking on water, puts him right there on the sea. During the first four centuries christians were called "Pisiculi" or "Little Fishes," and Jesus was called the "Big Fish." This myth of Jesus has been symbolized by fish and appeared in homes and household objects. Fish symbols also appeared on the walls of the catacombs in Rome. Pope Clement in the second century urged christians to have a fish engraved upon their seals to distinguish them from the pagans.

Ancient Egyptian artists depicted paintings of female figures with fish-shaped eyes in the belief that fish were symbolic of their sexual nature.

In Scandinavia, the fish was the symbol of Frija, the goddess of marriage that was derived from the name of the sixth day of the week (Friday). Joshua of the bible is described as the son of Nun, a word which in Hebrew denotes both a fish and a woman, or more specifically, the sexual parts of a woman. I wonder if this is why Catholics call their holy sisters Nuns? Well, that puts a whole new light on the holy sisterhood! Let's also not forget the bishop's mitre resembling the ancient fish-god's head! I'm beginning to wonder where that snide sexual comment originated from about a woman smelling "fishy!"

The ancient custom of eating fish on Friday is associated with the belief that eating fish promoted lustfulness and virility.

According to Sir Austin Henry Layard, "the Druses of Lebanon, in their secret vespers, offer a true worship of the sexual parts of the female and pay their devotions every Friday night. Mohammedan husbands who failed to fulfill their conjugal duties on this day not only violated the code of Mahomet; they risked a disruption of domestic harmony as well."

The design of two fish in a circle is called the Great Monad. It is one of the oldest symbols of the male and female principles and it is found throughout the Far East. In India and China, it is called the Yin and Yang. In Japanese, the Yin and Yang are called the In and Yo. Reversed and conjoined, they read it as Yo-Ni. The sign of the fishes, Pisces, seems to have the same significance as the Great Monad. Fish gods and symbols, sex gods and symbols, honestly, it all boils down to sun-moon worship.

If anyone has any questions about this, I shall try to answer them.

References:

Ernest Busenbark, Symbols, Sex, and the Stars in Popular Beliefs, 1997.

James Legge, Sacred Book of China, 1882.

Edward B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, 1891.

Sir Austin Henry Layard, Sur Le Culte De Venus, (date unknown).

Mrs. M.J.M. Murray-Aynsley, Symbolism of the East and West, (date unknown).

Stephen H. Langdon, Mythology of All Races, (date unknown).

Morris Jastrow, Aspects of Religious Beliefs & Practices in Babylonia & Assyria,1911.

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M*W's Friendly Atheist Quote of the Day:

"We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a "higher" answer--but none exists." ~ Stephen Jay Gould