We finished our series on Jonah a few couple of weeks ago but there were a few questions that we’re never fully addressed during the Sunday morning sermons. For the most part it’s because they weren’t critical to the main point of the text but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be discussed. So, here we go.
What was that big fish?
Did you grow up hearing the story of Jonah and the whale? I did and the accompanying pictures in most of my Sunday school lessons and children’s Bibles used an image of a whale. So is that accurate?
In most English Bibles the phrase is “great fish” which is pretty close to the original Hebrew, gadowl dag. In the Greek it’s rendered këtos, which means sea creature. Without having a more defined description it’s very possible that Jonah was swallowed by a whale or a large shark. It’s also possible that it was a sea creature that has since gone extinct. Either way the Bible is full of the supernatural works of God and clearly a man being swallowed and surviving three days was a supernatural event.
It took Jonah three days to walk the city? How big was Nineveh?
The ancient city of Nineveh has been found just outside of modern-day Mosul and as ancient cities go it was a massive one, about two miles in diameter. But if you’ve ever walked two miles you know it would only take about an hour or so. So why three days?
Like a lot of modern day cities the surrounding villages would have been considered as, in a sense, part of the greater Nineveh metro. Unfortunately with no rapid transit and no way to broadcast his message it would have taken Jonah quite a bit to weave through the area with his message. And so the likelihood of it taking three days makes more sense.
If Jonah built a hut for shade then why did he even need the plant?
This one is a bit puzzling at first glance. Since he was East of the city in a desert like environment chances are the hut he built for shade was made out of whatever dried branches and sticks he could find. Since most likely there was no plywood or roofing materials lying around that would mean whatever shade he was getting, the sun was still coming through. Many commentators believe the type of plant that God provided was a castor-bean plant which grows rapidly in hot climates and has large leaves. This would have provided much better shade. See the last message in our series for what point God was trying to make with this whole thing.