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With all the recent "examination" of various parts of scripture (mostly relating to Jesus, John and Paul) by the media, there have been a lot of postulations (and posturing) by some so-called "scholars".

The book of Jonah, according to most of these scholars, is (A) not about a real person, (B) not written by a real person, and (C) tells a story that is impossible, therefore it also can't be real.

What's your take on Jonah?  And did a big fish really swallow him up?

If the Bible told me Jonah swallowed the whale, id believe it ;D

These things are impossible with man...but all things are possible with God.

So i would say yes, a big fish swallowed Jonah. We also see God prepared this fish as well.

God bless you

Mat 12:40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

This should be proof i quess that the event was real...These scholars should be asked what is harder to believe...that God made a great fish swallow a man, or that God made a man split a sea into with a rod...and so on and so on. Poor Jonah some people just wont believe his story :)

God bless you Evangelist

 He was as real as you n me

If Jonah and his story aren't "real" then neither is Genesis, or Noah, or Moses, Or Sampson, or…
You get my drift.
Some people who dedicate their lives to discrediting the Bible will say anything.  They believe they can find a weak link (there are none, really) and work from there.
Nothing in the Bible has ever been proven wrong, but the skeptics who do not wish to be in God’s domain, usually because of vanity (though they would never admit it), and will never stop trying.

The only response to skeptics and gainsayers is:"For with God NOTHING shall be impossible". Jonah is as factual and historial as Jesus of Nazareth, who used "the sign of the prophet Jonah" to prophesy His own death, burial and resurrection. That is ABSOLUTE PROOF of the authenticity of Jonah and his prophecy.

How can a book get written if not by a real person?  (Unless we are talking shakespear and an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters.)

You're missing an important option from your list, namely:
It doesn't matter whether the story is true or not.  

You can't prove that it isn't true by science, only that it is "impossible", but that's true of all miracles (by definition).  Only historians can prove it untrue (if, for example, they could demonstrate that Ninevah didn't exist at the time).

On the other hand, it doesn't matter if the story is allegory - everything we learn from it still stands whether it's literally true or not, and the references that Christ made to it do not depend on it's historicity.

Oklahoma Howdy to Evangelist,

The Book of Jonah is literally real. Our Lord had more than one purpose for Jonah. That purpose is just as real today as it was then. There are also important lessons in Jonah for Christians today. Every Christian should read and study the Book of Jonah. In fact, there is a critical message there for us.

Yes, Jonah was a real person - our Lord spoke of him.
Yes, Jonah was swallowed by a fish prepared by our Lord.

Yes, Jonah wrote Jonah. Jonah referred to himself in the third person several times, but that was not unusual for the writers of the time. Jonah also used portions of the Psalms, but there is no reason that I'm aware of to believe that anyone other than Jonah wrote Jonah.

Reference the so-called scholars who wish to poke fun of the miracles and prophecy in the Holy Bible, they need to start reviewing comic books and stay away from the Holy Bible. There were many of little or no faith that laughed about Jonah at the time. For the same reasons, many might laugh and doubt the crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.  

So, let those so-called scholars join the 3 stooges.

Love In Christ,
Tom

You said it brother BEP!!
(http://www.threestooges.com/images/logo_ts5.gif)
Woob-woob-woob!

Was Jonah a real person?

Consider this passage from 2 Kings:

2Ki 14:23   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 reigned] forty and one years.
2Ki 14:24   And he did [that which was] evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.
2Ki 14:25   He restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain, according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which [was] of Gathhepher.

Note that here the scribes were speaking of, and recording the names of people about whom no question arises concerning their existence. Historical records denote that Amaziah indeed was the son of Joash, and that he had a brother Jeroboam who began to reign in a a real place called Judah. In verse 25, we see that Jeroboam received a word from the LORD via a prophet from Gathhepher (an actual place), this prophets name was Jonah, and he was the son of Amittai, also a prophet.

Why, if Jonah were not a real person, would the scribes have inserted a fictitious name into an account of real people and places? Does it make sense that they would do so?

Now, consider what Jesus said:

Mat 12:38   Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
Mat 12:39   But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
Mat 12:40   For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Mat 12:41   The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas [is] here.
Mat 12:42   The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon [is] here.

Notice that Jesus is speaking to real people, and He makes reference to a prophet by the name of Jonas (Jonah). Further, He specifically mentions the great sign that attaches to Jonah, namely that he was swallowed (in the belly of) a whale (sea monster), and Jesus also specifically names Nineveh (a real place) as being people who heard the preaching of this (supposedly) non-existent figment of someones overactive imagination. Jesus also makes reference to the queen of the south (the Queen of Sheba), a real person, and another very well known and attested to personage.....Solomon.

Why would Jesus (the way, the TRUTH and the life) pass off as real a person who didn't exist? Especially right in the middle of mentioning so many other real people and places?

Finally, consider this:
Jon 1:1   Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Jon 1:2   Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

Here we see that Jonah claims as his father a man named Amittai....exactly the same as spoken in 2 Kings 14:25.  He then says that he was sent by God to Nineveh, just as Jesus recounts in Mat. 12:41.

It stands to reason that not only was Jonah a real person, but that he probably wrote the book also, even though the book does not claim he is the author...but it is certainly more "first person" in knowledge and style than otherwise.

Finally, did Jonah really get swallowed and then spit up by a big fish? Well, according to the skeptics and scholars, that would be a physical impossibility. At the very least, according to them, 3 days and nites in the digestive juices of a sea dwelling creature would have probably reduced him to a formless mass of protoplasm....or at least have wrinkled his skin pretty severely, and caused massive hair loss!

Let's look at:
Jon 1:4   But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
Jon 1:17   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.

Doesn't it make sense that a mighty and powerful God who could create a storm, and send it just to bug this ship that had His fleeing prophet on it,  and had also appointed a great fish to be there at the right place and time to swallow Jonah, could (and would) MIRACULOUSLY PROTECT Jonah? We're talking here about a God who could have put a Sheraton Suites room with a jacuzzi in that fishes belly!!

Well...it seems that from scripture, we have our answer as to whether or not Jonah was real. And if he was real, why should we doubt that he wrote about what happened? And if that is also true, why should we doubt that what he says happened, actually happened?

Uh-oh....I just heard someone say "well, you're using the Bible to prove the Bible...and that's circular reasoning, and that's a fallacy".

The Bible is not one book....it is 66 books. It doesn't have one author...it has at least 44.  And it wasn't written all at one time....it took 1500 years to be completed.  So when  one book (Matthew) cites one person (Jesus) as attesting to the reality of another person (Jonah), and a second book (2Kings) also attests to that same person, that is called independent verification....not circular reasoning.

Jonah was real. And so was de fish, and so is de story!!

Thus saith the LORD.

Praise the lord...i like this, but we all know poor old Jonah wasnt that comfortable...Very good post Evangelist  :)

I like the 3 stooges as well ;D

Oklahoma Howdy to JudgeNot,


Brother, you're killin' me - WOW! - I needed that laugh.    ;D

My favorite 3 Stooges episodes involve dignified and dressed up people getting pies in the face.   ;D

Love In Christ,
Tom

AMEN BROTHER!

Even to the lost, the Holy Bible is a literary masterpiece from cover to cover. It proves itself and proves it is inspired by God because it was written over a period of many years and by many authors, yet it flows in beautiful harmony from Genesis to Revelation.

Thanks for the nice post and giving me the idea to study Jonah again.

Love In Christ,
Tom