TRUTH  OR  TRADITION?

“Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?”

Matthew 15:3

JONAH AND THE GREAT FISH

            Jonah was swallowed by a whale.    Truth  or  Tradition?

            “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.”    Jonah 1:17.

            Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire,   which had long been a bitter enemy of God’s people.   But God,   who commands all men everywhere to repent,   sent word to Jonah to “Arise,   go to Nineveh,   that great city,   and cry against it;   for their wickedness is come up before me.”   Jonah 1:2.  

            But Jonah caught a ship going in the opposite direction.   He did not relish the idea of preaching repentance to such a wicked nation that had caused Israel so much suffering through the years.   But a storm came up and Jonah was thrown overboard and swallowed by a  “great fish”   the Lord had prepared.

            There are those who argue that the great fish that swallowed Jonah was probably a shark,   because a whale’s throat is not large enough to accommodate a man.   But when you read the  Biblical account in the book of Jonah carefully,   you will note that  God prepared  a great fish.   Part of that preparation could well have been enlarging the throat.    So,   the “great fish”  could very well have been a whale.

            A careful reading of the story of Jonah will also reveal that it was always called a “great fish,”   not once is it ever called a  “whale” ¼..not in the Old Testament.     Didn’t Jesus call it a whale?    In reference to His burial and resurrection,   Jesus said:   “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.”   Matthew 12:40.   

            The Greek word that Jesus used was KETOS,   which means:   a great sea monster,   a huge fish.    The word   KETOS  is found in the New Testament only once,     here in this passage,   and here it is translated whale.   Was it a whale?    Could have been,   but we can we know for sure?   The Bible doesn’t really say.    What do you think?   Jonah was swallowed by a whale.    Truth or Tradition?

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