CHAPTER 83
Jonah Historically Regarded
Reference was made to the historical story of Jonah and the whale in the
preceding chapter. Now some Nantucketers rather distrust this historical
story of Jonah and the whale. But then there were some sceptical Greeks
and Romans, who, standing out from the orthodox pagans of their times,
equally doubted the story of Hercules and the whale, and Arion and the
dolphin; and yet their doubting those traditions did not make those
traditions one whit the less facts, for all that.
One old Sag-Harbor whaleman’s chief reason for questioning the Hebrew
story was this:—He had one of those quaint old-fashioned Bibles,
embellished with curious, unscientific plates; one of which represented
Jonah’s whale with two spouts in his head—a peculiarity only true with
respect to a species of the Leviathan (the Right Whale, and the varieties of
that order), concerning which the fishermen have this saying, “A penny roll
would choke him”; his swallow is so very small. But, to this, Bishop Jebb’s
anticipative answer is ready. It is not necessary, hints the Bishop, that we
consider Jonah as tombed in the whale’s belly, but as temporarily lodged in
some part of his mouth. And this seems reasonable enough in the good
Bishop. For truly, the Right Whale’s mouth would accommodate a couple of
whist-tables, and comfortably seat all the players. Possibly, too, Jonah
might have ensconced himself in a hollow tooth; but, on second thoughts,
the Right Whale is toothless.
Another reason which Sag-Harbor (he went by that name) urged for his
want of faith in this matter of the prophet, was something obscurely in
reference to his incarcerated body and the whale’s gastric juices. But this
objection likewise falls to the ground, because a German exegetist supposes
that Jonah must have taken refuge in the floating body of a dead whale—
even as the French soldiers in the Russian campaign turned their dead
horses into tents, and crawled into them. Besides, it has been divined by
other continental commentators, that when Jonah was thrown overboard
from the Joppa ship, he straightway effected his escape to another vessel
near by, some vessel with a whale for a figure-head; and, I would add,
possibly called “The Whale,” as some craft are nowadays christened the
“Shark,” the “Gull,” the “Eagle.” Nor have there been wanting learned
exegetists who have opined that the whale mentioned in the book of Jonah
merely meant a life-preserver—an inflated bag of wind—which the
endangered prophet swam to, and so was saved from a watery doom.
Poor Sag-Harbor, therefore, seems worsted all round. But he had still
another reason for his want of faith. It was this, if I remember right: Jonah
was swallowed by the whale in the Mediterranean Sea, and after three days’
he was vomited up somewhere within three days’ journey of Nineveh, a city
on the Tigris, very much more than three days’ journey across from the
nearest point of the Mediterranean coast. How is that?
But was there no other way for the whale to land the prophet within that
short distance of Nineveh? Yes. He might have carried him round by the
way of the Cape of Good Hope. But not to speak of the passage through the
whole length of the Mediterranean, and another passage up the Persian Gulf
and Red Sea, such a supposition would involve the complete
circumnavigation of all Africa in three days, not to speak of the Tigris
waters, near the site of Nineveh, being too shallow for any whale to swim
in. Besides, this idea of Jonah’s weathering the Cape of Good Hope at so
early a day would wrest the honor of the discovery of that great headland
from Bartholomew Diaz, its reputed discoverer, and so make modern
history a liar.
But all these foolish arguments of old Sag-Harbor only evinced his
foolish pride of reason—a thing still more reprehensible in him, seeing that
he had but little learning except what he had picked up from the sun and the
sea. I say it only shows his foolish, impious pride, and abominable, devilish
rebellion against the reverend clergy. For by a Portuguese Catholic priest,
this very idea of Jonah’s going to Nineveh via the Cape of Good Hope was
advanced as a signal magnification of the general miracle. And so it was.
Besides, to this day, the highly enlightened Turks devoutly believe in the
historical story of Jonah. And some three centuries ago, an English traveller
in old Harris’s Voyages, speaks of a Turkish Mosque built in honor of
Jonah, in which Mosque was a miraculous lamp that burnt without any oil.
