Many people argue about whether Jonah was trapped inside a fish or whale for three days. Of course, with God all things are possible and either one may be the case. However, is it? A critical analysis is due.
First off, read the
entire scripture about the adventures of Jonah (Jonah 1:17 through 2:10).
(To be honest, I reviewed
only chapter one, so I had no recent knowledge of chapter two, albeit I continued
my analysis to see if my hypothesis made sense.)
My hypothesis: Perhaps
Jonah was in some other thing for three days.
The null of that:
Jonah was not in some other thing.
If there is
evidence that Jonah was in some other thing, then that decreases the probability
that Jonah was in the belly of either a fish or a whale.
If there is any
possibility that Jonah was in something else, then I fail to reject the null
hypothesis which makes the hypothesis a possibility with some degree of
confidence. That is the scientific method of testing for truth.
Consider the evidence
from the Bible:
·
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. (Jon 1:17)
·
(Jesus said) An evil and
adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to
it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas; 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 12:29-30)
Two choices are
given: the belly of a great fish and the belly of a whale. However, could there
be a third choice? To determine that, we turn to the original languages. An
obvious choice is that like Jesus, Jonah/Jonas would be in the heart of the earth
for three days.
What does that
mean? In the Greek, ho kardia ho ge. Since ho is “that” in
English, and kardia the centroid of the soul, then the soul of Jesus
would be between that and that. What is “that?” Ge. By extension, Ge
is not just earth but any region.
Of course, the body
of Jesus was in the ground three days in a sepulcher. However, where would have
been the “heart” of the region? In scripture the heart of the earth would
be what is called “Hades” in the Greek.
For at least parts
of three days, Jesus would have been in Hades, or Hell, whether in bodily form
or not is unclear. However, it makes sense that Jesus was in Hell in bodily form
but not material substance, just as it was at His baptism… “the Holy Ghost
descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him” (Luke 3:22).
Jesus compared
Jonas in the belly of a whale to Himself in the belly of the Earth. That is
evidence that might come in handy.
Next, consider the belly
of “a great fish” in which Jonah was captured, in the Hebrew dag gadol dag
to swallow up (bala’) Jonah.
First off, just as
the “Ghost” (kardia) of Jesus is between two ho’s, gadol
is between two dag’s.
Gadol is indeed translated a “fish,” but what would have the original pictograph’s have represented? Written גָּדוֹל may provide the answer:
Gimmel (גָּ) theologically represents energy flow between realms.
Dalet (ד) represents a change in states into space/time and matter (or back).
Vav (וֹ) symbolizes a connection between heaven and earth, and
Lamed (ל) divine authority of being led from somewhere to elsewhere.
Translated “great,”
it seems to be a great journey somewhere or somehow. The pictographs indicate
it could be a journey from one realm to the other in the manner of Jesus’s trip
to Hell, as it is written:
When He (Jesus) ascended up on high, He led captivity captive
and gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is it but that he also
descended first into the lower parts of the Earth? He that descended is the
same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all
things. (Ephes 4:8-10)
Jesus had ascended to
Paradise in heaven in bodily form and in like manner he had descended to the
lower parts of the earth as well — to the “heart” of the Earth it would seem,
or into Hell as most theologians interpret it. How did Jesus do that? Perhaps
the Holy Ghost that had left Him went both to Paradise and to Hell while His
body rested in the grave.
That is further evidence
that Jesus easily translated between the realms of heaven and earth.
The word “earth” is confusing because we most
often think of this planet. But the heart of the earth is much like the
soul of all things in the material cosmos, and of course, the “soul” of
material things would be the heavens. In other words, like man and his heart,
so it is with the cosmos and its heart, or center of existence.
Jonah would have
changed states. It could have been from the waters of the sea into the belly of
a great fish, or it may also have been from the earth’s estate to the heavens.
“Heaven” is often
thought of a place of eternal life, but as it is written, “heaven” consists of
both Hell and Paradise with a great gulf between them (Luke 16:26).
It may be that the “great”
in “great fish: (gadol) is the same “great” as in “Great Gulf” and with
that comparison, the “gulf” might very well be the “fish” of Jonah’s venture.
The great gulf
of which Luke wrote was between Hell and Paradise. Perhaps the same applies to
heaven and earth, the “firmament” (badal; בָּדַל), dividing the waters from the waters in
scripture (Gen 1:6).
Bet (בָּ) indicates in space/time and matter
Dalet (ָדַ) symbolizes a change in states of existence.
Lamed (ל) divine authority of being led from somewhere to elsewhere.
Just like gadol
(great), badal (firmament) is much the same and both represent a change
in states from one existence to another. Jonah’s journey would have been a
change in states from one existence to another, but it still could have been
either a fish or a whale.
Translated “fish”
Jonah was swallowed up by a dag (דָּג). The full word is spelled הַדָּג. The
letter hey at the beginning would indicate God-breathed. So, wherever it
was that Jonah had gone, God did it. Whether a fish or something else,
God would have caused it.
Dalet (דּ) again symbolizes a change in states of existence. However, this time there is a dot or dagesh within it. The dagesh would indicating a piercing of a hard thing, maybe indicating from a firm place to a non-firm place of existence.
Gimmel (ג) again represents energy flow between realms.
With that analysis dag
could either be translated either as “fish” or just a change in physical states
from earth to heaven. Remembering that heaven is both Hell and Paradise, then
Jonah would have been taken to one or the other by the will of God.
Lastly, it was to the
“belly” (meʻeh; מֵעֶה)
of the fish (sic). Belly, as with Jesus, represents the source of living
waters, mem in the Hebrew. Now examine the pictographs for belly:
Mem (מֵ) the living waters.
Ayin (ֵעֶ) the collapse of reality.
Hey (ה) God breathed into existence.
The “belly” may
represent a transfer from real waters to spiritual waters, and not the belly of
a fish at all.
Being a science
fiction aficionado, I thought maybe a spacecraft from another world captured
him, but not believing in aliens from another planet, I quicky discarded that
notion.
Like Mr. Monk, I then
said with certainty, “I know what happened,” then ran to my other half and told
her! I told my wife that God had translated Jonah to Hell as a warning, not
into the belly of a fish at all.
Now, the rest of
the story.
Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God
out of the fish's belly, and said, “I cried by reason of mine affliction unto
the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of Hell cried I, and You heard my
voice. (Jon 2:1-2)
Jonah had been in
Hell, not in the belly of any fish, but the underside of the earth which
represents Hades, or Hell.
The null
hypothesis was that Jonah was not in some other thing. By his own words, Jonah
was in Hell and by the Hebrew pictographs, He was in another realm other than
this one. Jonah was in some other thing, so the evidence with near certainty is
that Jonah was neither in the belly of a fish nor a whale.
However, there
remains a problem; Jesus, who does not lie, said that Jonah spent “three nights
in the “whale's belly.” However, that is a translation from the Greek language.
Jesus actually
said, “en ketos koila.”
En is of
course, “in.”
Ketos means
some sea monster: either a big fish, whale, or other creature of the water. The
root word of ketos is chasma — “a gaping opening, a chasm, a gulf”
(Strong’s Dictionary). The “whale” could have been the “great gulf”
between realms, not forgetting that it might also have been the belly of some sea
monster.
Consider now the
word koila, translated “belly.”
Another possibility
is “the innermost part of a man, the soul, heart as the seat of thought,
feeling, choice” (ibid). The belly of the chasm would be where? Another
realm, perhaps Hell as the underside of the belly.
Therefore, the possibility
does exist that Jonah spent three days in Hell in the manner of Jesus, and that
fish and whales are either mistranslations or a metaphoric description that
Jesus repeated.
However, Jonah was conscious
that he had been in Hell. Could Hell be a state of mind and him only in a state
of torment? Could Hell be both a mental state and another realm?
Whatever swallowed
Jonas is not as important as that he was in Hell in whatever modality it was!
