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.
