# Jonah: Fact or Fiction??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 18, 2001, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jonah-fact-or-fiction/82304 "2001-09-18T01:33:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jonah-fact-or-fiction/82304/21 "2002-04-28T04:34:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nametag \* > **Some regard this as proof that the OT’s “great fish” is idiomatic Hebrew for a whale.** Did Ancient Hebrew even have a word for _whale_? It seems to me the Jews at that time wouldn’t have had much contact with whales, at least not enough to differentiate them from large fish. ---
**Author:** ![HWM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bcef8e/32.png) [@HWM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HWM)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jonah-fact-or-fiction/82304/22 "2002-04-28T16:07:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \* > **[…] Book of Jonah says that Ninevah was so large that it required 3 days to walk all the way across it […]** Ok, so they had shitty traffic and instead Jonah went bar-hopping and of course there were the temples and the temple prostitutes on the way. _Only_ three days… ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jonah-fact-or-fiction/82304/23 "2002-04-28T20:07:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by psychonaut \* > \*\* > > Did Ancient Hebrew even have a word for _whale_? It seems to me the Jews at that time wouldn’t have had much contact with whales, at least not enough to differentiate them from large fish. \*\* The ancient Hebrews had a sort of generic word for whales, sea-monsters, and such: _tannin_ (plural, _tanninim_). However, there is some sentiment, even among those who take their scripture straight, that Jonah might be more of a parable than a prophet, as with Job. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jonah-fact-or-fiction/82304/24 "2002-04-29T13:17:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lwburns \* > I told the kids that it was nearly impossible for a whale to swallow a human because, even though they are very large mammals, their throat was very small. I’ve read that the throat of a sperm whale is larger than the throat of your typical baleen whale, and that a sperm whale could swallow a human. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jonah-fact-or-fiction/82304/25 "2002-04-29T15:26:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arnold Winkelried \* > \*\*I’ve read that the throat of a sperm whale is larger than the throat of your typical baleen whale, and that a sperm whale could swallow a human. \*\* Quite so. From Cecil’s column: > [@](#): > > (4) Sperm whales are capable of swallowing humans. They live on squid, which they swallow whole. In 1955 a 405-pound squid was removed intact from the belly of a sperm whale. Other prey items exceeding the size of an adult human have been found in sperm whale stomachs. Baleen whales, on the other hand, are filter feeders and have quite narrow throats that would not be able to accomodate a human. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jonah-fact-or-fiction/82304.md?page=1)