# Whale Swallowing Man **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 17, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863 "2011-06-17T17:16:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DORFMONT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@DORFMONT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DORFMONT)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/1 "2011-06-17T17:16:11Z")
Dolphins have been known to take drowning people in their snouts and propel them to the nearest shore. This is probably what happened to Jonah since the Aramaic word for whale actually means big fish. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/2 "2011-06-17T17:24:51Z")
I assume this is about [Have any real-life Jonahs been swallowed by whales and lived?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2294/have-any-real-life-jonahs-been-swallowed-by-whales-and-lived) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/3 "2011-06-17T17:34:17Z")
Shouldn’t that be “Whale Swallowing Sea Men”? 😉 What probably happened to Jonah was he was made up. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/4 "2011-06-17T18:40:12Z")
Ever notice that you never hear of all the stranded sailors who got carried further out to sea by dolphins? ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/5 "2011-06-17T20:28:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Ever notice that you never hear of all the stranded sailors who got carried further out to sea by dolphins? :dubious: :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/6 "2011-06-17T20:38:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Ever notice that you never hear of all the stranded sailors who got carried further out to sea by dolphins? No one wants to hear your stories of cetecean sodomy, **Chronos**. Leave that shit for the Welsh. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/7 "2011-06-17T21:31:03Z")
> [@DORFMONT](#): > > Dolphins have been known to take drowning people in their snouts and propel them to the nearest shore. This is probably what happened to Jonah since the Aramaic word for whale actually means big fish. I don’t follow your logic. What does the Aramaic word for big fish have to do with dolphins? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2011, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/8 "2011-06-17T21:40:40Z")
Nothing “really happened to Jonah.” You might as well argue the “real color” of Paul Bunyan’s ox or which state Davy Crockett was in the time he rode a lightning bolt. ---
**Author:** ![FrankieDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frankiedee/32/88_2.png) [@FrankieDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankieDee)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/9 "2011-06-20T03:23:19Z")
If I remember correctly, a whale’s esophagus is the same size as every other mammal, i.e. , too small for a man to fit down there … ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/10 "2011-06-20T21:57:01Z")
> [@FrankieDee](#): > > If I remember correctly, a whale’s esophagus is the same size as every other mammal, i.e. , too small for a man to fit down there … A whale’s esophagus is the same size as a mouse’s esophagus?! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/11 "2011-06-21T03:09:42Z")
> [@Canadjun](#): > > A whale’s esophagus is the same size as a mouse’s esophagus?! :eek: You’d rather it were the other way around, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![SoundMind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@SoundMind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoundMind)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/12 "2011-06-22T14:25:01Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > Nothing “really happened to Jonah.” You might as well argue the “real color” of Paul Bunyan’s ox or which state Davy Crockett was in the time he rode a lightning bolt. I thought it was Pecos Bill who rode the lightning bolt. The day he lassoed the cyclone. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/13 "2011-06-22T17:18:11Z")
Pecos Bill, too, but Davy Crockett did it first. I remembered it from a Little Golden Book or something of the sort that I read during the great Crockett craze of the 1950s, but I checked on line, and it is definitely an authentic Crockett myth. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/14 "2011-06-22T19:04:51Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > You’d rather it were the other way around, maybe? stop it, you’re krilling me. ---
**Author:** ![wei\_ji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wei\_ji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wei_ji)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/15 "2011-06-22T23:52:07Z")
I’m bitterly disappointed. Thanks a lot, Cecil, for harpooning the Bartley story, a favorite of my youth. Bartley’s survival was a telling example of a fluke of luck. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/16 "2011-06-23T12:21:07Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Shouldn’t that be “Whale Swallowing Sea Men”? 😉 Well, it _was_ a sperm whale, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Martiju](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@Martiju](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martiju)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/17 "2011-06-23T14:01:30Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I don’t follow your logic. What does the Aramaic word for big fish have to do with dolphins? I guess if the original version of the story was written in Aramaic, then the translation to ‘whale’ could equally have been to ‘dolphin’. That would suggest that the impressive part of the story, about living inside it, becomes less likely though. (‘less likely’ being a relative term, of course) ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/18 "2011-06-23T16:57:37Z")
I have no idea why Aramaic has entered this discussion. _Jonah_ is written in Hebrew, and I cannot find that is alleged to have even one Aramaic word in it. And, in any case, the Hebrew wording merely says “big fish” (which, at that time, would not rule out a cetacean, but would not imply one, either). But it doesn’t really matter. The entire story is full of ridiculous impossibilities that cannot even be explained by outright miracles. _Jonah_ is a fable, a “tall tale” if you will, written to make people laugh, and, by the way, to make a point, roughly the same point Jesus made centuries later in His tale of the Prodigal Son, though from the opposite viewpoint. It’s a point, in fact, that still needs to made. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/19 "2011-06-23T17:39:25Z")
It’s probably just a typo - it was supposed to read “Jonah ate a big fish.” ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863/20 "2011-06-23T18:14:39Z")
> [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > It’s probably just a typo - it was supposed to read “Jonah ate a big fish.” And then he said, “That peice of halibut was good enough for Jehova himself!” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whale-swallowing-man/585863.md?page=2)