Eichhorn (_Einleitung in das Alte Testament_, iii. 249.) in a note
refers to a passage of Müller's translations of Linnæus, narrating the
following remarkable accident:--
"In the year 1758, a seaman, in consequence of stormy weather,
unluckily fell overboard from a frigate into the Mediterranean. A
seal (_Seehund_, not _Hai_, a shark) immediately took the man,
swimming and crying for help, into it wide jaws. Other seamen
sprang into a boat to help their swimming comrade; and their
captain, noticing the accident, had the presence of mind to
direct a gun to be fired from the deck at the fish, whereby he was
fortunately so far struck (_so getroffen wurde_) that he _spit_
out directly the seaman previously seized in his jaws, who was
taken into the boat alive, and apparently little hurt.
"The seal was taken by harpoons and ropes, and hauled into the
frigate, and hung to dry in the cross-trees (_quære_). The captain
gave the fish to the seaman who, by God's providence, had been so
wonderfully preserved; and he made the circuit of Europe with it
as an exhibition, and from France it came to Erlangen, Nuremburg,
and other places, where it was openly shown. The fish was twenty
feet long, with fins nine feet broad, and weighed 3,924 lbs., and
is illustrated in tab. 9. fig. 5.; from all which it is very
probably concluded, that this kind was the true Jonas-fish."
Bochart concurs in this opinion.
Herman de Hardt (_Programma de rebus Jonæ_, Helmst. 1719) considers that
Jonah stopt at a tavern bearing the sign of the whale.
Lesz (_Vermischte Schriften_, Th. i. S. 16.) thinks that a ship with a
figure-head (_Zeichen_) of a whale took Jonah on board, and in three
days put him ashore; from which it was reported that the ship-whale had
vomited (discharged) him.
Eichhorn has noticed the above in his Introduction to the Old Testament
(iii. 250.).
An anonymous writer says that _dag_ means a fish-boat; and that the word
which is translated _whale_, should have been _preserver_; a criticism
inconsistent with itself, and void of authority.
The above four instances are the only hypotheses at variance with the
received text and interpretation worthy of notice: if indeed the case of
the shark can be deemed at all at variance, as the term [Greek: kêtos]
was used to designate many different fishes.
Jebb (_Sacred Literature_, p. 178.) says that the whale's stomach is not
a safe and practicable asylum; but--
"The throat is large, and provided with a bag or intestine so
considerable in size that whales frequently take into it _two_ of
their young, when weak, especially during a tempest. In this
vessel there are two vents, which serve for inspiration and
expiration; there, in all probability, Jonas was preserved."
John Hunter compares the whale's tongue to a feather bed; and says that
the baleen (whalebone) and tongue together fill up the whole space of
the jaws.
Josephus describes the fish of Jonah as a [Greek: kêtos], and fixes on
the Euxine for the locality as an _on dit_ ([Greek: ho logos]). The same
word in reference to the same event is used by Epiphanius, Cedrenus,
Zanarus, and Nicephorus.
The Arabic version has the word [Arabic] (_choono_), translated in
Walton's Polyglott _cetus_; but the word, according to Castell, means "a
tavern," or "merchants' office." This may have led to Herman de Hardt's
whim.
The Targum of Jonathan, and the Syriac of Jonah, have both the identical
word which was most probably used by our Lord, _Noono_, fish, the root
signifying _to be prolific_, for which fishes are eminently remarkable.
_Dag_, the Hebrew word, has the same original signification.
The word used by our Lord, in adverting to His descent to Hades, was
most probably that of the Syriac version, [Syriac](_noono_), which means
_fish_ in Chaldee and Arabic, as well as in Syriac; and corresponds to
the Hebrew word [Hebrew], (_dag_), _fish_, in Jonah i. 17., ii. 1., 10.
The Greek of Matthew xii. 40., instead of [Greek: ichthus], has [Greek:
kêtos], _a whale_. The Septuagint has the same word [Greek: kêtos] for
(1) _dag_ in Jonah, as well as for (2) _leviathan_ in Job iii. 8., and
for (3) _tanninim_ in Genesis i. 21. The error appears to be in the
Septuagint of Jonah, where the particular fish, _the whale_, is
mentioned instead of the general term _fish_. Possibly the disciples of
Christ knew that the fish was a [Greek: kêtos], and the habits of such
of them as were fishermen might have familiarised them with its
description or form. It is certain that the [Greek: kêtos] of Aristotle,
and _cetus_ of Pliny, was one of the genus _Cetacea_, without gills, but
with blow-holes communicating with the lungs. The disciples may also
have heard the mythological story of Hercules being three days in the
belly of the [Greek: kêtos], the word used by Æneas Gazæus, although
Lycophron describes the animal as a shark, [Greek: karcharos kuôn].
"[Greek: Triesperou leontos, hon pote gnathois
Tritônos êmalapse karcharos kuôn.]"
The remarkable event recorded of Jonah occurred just about 300 years
before Lycophron wrote; who, having doubtless heard the true story,
thought it right to attribute it to Hercules, to whom all other
marvellous feats of power, strength, and dexterity were appropriated by
the mythologists.