{"id":"01KG8AP6N6B96VRDYHBMWB2VBZ","cid":"bafkreibtn5l4fitl533ddk6pqruhankixz6ulkaqymkpdnjxfvfpg6gd44","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14326,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.771Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":14266,"text":"CHAPTER 83. Jonah Historically Regarded.\r\n\r\nReference was made to the historical story of Jonah and the whale in\r\nthe preceding chapter. Now some Nantucketers rather distrust this\r\nhistorical story of Jonah and the whale. But then there were some\r\nsceptical Greeks and Romans, who, standing out from the orthodox pagans\r\nof their times, equally doubted the story of Hercules and the whale,\r\nand Arion and the dolphin; and yet their doubting those traditions did\r\nnot make those traditions one whit the less facts, for all that.\r\n\r\nOne old Sag-Harbor whaleman’s chief reason for questioning the Hebrew\r\nstory was this:—He had one of those quaint old-fashioned Bibles,\r\nembellished with curious, unscientific plates; one of which represented\r\nJonah’s whale with two spouts in his head—a peculiarity only true with\r\nrespect to a species of the Leviathan (the Right Whale, and the\r\nvarieties of that order), concerning which the fishermen have this\r\nsaying, “A penny roll would choke him”; his swallow is so very small.\r\nBut, to this, Bishop Jebb’s anticipative answer is ready. It is not\r\nnecessary, hints the Bishop, that we consider Jonah as tombed in the\r\nwhale’s belly, but as temporarily lodged in some part of his mouth. And\r\nthis seems reasonable enough in the good Bishop. For truly, the Right\r\nWhale’s mouth would accommodate a couple of whist-tables, and\r\ncomfortably seat all the players. Possibly, too, Jonah might have\r\nensconced himself in a hollow tooth; but, on second thoughts, the Right\r\nWhale is toothless.\r\n\r\nAnother reason which Sag-Harbor (he went by that name) urged for his\r\nwant of faith in this matter of the prophet, was something obscurely in\r\nreference to his incarcerated body and the whale’s gastric juices. But\r\nthis objection likewise falls to the ground, because a German exegetist\r\nsupposes that Jonah must have taken refuge in the floating body of a\r\n_dead_ whale—even as the French soldiers in the Russian campaign turned\r\ntheir dead horses into tents, and crawled into them. Besides, it has\r\nbeen divined by other continental commentators, that when Jonah was\r\nthrown overboard from the Joppa ship, he straightway effected his\r\nescape to another vessel near by, some vessel with a whale for a\r\nfigure-head; and, I would add, possibly called “The Whale,” as some\r\ncraft are nowadays christened the “Shark,” the “Gull,” the “Eagle.” Nor\r\nhave there been wanting learned exegetists who have opined that the\r\nwhale mentioned in the book of Jonah merely meant a life-preserver—an\r\ninflated bag of wind—which the endangered prophet swam to, and so was\r\nsaved from a watery doom. Poor Sag-Harbor, therefore, seems worsted all\r\nround. But he had still another reason for his want of faith. It was\r\nthis, if I remember right: Jonah was swallowed by the whale in the\r\nMediterranean Sea, and after three days he was vomited up somewhere\r\nwithin three days’ journey of Nineveh, a city on the Tigris, very much\r\nmore than three days’ journey across from the nearest point of the\r\nMediterranean coast. How is that?\r\n\r\nBut was there no other way for the whale to land the prophet within\r\nthat short distance of Nineveh? Yes. He might have carried him round by\r\nthe way of the Cape of Good Hope. But not to speak of the passage\r\nthrough the whole length of the Mediterranean, and another passage up\r\nthe Persian Gulf and Red Sea, such a supposition would involve the\r\ncomplete circumnavigation of all Africa in three days, not to speak of\r\nthe Tigris waters, near the site of Nineveh, being too shallow for any\r\nwhale to swim in. Besides, this idea of Jonah’s weathering the Cape of\r\nGood Hope at so early a day would wrest the honor of the discovery of\r\nthat great headland from Bartholomew Diaz, its reputed discoverer, and\r\nso make modern history a liar.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AM93VTER138R3ZFJTZ4EH","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP6N6ZW751N4TC0N916VX","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:34.886Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:51.705Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}