Here are some stories I found while web surfing, some could be factual, you decide:
http://www.liberty.edu/wwwadmin/include ... yResults=1
"Numerous cases have been reported in more recent times of men who have survived the ordeal of being swallowed by a whale. The PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL REVIEW (Oct. 1927) tells of two incidents, one in 1758 and the other in 1771, in which a man was swallowed by a whale and vomited up shortly thereafter with only minor injuries."
http://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/nbi/629.html
Not Impossible
The next point that needs to be made is that there are creatures living in the sea which are capable of swallowing a human being whole. Sperm whales have been known to swallow unusually large objects, including a fifteen-foot long shark! (for documentation see Frank T. Bullen, Cruise of the Cachalot Round the World After Sperm Whales, London: Smith, 1898).
The whale shark, as well as the blue whale, also has the capacity of swallowing a man whole. Sperm whales and whale sharks are not unknown in that part of the world.
Furthermore, Jonah-like incidents have been known to occur. There have been at least two documented reports where men have been swallowed by large sea creatures and have lived through the experience.
One man, Marshall Jenkins, was swallowed alive by a sperm whale in 1771 and survived. Another incident concerns James Bartley. In 1891, Bartley was swallowed by a sperm whale that his whaling crew had harpooned. The whale slipped away, was found and killed a day or so later. Bartley was found alive, but unconscious, in the stomach of the whale. He was revived and in a few weeks regained his health (for documentation see Ambrose James Wilson, Princeton Theological Revue, October, 1928).
http://www.eagleflight.org/characters/jonah2.html
The Pressing Questions About the Whale
v. 17â€â€"But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights."
The most common question asked about this book is: "Could a whale swallow a man, and if it could, would a man survive?"
Although this question has been answered time and again, I think it's helpful to give as thorough a response as possible.
The Christian response. For someone who believes in God and the inspiration of the Scriptures, this whole issue of Jonah in a whale is no problem at all. God can easily toss the wind around to make a storm, and He can miraculously rescue someone from drowning via a whaleâ€â€it's obviously no problem for Him!
A more important consideration is, "What is the biggest miracle in this book?" The physical miracle of the whale is not nearly so wonderful as the 2) "moral" miracle of Nineveh's repentance, or the 3)"spiritual" miracle of the revelation of a divine character in the 4th chapter. It's obvious to believers that the moral and spiritual miracles should be our focus.
The critics, however, do not swallow this story, because they say it cannot happen. In answer to the critics, let me share a little research (i.e., six books and two videotapes on whales, and numerous other sources).
The types and behavior of whales.
Why would a whale be present? In some of my research, I found that whales follow ships for the garbage thrown overboard. What were the sailors doing in v. 5? 1:5â€â€"…they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship." The sailors could well have attracted a whale by throwing the cargo overboard.
Can a whale swallow a man whole? Yes and no. There are two types of whalesâ€â€the Odontocetes and the Mysticetes.
The first is represented by the blue whale, the largest, which is 100 feet long and weighs 150 tons. It cannot swallow a man because from its upper jaw hangs a series of hundreds of thin plates acting as a strainer. Thus the whale eats only small sea creatures, e.g., crustaceans.
The second type, the Mysticetes, is represented by the sperm whale. Its teeth are not for chewing, only for securing prey. It eats anything that moves, and its food is swallowed whole, e.g. fish, sea turtles, seals, penguins, squid, etc.
An example of this type of whale swallowing a man is found in "Journey to the Center of the Digestive System" (from Best, Worst and Most Unusual, by Bruce Felton and Mark Fowler).
Jonah had a tough enough life without several thousand years of detractors. They've been calling his book a fish story since the day it was written. But James Bartley became a believer in February 1891. He was a seaman on an English whaling ship, Star of the East. They were chasing a sperm whale near the Falkland Islands when the whale dove, hit one of the whale boats with its tail, and upset it. One man drowned and another, Bartley, was missing and assumed dead. The whale was killed and dragged to the ship, where the process of stripping off its oily flesh began.
The morning after, they were still at it. Lifting tack was attached to the whale's stomach, by then exposed, and it was hoisted up onto the deck for cutting. A slight, spasmodic movement from within startled the sailors. They thought there might be a large fish inside: cases of 12 and 16 ft. sharks swallowed whole are on record.
But on slitting open the gigantic jaw, they found Bartley, doubled up, drenched and in a coma, but still alive. Doused with sea water, he began to come around. But his mind wasn't clear, and he was taken to the captain's cabin and kept there under lock and key for two weeks. He was a half-human, gibbering lunatic.
By the end of the third week he had recovered his senses and gone back to work. The acidic gastric juices of the whale had bleached his face, neck, and hands to a dead white, with the look and feel of old parchment. He could clearly remember the ordeal: the sensation of being thrown into the water, followed quickly by a rushing sound and then, "a great darkness." He felt himself slipping along a smooth passage that seemed in motion itself, carrying him with it. Then a short time later, he realized he had more room. He felt around in the blackness for the walls of his prison, and found them thickly slimy and soft.
When he realized where he was, he was overcome with fear. There was a terrific, oppressive heat inside the stomach (a whale's body temperature is 104º F). He had no difficulty finding air to breathe, but fought a terrifying, absolute silence. Eventually he passed out and woke up in the captain's cabin. On last report, he was "in splendid spirits and enjoying life."
The story was confirmed in separate, detailed accounts by the ship's captain and one of her officers. Later investigators were convinced of their veracity. It stands as one of the strangest stories on record, and a convincing suggestion that Jonah's tale was more than a fish story. (This story is also quoted in Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. 72 (1915); Neue Lutheranische Kirchenzeitung (1895); A.J. Wilson, Princeton Theological Review, vol. 25 (1927).
In addition to this source, one commentary states: "Several reliable accounts exist of people's survival at sea after being swallowed by whales. These natural survivals, due to the body's remarkable ability to live on small amounts of oxygen (though normally unconsciously) in cold water, (is) something medically well established. Also a factor is a whale's frequent surfacing for air. Jonah's rescue was by divine arrangement, however, and thus supernatural in considerable measure"â€â€New Bible Commentary, editor G.J. Wenham, I.V.P., 1994, p. 818.
In the Daily Mail of Dec. 14, 1928, Mr. G. H. Henn, a resident of Birmingham, England, gave the following testimony: "My own experience was in Birmingham about 25 years ago, when the carcass of a whale was displayed for a week on vacant land Navigation Street, outside New Street Station. I was one of 12 men who went into its mouth, passed through its throat, and moved about in what was equivalent to a fair-sized room. Its throat was large enough to serve as a door. Obviously it would be quite easy for a whale of this kind to swallow a man."
In Sir Francis Fox's book, 63 Years of Engineering, the manager of a whaling station informs us that the sperm whale swallows lumps of food 8 feet in diameter, and in one of those whales they actually found the skeleton of a shark 16 feet in length.
http://www.angelfire.com/mi/dinosaurs/jonah.html
How big do these whales get? In 1933 a sulfur bottom whale was caught off the coast of cape cod it was 100 ft long and had a mouth over 10 foot wide. A man who was unfortunate enough to be swallowed could take refuge in any one of the whales stomach chambers, or the large cranial cavities (extensions of the nasal sinus) which measure 7 feet high, 7ft wide and 14 ft long. More than big enough for a man to hide safely inside.
Cute joke:
Little Sally was transferred from Christian school to public school. On her first day in the class the teacher introduced herself as "Mrs. Crump" and then said, "Today we're going to study in Zoology and the first subject in Zoology we're going to study will be whales.
Does anyone know anything about whales?" No-one raised their hand. Then Sally raised her hand. Mrs. Crump said, "What do you know about whales Sally?" Sally said, "Jonah was swallowed by a whale!" Mrs. Crump said, "That's nonsense! The throat of the whale is too narrow to swallow a man! Where did you get that foolish supposition?" Sally said, "That's what my Bible says!" Mrs. Crump said, "Your Bible is wrong!
As I said, a whale's throat is too narrow to swallow a man. What do you think now?" Sally thought for a minute and then said, "I guess I'll have to wait until I get to heaven and ask Jonah himself what happened." Mrs. Crump thought she'd be smart and asked Sally, "What happens if Jonah isn't there to ask?" Again Sally thought for a minute and then said, "Then I guess YOU will have to ask him."
I like the joke best. :-D
