How Did Jonah Survive?

Now we all know the story of Jonah, where, God tells him to go to Nineveh. Instead of doing so, he runs away only to be eaten by a big fish(many believe to be a whale), and three days later he is at Nineveh. So, how on Earth could he have survived three days in a whale?

In Jonah 2 we read, "And said, I(Jonah) cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell(Sheol) cried I, and thou heardest my voice," (Jonah 2:2 KJV). There are two possible interpretations of this verse, the first being he died and was crying out in Sheol; the second interpretation is he was describing the whale to be like Hell.

In verse seven we read, "When my soul fainted within me I(Jonah) remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple," (Jonah 2:7 KJV). "When my soul fainted within me..." could be a reference to his soul leaving his body when he died, but some have also thought this verse may simply mean he was under great stress.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the Apostle drives an interesting parallel. "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man(Jesus) be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth," (Matthew 12:40 KJV). As Jesus was dead in this verse, at least his flesh, some have assumed the same is possibly true with Jonah but in the end, we can not be entirely sure which stance is true. It is very well possible that God, in his omnipotence, provided air to Jonah or something of that nature.

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Image by Thomas Lipke