Swallowing Jonah

One of the Bible’s most popular books is also one of the most derided for any historical value.

Defending our faith Chris Sinkinson

The main events of Jonah remain well known in popular culture. Bruce Springsteen included ‘Swallowed Up (In the Belly of the Whale)’ on his 2012 Wrecking Ball album. In the recent Avengers movie Iron Man, Tony Stark, compares a monster he is about to face to Jonah’s sea creature. But despite its popularity the reasons to reject the book as anything more than a meaningful parable are numerous and almost taken for granted by some scholars.