The history of Jonah is so much like numerous stories we find in heathen mythology that we are disposed to class it with them. Its absurdities are numerous, a few of which we will point out:—
1. It represents Jonah as claiming to be a Hebrew; but as it says nothing about the Jews or Hebrews, and treats entirely of the heathen or Gentiles, that is probably its source, and it was perhaps intended as a fable.
2. The ship he boarded, when making his escape, was a heathen vessel, which implies that he had some affinity for that class of people.
3. It seems very singular, that if Jonah did not believe Jehovah to be a mere local personal deity, rather than the Infinite and Omnipresent God, he should entertain the thought of running away from him or escaping from his presence by flight.
4. The heathen who had charge of the vessel were evidently possessed of more humanity and more mercy than either Jehovah or the leading men of Israel, who seem to have made it a point to kill nearly all the heathen they could lay their hands on; as did Abram, Moses, Joshua, &c. For it is stated, that after they had cast lots to find who was the cause of the storm which overtook the ship, and in this way discovered it was Jonah, they strove with all their might to get the vessel to the shore, rather than resort to the desperate expedient of throwing Jonah overboard. This bespeaks for these heathen a feeling of mercy and humanity.
5. We learn by the language these heathen used in their prayer to stop the storm, "We beseech thee, O Lord," &c., that they believed in one supreme God. Where, then, is the truth of the claim of the Jews that they alone believed in one God, or the unity of the Godhead? In this way their own Bible often proves this claim was false; that the nations they had intercourse with believed in one supreme and overruling God.
6. It is stated, that after Jonah was thrown overboard, and was swallowed by a fish, he prayed to the Lord. How was this discovered? Did he pray loud enough to be heard through the sides of the whale? or did the fish open its mouth for his accommodation?
7. As for the prayer, it appears to have been made up of scraps selected from the Psalms of David without much connection, or relevancy to the case.
8. It is stated that the Lord spake to the fish, and it vomited Jonah upon the dry land. It must have been a very singular fish to understand Hebrew or any human language.
9. In another respect the whale must have been a peculiar one, or of peculiar construction. The throat of an ordinary whale is about the diameter of a man's arm. It must therefore have been very much stretched to swallow Jonah, or Jonah must have been very much compressed and elongated.