Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

第八十三章 Jonah Historically Regarded.

The chapter addresses the historical account of Jonah and the whale, a story previously referenced. While some Nantucket whalemen express skepticism about this biblical narrative, the text draws a parallel to ancient Greek and Roman skeptics who doubted similar stories about Hercules and Arion without diminishing the factual nature of those traditions.

Doubt of the Historical Jonah and Whale Narrative

The author acknowledges that skepticism toward traditional stories is not new. Ancient civilizations had their doubters who stood apart from orthodox believers, yet this doubting did not alter the factual status of those traditions.

First Objection to the Jonah Story and Bishop Jebb’s Rebuttal

An elderly whaleman from Sag-Harbor questions the biblical account partly because his old Bible contained illustrations depicting Jonah’s whale with two spouts—a feature only accurate for Right Whales, which have such small throats they could be choked by a penny roll. Bishop Jebb preemptively addresses this by suggesting Jonah was temporarily lodged in the whale’s mouth rather than in its belly, a plausible interpretation given that a Right Whale’s mouth could accommodate multiple people at whist tables.

Second Objection: Gastric Juices and Alternate Survival Explanations

The whaleman further objections to the biological implausibility of surviving inside a whale. Various continental commentators have proposed alternative explanations: that Jonah took refuge in a floating dead whale carcass (comparable to how French soldiers used dead horses as shelter), or that he escaped to a nearby vessel with a whale figurehead. Some learned exegetists have even suggested the “whale” was merely an inflated life-preserver.