Jonah (Hebrew: יוֹנָה Yona, literally “dove”; St. Greek: Ἰωνᾶς) is an Israeli prophet who lived in the 8th century B.C., coming from Gath-Hepher (Gat-Hefer), a city located in the territory of Zebulun in the Lower Galilee, between Nazareth and Capernaum.
According to the Bible, Jonah was sent by Yahweh to the capital of Assyria, Nineveh, to call its inhabitants to repent and stop the wickedness they had committed. Since Assyria was Israel’s enemy, Jonah was afraid of the task and boarded a ship heading in the opposite direction to Tarshish. Tarshish is probably the city of Tarsus (Tarsos) located in present-day Turkey.
Jonah 1:2-3
2 Arise and go to Ninive, the great city, and preach in it: For the wickedness thereof is come up before me.
3 And Jonas rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord, and he went down to Joppe, and found a ship going to Tharsis: and he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them to Tharsis from the face of the Lord,
On the way, a storm started, which Jonah blamed on himself, disobeying Yahweh’s command. Jonah ordered himself thrown overboard and the storm calmed down.
Jonah 1:4,11-12,15
4 But the Lord sent a great wind to the sea: and a great tempest was raised in the sea, and the ship was in danger to be broken.
11 And they said to him: What shall we do with thee, that the sea may be calm to us? for the sea flowed and swelled.
12 And he said to them: take me up, and cast me into the sea, and the sea shall be calm to you: for I know for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
15 And they took Jonas, and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging.
Jonah was swallowed by a large fish (or whale) and spent 3 days and nights in there.
Jonah 2:1,4,6
1 Now the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonas: and Jonas was in the belly of a fish for three days and three nights.
4 And thou hast cast me forth into the deep, in the heart of the sea, and a flood hast compassed me: all thy billows, and thy waves have passed over me.
6 The waters compassed me about even to the soul: the deep hath closed me round about, the sea hath covered my head.
After three days, the big fish spat out Jonah.
Jonah 2:11
11 And the Lord spoke to the fish: and it vomited out Jonas upon the dry land.
After this amazing adventure, Jonah went to Nineveh to fulfill his task…
Having in mind that many messages from “holy books”, including the Bible, contain real historical messages, twisted, modified, incorrectly interpreted by time, translators, copyists, interpreters and censorship, but the core of the message usually remains unchanged.
In the parable of Jonah and the whale, we can infer that Jonah was actually thrown into the sea but got inside an unidentified submerged object (USO), probably a submarine or a hybrid vehicle capable of flying in the air and floating underwater.
Due to fact that Jonah lived in the 8th century B.C., the technology at that time did not allow people of that time to construct such vehicles, so the big question for today is: was Jonah taken aboard a floating vehicle that belonged to another, more advanced civilization?