h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is that supposed to be the whale that ate Jonah alive?

Whales don't have scales!

Anyway, Jonah is already wearing his flesh-coloured wetsuit. Doesn't the angel know how cold that sea is?

Since no version of the ancient story that I know actually says 'whale' - and since ancient people didn't really have a category for 'sea mammal' and tended to call anything in the water a fish, I have no doubt the artist felt justified in adding scales for effect.

Also, this is an early illustration based on the Koran version, which I don't know, so it's anybody's guess - and no, I don't know why it's illustrated, because I, too, thought no Islamic person would do that. There must be exceptions.

I do know that a 9th-century Persian poet claimed that God made the 'fish' transparent so Jonah could see out. Sort of like a glass-bottomed boat.

I was teaching an advanced Latin class once and they wanted to read the Vulgate, so I gave them Jonah. A student gleefully translated, 'Et dixit Dominus pisci, et evomuit Jonam in aridam.'

'And God spoke to the fish, and it barfed Jonah onto the dry land.'

He was absurdly pleased about this, I recall.

Oh, and how cold WAS the sea? It was the Mediterranean, after all.

I suppose the Dutch bible translators had a degree in biology and decided that Jonah could only have continued breathing for three days and three night in the inside of a whale.

Did that barfing sentence make the Vulgate vulgar?

I'm assuming the Dutch translation is 16th or 17th century, and I'll bet they'd seen a whale before?

The local church does Bible readings on Sunday - and since they're not part of a liturgical tradition they don't have prescribed ones. So they just pick a book and read through it week by week. This has its pitfalls, as you can imagine. So far, they've stuck to the New Testament, feeling on safer ground. This is not as safe as they think.

For the last few weeks the congregation has been on a sea voyage with the Apostle Paul. We are very far from the ocean here and I don't think anybody is as confused about the shipwreck as I am. This text makes the Mediterranean sound like...well, the North Sea. They've finally got to Malta.

Aha! Here's a baroque pulpit from Lower Silesia that is supposed to be about Jonah. NOTE that it has scales and a fish tail.

http://twitter.com/AnnaMTuckett/status/1702953714200269283

If I were a respected baroque woodworker I would add scales and lots of curly fins too...
None of that slick whaley stuff!

I hear you! More curlicues possible.