Editorial March 2, 1974 Issue

Jonah's Message for Today

Naomi Price

A few years ago a South Korean sailor fell overboard from a freighter off the coast of Nicaragua. But he didn't drown. A great sea turtle was near, and the young man climbed on its back and clung on for fifteen hours until he was picked up by another freighter and taken safely ashore.

Remarkable? Certainly—but believable. This account was well verified before it was reported in the press, and most people could accept it as a true, though unusual, incident. Why, then, should it be thought impossible that Jonah should be saved by a great fish?

Many strange things happen, and perhaps there was some foundation to the story of Jonah and his astonishing rescue from the ocean as told in the Bible. However, scholars tell us that this Old Testament book was, in fact, an allegory, written to teach a missionary lesson to the people of Israel. The Israelite nation is its central figure, typified by the man called Jonah.

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