Contradiction: Was Jonah swallowed by a fish or a whale?

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♣Älmighty Ätheist♣

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Pray: Whales are mammals, and not fish. Please refer to any reference site for details on why.
Pray: Whales are mammals, and not fish. Please refer to any reference site for details on why.
Pray: Whales are mammals, and not fish. Please refer to any reference site for details on why.
Jonah 1:17- "Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."

Matthew 12:40- "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly."

So which was it: Whale or fish. If you're gonna tell a myth, at LEAST keep the plot straight!
Cheese: HOW MANY ACCOUNTS DO YOU HAVE?!
Pray: Whales are mammals, and not fish. Please refer to any reference site for details on why.
Boanerge: Using the King James.
 
When directed to go to Nineveh, Jonah showed a lack of appreciation for the confidence that Jehovah was placing in him. After a terrifying experience brought on by his own reluctance to obey, Jonah came to his senses, realized his mistake, accepted his foreign assignment, and warned the Ninevites of impending destruction. Then came the unexpected: Because of the Ninevites’ repentant attitude, Jehovah determined to forgo their destruction.—Jonah 1:1–3:10.
Jonah’s reaction? Disgruntled, he complained to God in prayer. The gist of his grievance was: ‘I imagined that things would turn out this way. That’s why I didn’t want to come to Nineveh in the first place. Now, after all I’ve gone through, including the terror and humiliation of being swallowed by a big fish, and after my hard work warning the Ninevites of imminent destruction, this! All my work and suffering were for nothing! I might as well be dead!’—Jonah 4:1-3.
At one point the prophet Jonah lost sight of that. Jehovah had assigned him to preach to the people of Nineveh. For some reason he felt that he could not handle that assignment. Perhaps because of the fierce reputation of the Assyrians, the thought of serving in Nineveh frightened Jonah. So he tried to drop out of sight. At the seaport of Joppa, he obtained passage on a ship bound for Tarshish (generally associated with Spain, over 2,200 miles [3,500Â*km] west of Nineveh). Nevertheless, Jehovah saw him board the ship and go to sleep down in the hold. God also knew where Jonah was when he was later thrown overboard, and Jehovah heard Jonah when he promised from within the belly of the big fish that he would pay his vows. Delivered back to dry land, Jonah was again given an opportunity to fulfill his assignment.—Jonah 1:3,Â*17; 2:1–3:4.
How much better it would have been for Jonah from the start to have relied on Jehovah’s spirit to help him fulfill his assignment! Later, though, Jonah did humbly record his experience, and that record has helped many since then to manifest the confidence in Jehovah that it seemed so difficult for Jonah to gain.—Romans 15:4.
 
The text says Jonah was swallowed by a great fish. The Greek text of Matthew reads literally "great sea creature". Virtually all modern translations render this as great fish. There is no contradiction.

peace
 
as a muslim The whale found Jonah floating on the waves before it. It swallowed Jonah into its furious stomach and shut its ivory teeth on him as if they were white bolts locking the door of his prison. The whale dived to the bottom of the sea, the sea that runs in the abyss of darkness.

Three layers of darkness enveloped him, one above the other; the darkness of the whale's stomach, the darkness of the bottom of the sea, the darkness of the night. Jonah imaged himself to be dead, but his senses became alert when he found he could move. He knew that he was alive and imprisoned in the midst of three layers of darkness. His heart was moved by remembering Allah. His tongue released soon after saying: La ilaha illa Anta (none has the right to be worshipped but You (O Allah), Glorified (and Exalted) be You (above all that evil they associate with You), Truly, I have been of the wrong doers." (Ch 21:87 Quran)

Jonah continued praying to Allah, repeating this invocation. Fishes, whales, seaweeds, and all the creatures that lived in the sea heard the voice of Jonah praying, heard the celebration of Allah's praises issuing from the whale's stomach. All these creatures gathered around the whale and began to celebrate the praises of Allah in their turn, each in its own way and in its own language.

The whale also participated in celebrating the praises of Allah and understood that it had swallowed a prophet. Therefore it felt afraid; however, it said to itself; "Why should I be afraid? Allah commanded me to swallow him."

Allah Almighty saw the sincere repentance of Jonah and heard his invocation in the whale's stomach. Allah commanded the whale to surface and eject Jonah onto an island. The whale obeyed and swam to the farthest side of the ocean. Allah commanded it to rise towards the warm, refreshing sun and the pleasant earth.

The whale ejected Jonah onto a remote island. His body was inflamed because of the acids inside the whale's stomach. He was ill, and when the sun rose, its ray burned his inflamed body so that he was on the verge of screaming for the pain. However, he endured the pain and continued to repeat his invocation to Allah.
 
It's the difference between translations, which none of us had a part in developing, so what does it matter? And,as an atheist, you certainly don't put any faith in the Bible, so why would you care whether it was a fish or a whale? If you really wanted to know for the sake of gaining accurate knowledge of God's Word, I would research this subject all night long, but, I don't see any proof of that. However, you have yourself a nice day!
 
You are correct in the thinking that whales are mammals and not a fish. But, whales are considered to be a 'fish' of the ocean. If you think about the account, is there a 'fish' big enough to swallow a full grown man? Is a whale big enough to swallow a full grown man? The latter seems more true.
This is not a contradiction. Just a difference in terms.
A star to help get some more answers.
 
In Matthew the original Greek word was: kh=tov

Definition: a sea monster, whale, huge fish

In Jonah the original Hebrew word was: gd

Definition: fish
 
fish Hebrew 1709 dag dawg
or (fully) dag (Nehemiah 13:16) {dawg}; from 'dagah' (1711); a fish (as prolific); or perhaps rather from 'da'ag' (1672) (as timid); but still better from 'da'ag' (1672) (in the sense of squirming, i.e. moving by the vibratory action of the tail); a fish (often used collectively):--fish.

Those of Nineveh worshipped" the fish god dagah".
 
At the time the Bible was written the thought all swimming creatures that lived in the water were fish. It was not discovered that whales were mammals till much later.
 
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