A NEW THEORY OF JONAH.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVI, Issue 75, 1 April 1892, Page 2

A NEW THEORY OF JONAH.

I At a recent session in Philadelphia of the i Souiafcy for Biblioal Itaaaiuoh, Bay. Dr. H, 0. Trumbull read ft paper entitled ' Jonah in Nluevoh.' Dr. Trunibull raised a oonsideri able stir by propounding nn entirely now thaory aa to tho miraolo of Jonah's j)re3erya« tion in the belly of tho fl^h. Ha said that nono oj tho Old Testament miraolea were meraly an arbitrary displny o! tha power of God, but thoy wevo always aonaiatent and uecessaty, and generally mado use o£ natural means. On this ground tho Book of Jonah has been so severely attacked by Bible oritioa, beoaus'e there seemed no necessity of oreating ft fiah to preserve Jomvh'a life, and. the story of this whole iniraote had been classed by some among the fabulous inventioua, similar to those of the 1 Thouaaud and One Nights. 1 It was moreover, hard to believe that a oity of the magnitude of Nineveh could have been made to undergo a complete revolution from fchg ] sermon of an obaoiuro stranger. Dr Trunx-. \ bull oxplained tbe uiiraole as followa :— 'Tha ohief divinity of the people of Nineveh was Dagaa, the fish god, a being 1 represented na halt man and halt fish, and we know from tradition that the direction of the oity had once üßon under a man who was fabulously reported to have come out of the aea, being half man aud half fish, and that auoh be}ngß were anppoqed to come to the gifcy from time to time, o&rryiug on. tho work 01 their first predecessor. This explains the miraole of Jonah and the fish, aud it is supported by iho faofc that in lator times the original name of the fish god became ohanged so that it beara a, marked similarity to that (ft the Old Testament prophet."