Uncle Fester & The Whale

This is another of my attempts at humorous but legitimate apologetics to spread the validity of the Bible but to do so in a unique or unusual manner. To quote Winona Rider's character Lydia from the movie Beetlejuice, "...people ignore the strange and unusual. I, myself, am strange and unusual." To add to this I have always found strange and unusual things interesting so oddities (like myself) have always held a strange fascination for me just by their nature. Quirky stories in particular. The unique stories in the Bible are no exception.

We all know the story of Jonah. Many chalk it up to allegory or myth. A highly spiritualized story about God's grace, patience and mercy and man's ability to ignore God or repent and run to him. So what of the story of a man being in the belly (stomach) of the beast? Hogwash? A vehicle to get a point across but absolutely unbelievable in the 21st century because we are "enlightened intellectuals" and products of the scientific age that could never subscribe to this child's bedtime story or fable. Even some Christians doubt the legitimacy of this story even after Jesus Himself draws reference from it when rebuking the Jewish leaders looking/asking for a sign.

"Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.” He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ~Matthew 12:38-40


Enter...the story of James Bartley and the whaling ship "Star of The East". The year is 1891 and men from the ship are in hot pursuit of a sperm whale in the South Atlantic. The Sperm Whale is the largest mammal on earth and largest supplier of lamp oil in the 19th century before the ubiquitous use of petrol products. They pursued the whale off the coast of the Falkland Islands in/near South America. After being harpooned the whale proceeds to submerge to evade further attack and tries to dislodge the harpoon. It resurfaces suddenly under one of the pursuing hunting boats tossing men into the air like rag dolls and scattering them in chaos and disarray. The harpoon having pierced vital organs does its deadly work and the whale eventually succumbs to its wounds a day later. Surfacing near the ship it was hoisted along side the whaler and cut into pieces for its oil and other resources.

When the whale is cut open and eviscerated the stomach gets laid upon the deck to examine its stomach and intestinal contents for scientific/hunting purposes by the ships doctor. Before slitting it open...the stomach moves in a nearly imperceptible manner. The good doctor opens the stomach and out rolls one James Bartley into a fetal heap. He is unconscious but very much alive. He is bleached white by the whales stomach acid and his hair had been burned/melted off is body. He is partially blinded. I am figuring he looked strangely akin to a blind Uncle Fester from the Addams Family. Total elapsed time in the whales stomach under the sea? 15+ hours. How far of a stretch would it be to implicate a miracle in the same type of situation and extent this from a Friday afternoon to a Sunday morning (i.e.: 3 days)?

James Bartley remembered being flung into the air and passing over the whales teeth before loosing his visual because of darkness (inside of whale). Due to insufficient (but not absence of) air he passed out. According to ship's manifest this was Bartley's first passage as a whaler and it should come as no surprise to find out that it would be...his last. In Gloucester England his grave site can still be visited. As an epitaph on his tombstone it reads "A Modern Jonah".