‘Was Jonah from the Bible swallowed by a Whale, a Big Fish or a Sea Monster? In the ancient world these categories overlapped. That’s why in Matthew 12:40 the Greek is translated as “sea monster” rather than whale.

Whales were not well understood in antiquity or in the Middle Ages and were often seen simply as great monsters

Ancient peoples had many sea monster myths such as Leviathan, Andromeda’s sea monster, and the ketos of Troy. Was Jonah one of these Sea Monster myths?’

by Dr Lachlan Davis – Academic Biblical studies from a scholarly perspective.

Secondary sources:

Much of the research for this video was based on: John K. Papadopoulos, Deborah Ruscillo, A Ketos in Early Athens: An Archaeology of Whales (2002)

On the claim that ancients believed the remains of Andromeda’s sea monster to have washed ashore see: Andromeda und Jona in Jafo by Martin Mulzer 2006

On the claim that ancient people had no accurate depictions of whales see: The Culture of Animals in Antiquity: A Sourcebook with Commentaries by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and Sian Lewis (2018)

For word definitions always check The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT)