JONAH said he was a Hebrew, and told them his story. As he did, their terror grew. Who was this god, they wondered, that even wind and sea obeyed him?* They tossed their cargo overboard and tried to row to land, but the tempest rose higher, so most reluctantly they gave in to Jonah’s pleas and threw him into the sea too. The storm ceased immediately. And while the crew were offering up sacrifices to the god whose arm reaches even to the sea, a great fish came and snapped Jonah up.
Jonah spent three days and nights inside that great fish, praying fervently not for an end but for a new beginning. Those who think only of their own reputation, he said ruefully, forfeit any right to mercy; but he would fulfil his vow as a prophet. That same instant, the fish spat him out onto dry land, and Jonah, much chastened, set out for Nineveh to warn the people of that wicked city that destruction awaited them in forty days’ time.*
See Mark 4:41, where Jesus is caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee. In Jonah’s case, the storm was designed to force him back to land so he could complete his mission to Nineveh; it ceased when the wrongdoer was cast into the sea. In Jesus’s case, it ceased when he spoke a word of command. The Apostles, no doubt familiar with Psalm 107:23-31, begin to suspect that Jesus is something more than a prophet — but just how much more?
The story continues with Jonah and the Gourd.