my old youth minister said jonah looked like a booger when he got spit out

Perhaps it was a metaphor.

The whale is a mammal, not a giant fish

Because he's made of solid gold. he might as well be, for all the sense the bible makes. and er, he had a 12 foot high cat called Barry. And his shoes had rockets on the bottom. And he liked a good Rogan Josh.

The Hebrew words translated as whale are actually "dag gadol" or "great fish". No distinction was made in the past between whales and fish (many people still don't distinguish these days!). Most people traditionally have considered that it was a whale, but there are other possibilities: including large groupers and the Whale Shark, both found in the Mediterranean, and both large enough to swallow a human. How could a human survive in the stomach of a sea creature? Some clues can be found in the biblical text itself: Jonah 2 contains the prayer of Jonah for his release. In it he says: "The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. " Wikipedia suggests that the weeds could very well have protected Jonah from the acid in the stomach of the fish. ====== (For a long time, there was a famous story of a man named james Bartley, who, in 1891, was supposedly swallowed by a whale off the coast of England, but this has been put in doubt by recent evidence, so I won't appeal to this one) =========== Here is something interesting from Christian answers http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t004.html JESUS CHRIST Most importantly, the Lord Jesus Christ accepted the account as true. He said that the people of Nineveh repented of their sins as a consequence of his preaching (Matthew 12:41). He even said: "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40). Thus Christ actually compared Jonah's experience to His own coming death and resurrection, pointing out the miraculous nature of both. One cannot deny the factuality of Jonah's experience, therefore, without charging the Lord Jesus Christ with either deception or ignorance, either of which is equivalent to denying His deity. A MIRACLE There is little question that the event was a miracle, but this fact certainly does not disprove it! The account, in fact, says as much: "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." -Jonah 1:17 (King James Version) Later it says: "And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." -Jonah 2:10 (King James Version) God was certainly able to accomplish this if He wished; to deny the possibility of miracles is atheism. The actual occurrence of this particular miracle is adequately attested by the very fact of its record in the Holy Scriptures, and is doubly confirmed by the testimony of Christ. Whole animals as large or larger than a man have been found in the stomachs of the sperm whale, the whale shark and the white shark. WHAT WAS THE "GREAT FISH"? The "great fish" may have been either a whale or a shark or even a fish specially prepared by the Lord for this purpose. (The Hebrew and Greek words that are used merely mean "a great aquatic animal.") Some species of whales and some species of sharks are quite capable of swallowing a man whole. Among these are the sperm whale, the white shark, and the whale shark, all of which have been found with whole animals as large or larger than a man in their stomachs. HOW DID JONAH SURVIVE? As to whether a man could survive "three days and three nights" under such conditions, there are three possible answers that could be suggested in defense of the Biblical narrative. NATURAL. In the first place, it has been well established that the phrase "three days and three nights" in ancient Hebrew usage was an idiomatic expression meaning simply "three days," and was applicable even if the beginning and ending days of the period were only partial days. Thus it could refer to a period as short as about 38 hours. There is always some air in the whale's stomach, and, as long as the animal it has swallowed is still alive, digestive activity will not begin. Thus, Jonah's experience could possibly have happened entirely with the framework of natural law. MIRACLE. It is much more likely, however, that the event involved a divine miracle, as the Scripture strongly implies. The "great fish" was prepared and sent by God, as was the intense storm that threatened the ship on which Jonah was traveling. The storm ceased as soon as Jonah was cast overboard (Jonah 1:4, 15). In like manner, it was quite probable that God preserved Jonah's life miraculously all through the horrifying experience. RESURRECTION. A third possibility is that Jonah actually suffocated and died in the great fish and then God later brought him back from the dead. There are at least eight other such "resurrections" recorded in the Bible, as well as the glorious bodily resurrection of Christ -- of which Jonah's experience in particular was said by Christ to be a prophetic sign. This is also implied by Jonah's prayer, when he said: "…out of the belly of hell (i.e. "sheol," the place of departed spirits) cried I, and thou heardest my voice" (Jonah 2:2). In any case, it was a mighty experience, evidently well known and certified in his day, probably contributing in significant degree to the fact that all people of Ninevah repented and turned to God (Jonah 3:5) when Jonah returned "from the dead," as it were, to preach to them. Even in Jesus' day, it was so well known that He could use it as a "sign" of His own impending death and resurrection, which were to constitute God's crowning proof of the deity of His Son and the great work of salvation which He would accomplish on the cross for all who would receive Him. "God now commands all people everywhere to repent: Because He has appointed a day, upon which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He has ordained; He has given assurance to all people of this, by having raised Him from the dead." -Acts 17:30, 31 (King James Version) =========== I hope this helps somewhat.

Because he had an Aunt Assid.

God protected him while he was in the belly of the whale. God taught Jonah a real big lesson. He wanted Jonah to go to Ninevah, and speak to the people about turning from their wicked ways; about giving up false gods and turning their hearts to God.

I don't think the bible is meant to be taken literally, or seriously for that matter.

Anything can happen in the world of Make Believe.

I think that if the Bible said that Jonah swallowed the whale, there would be those who would believe it!

That's the miracle!

the bible says great fish. as to how Jonah servived my answer is Jesus Christ kept him safe so that Jonah could fullfill his destiny.

He got bleached white by the acid... So in a way he was dissolved or perhaps damaged... Perhaps the whale stomach acid was too weak to digest him...

i dont no. mabee he got stuck in the lower throat were the whale couldnt choke. but still how did jonah survive without water?

The story of Jonah is an interesting one. Your main question is, "If jonah got swallowed by a whale(giant fish) for 3 days, how did he not get dissolved by the stomache acid?" First of all, we need to look at the Bible and see what it REALLY says! Jonah 1:17 reads, "Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah." This fish was "specially prepared" just to swollow Jonah. Therefore, it could do or not do anything the Lord had designed it specifically to do. There is no indication that after the whale "gave up" Jonah that he looked any differently than he did when he went in. Also, contrary to what one poster said as far as it not being a whale, I beg to differ. Jesus Himself called it a whale in Matthew 12:40 where it says, " For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

The story of Jonah may actually be a sort of allegory or symbolic story. There are some who would be outraged at that statement, but that's because they don't understand the nature of truth or what "literal" really means (hint: it doesn't mean simplistic misunderstanding of every text as an historical account). But even if the story was an actual event, I don't think it's anymore incredible that a man survived in the stomach of a large fish than it is that a storm came up and went away because a man was thrown overboard a ship, or that a fish came and swallowed a man in the first place, or that it vomitted him up on dry land eventually.

It's a FAIRY TALE. It's JUST PRETEND.

Tums.

Because, the bible says so. If the bible says so, it must be, I mean it wasn't written by man or anything, it was written by a perfectr, non-biast, all loving god.

Because it wasn't a story that was meant to be taken literally or as factual.

That's what makes the bible so fascinating it's a true story and a metaphor, in so many ways, all at the same time. The bible is full of quadruple, triple, double entendres, it all ties together beautifully. There are a million crossed references. No book on earth is like it. So If you believe in creation then making the mental leap to keeping a guy alive in a fish for a couple days in not that difficult, after all we are talking about God here. So with that said there are several possibilities that one can play around with: God basically just kept him alive, he actually died and was revived by God later, the fish/whale had gas and he was able to breath. The fish/whale had indigestion and God gave him an aunt assid (nice one). Either way we are talking about God...all is possible. The main take away is that it beautifully sets up several references, examples and metaphors for future stories. The bible is three dimensional when it comes to connections - God is really good at this stuff.

Because the first chamber of 3 chambers in a whales stomach does not contain stomach acids its a large empty living room size chamber used for "chewing" the food in preparation for the 2nd chamber which contains the acids of which are not immediately deadly.

its a myth