Your ShelfYour Projects

Signs of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 16.

JESUS AND THE PHARISEES

Signs of the Times

Apr 25, 1878

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Apr 25, 1878

JESUS AND THE PHARISEES.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
HOPING to entrap him in his words, the chief priests and rulers sent the most malicious enemies of Jesus to him, who pretended to be interested in his teachings and desiring to be profited by his divine wisdom. They expected Jesus would be deceived by their pious pretensions, thrown off his guard and led to speak that which they could take advantage of to condemn him. They were mortified and angry that they had been compelled to endure the penetrating address of Jesus, laying bare their true condition and condemning their wickedness; yet were utterly unable to refute his words.
They privately arranged with the Herodians to accompany them and hear the words of Jesus, that they might be witnesses against him when he should be arraigned on trial for his life. The Pharisees had ever fretted and chafed under the exaction of taxes or tribute by the Romans. They took the position that it was contrary to the law of God. They now laid a snare by which they thought Jesus would surely become entangled and offend either the Jewish laws or the Roman authority. The spies came to him in a most courteous manner and expressed great confidence in his teachings. After plying him with flattery as to his straight forward course, irrespective of the favor or frowns of men, they, with an assumed candor, asked as if for information, "Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not?"
But their wicked device was plain to the Saviour, and turning upon them he answered them, "Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute money." Thrown off their guard by the unexpected manner in which Jesus met their advances, and which plainly showed that he was not deceived for a moment by their specious flattery, his questioners immediately brought a coin bearing the image and superscription of the Roman ruler. "And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Cæsar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's."
The wily spies felt themselves baffled and defeated. The summary way in which their question had been settled left nothing farther for them to say. Their plans were all disarranged. They had expected Jesus to answer their question directly in one way or the other. If he should say, It is unlawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, there were those present whose task it was to immediately bear the report to the Roman authorities, and have Jesus arrested at once as one who was creating rebellion among the Jews. This they hoped would insure his condemnation. But in case he should say, It is lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, they designed to call the attention of the Jewish people to his decision, and accuse him as one opposed to the divine law.
Jesus read their motives, and, holding in his hand the Roman coin, upon which was stamped the name and image of Cæsar, declared that, as they were living under the protection of the Roman power, they should render to that power the support it claimed, so long as it did not conflict with their duty to God. But that they should at all times render obedience to God, answering his claims, yet peaceably subject to the laws of the land. His interrogators, unprepared for this response of Jesus, "marveled and left him, and went their way." Although the wrath of the priests and rulers knew no bounds, and they longed to seize Jesus and slay him with their own hands to avenge themselves for the mortification he had caused them, yet they dared not attack him before the crowd. With a masterly effort they maintained a fair exterior while they went about laying plans to destroy him.
The Saviour knew just what answer would meet the exigencies of the case. He gave no advantage to either the Roman or Jewish power. His answer to the intriguing Jews, "Render unto God the things which are God's," was a severe rebuke to them. Had they answered the claims of God and faithfully fulfilled their obligations to him, they would not have become a broken nation, subject to a foreign power. No Roman ensign would have waved over Jerusalem, no Roman sentinel would have stood at her gates, no Roman governor ruled within her walls. The Jewish nation was then paying the penalty of its apostasy from God.
But no sooner were the Pharisees silenced than the Sadducees came with their artful questions, seeking to entrap the Saviour. The Sadducees were a sect of the Jews that differed materially in faith from the Pharisees. The only bond of union between the two seemed their mutual opposition to the Saviour and his teachings, and their desire to put him to death. The Pharisees placed their traditions on a level with the law of God, and frequently made them take the place of the law. Jesus had declared that they made void the law of God by their traditions, external ceremonies, diverse washings, fastings and long prayers, ostentatious alms giving and rigorous seclusion from the Gentiles. These constituted the main features of their religion. In superstition and formality they resembled the Roman Catholic church of the present time. But among them were some of genuine piety who received the teachings of Christ.
The Sadducees had no respect for the traditions of the Pharisees. They professedly believed the greater portion of the Scriptures and regarded them as their rule of action; yet they denied the existence of angels, and also the resurrection of the body, in which the Pharisees firmly believed. The Sadducees rejected the doctrine of a future life, with its rewards and punishments.
They believed in God as the only being superior to man; but they claimed that, having created man, God left him to pursue his own course. They argued that an over ruling Providence sustaining the machinery of the universe, and a foreknowledge of events would deprive man of free moral agency, and lower him to the position of a slave. They therefore disconnected the Creator from the creature, maintaining that man was independent of a higher influence; that his destiny was in his own hands. Denying as they did that the Spirit of God worked through human efforts, or natural means, they still held that man, through the proper employment of his own natural powers, could become elevated and enlightened, and that his life could be purified by rigorous and austere exactions.
There was but little union among them; a people who refused to acknowledge the influence of the Spirit of God upon the actions of men, would have but little respect for the opinions and feelings of one another. They lived for themselves; their natural sympathies were brought within a narrow compass; their hearts were not touched by the sorrow and want of others; for in their belief it was possible for all to secure the comforts and blessings of life.
In common with the rest of the Jews, the Sadducees boasted much upon their birthright as children of Abraham after the flesh, and upon the strictness with which they observed the outward requirements of the law; but their views were inconsistent and heterogeneous. They entirely rejected the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and reasoned that if the same particles of matter which constituted the mortal body must also compose the future immortal being, then that body must have flesh and blood, and resume in the eternal world the carnal life interrupted on earth, all the frailties and passions of this life being perpetuated in the life beyond.
In the days of Christ the Sadducees loved controversy, and vehemently urged their objections to the resurrection of the dead. In their discussions with the Pharisees, the latter became confused in their faith concerning the future state of the dead. Death became to them a dark and unexplainable mystery. They learned to look upon it as the most dreaded calamity which could come upon man.
But life and immortality were brought to light through Jesus Christ. Those who accepted as the world's Redeemer saw more clearly than before the future life of the resurrected dead. Christ passing through death, coming forth from the grave, and appearing again to man in his own person, and as such ascending to his Father, forever settles the sacred facts of the resurrection and the future immortal life of the just, in the minds of all who believe in Christ.
The Sadducees were very annoying to the Pharisees, because the latter could not prevail over in argument. The discussions between the two parties usually resulted in angry disputation, and left them further apart than before. But many of the Sadducees, living only for this life, were wealthy and influential; they were therefore eligible to the office of high priest with the express stipulation that their infidel views should not be made prominent. As the Pharisees were far more numerous, the Sadducees were to concede to their doctrines outwardly when holding any priestly office. But the very fact of their being eligible to such office gave influence to their erratic views. Had the Pharisees been pure in life they might have been able to enlighten the Sadducees; but as it was they had little influence over them.
The teachings of Jesus were utterly refused by the Sadducees, as he was animated by a spirit which they refused to acknowledge as manifesting itself thus. They conceived of God as a Supreme Being, exalted above man, and unapproachable by him. Having created man, he left him to control his own life, and shape the events of the world. The doctrine of Christ directly opposed the belief of the Sadducees. The words and works of Christ testified to a divine power which accomplishes miraculous results, of a future, eternal life exalted above the finite life, of God as a Father to the children of men, watchful of their true interests, and guarding them. He taught that God was a rewarder of the righteous, and a punisher of the transgressor. He was not an intangible spirit, but a living ruler of the universe. This gracious Father was constantly working for the good of man, and mindful of all that concerns him. The very hairs of his head are numbered. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the notice of the heavenly Father, and man is more valuable than many sparrows. Jesus presented before them their ignorance of the Scriptures in assigning to human power that which could be wrought only through the power of the Spirit of God. He declared that their confusion of faith and darkness of mind resulted mainly from this cause, and that spiritual things must be spiritually discerned.
All that blessed the life of man was given by his heavenly Father. He gave the bright sunshine to warm the earth. He sent the showers which caused vegetation to flourish. Angels of God were continually ministering to the children of men, keeping up the connection between heaven and earth, uniting finite man with the infinite God. Yet, while God had a care over the temporal interests of man, Jesus expressly taught that he had much greater care for his eternal interests.
The Sadducees had arranged their questions so that they felt confident of bringing Jesus into disrepute by answering them, if they were not the direct means of condemning him. Should he agree with them in regard to the resurrection of the dead, he would be entirely cut off from any fellowship with the Pharisees. Should he differ from them, they designed to present his faith to the people in a ridiculous light, and turn their influence against him by showing the apparent absurdity of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. They were accustomed to dispute upon this point, and their arguments were greatly dreaded by those who believed in the literal resurrection of the identical body which had moldered away in the grave.
The Sadducees reasoned that if the dead were raised with bodies formed of the same particles of matter of which they had formerly been composed, and were actuated by the same propensities, then the relationships of the earthly life would be resumed, husband and wife would be united, marriage would be consummated, and all the affairs of life would go on the same as before death. From this belief they shrank with repugnance, and, in their efforts to grasp a higher ideal, groped in thick darkness.
But, in answer to their questions on this point, Jesus lifted the veil from the future life and said to them, "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." He unhesitatingly showed that the Sadducees were wrong in their belief. He proved their premises to be false and the structure of their faith to be built upon a false foundation. "Ye do err," said he, "not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." He did not charge them with hypocrisy as he had the Pharisees, but with error of belief.
The Sadducees had flattered themselves that, of all men living, they were strictly adherent to the Scriptures; but Jesus declared that they had not known their true interpretation. That knowledge must be brought home to the heart by the enlightening power of the grace of God. The Sadducees were seeking to bring the mysteries of God to a level with their finite reasoning instead of opening their minds to the reception of those sacred truths by which their understanding would have been expanded. Thousands become infidels because their finite minds cannot fathom the hidden mysteries of God. They cannot explain the wonderful exhibition of divine power, as manifested in the providences of God, and they therefore reject the evidences of such power, and attribute all to some natural agency which they can comprehend still less. Man should accept God as the Creator of the universe, One who commands and executes all things. He should get broad views of the character of God and the mysteries of his agencies.
Christ would teach his questioners that if there be no resurrection of the dead, the Scriptures which they profess to believe would be of no avail. Said he, "But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." The precious dead, from Abel down to the last saint who dies, will hear the voice of the Son of God, and will come forth from their graves and live again. God will be their God and they shall be his people. There will be a close and tender relationship between God and his resurrected saints. This is in accordance with the divine plan.
The dignity and power with which Jesus opened the darkened minds of his hearers the truths of the Scriptures concerning the resurrection of the dead, and the divine power exercised in the temporal affairs of life, astonished his audience and put the Sadducees to silence. They had not a word to answer him. "But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together." They thought it would not do for Jesus to take the field of contest in so victorious a manner. In the dispute with the Sadducees they had prevailed nothing against him, but were themselves put to confusion, and their ignorance made manifest by the wisdom of his answers. Not a word had been spoken which the least advantage could be taken to use in the condemnation of Jesus. His adversaries had gained nothing but the contempt of the people.
But the Pharisees did not yet despair of driving him to speak that which they could use against him. They prevailed upon a certain learned scribe to question Jesus, as to which of the ten precepts was of the greatest importance.
The Pharisees had exalted the first four commandments, which point out the duty of man to his Maker, as of far greater importance than the other six, which point out the duty of man to his fellow-man. In consequence they greatly failed of practical godliness, and in the relations and duties of life. Jesus had been charged with exalting the last six commandments above the first four, because he showed the people their great deficiency, and taught the necessity of good works, deeds of mercy and benevolence, and that a tree is known by its fruits.
The learned lawyer approached Jesus with a direct question: "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" The answer of Jesus is as direct and forcible: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
He here explicitly shows the questioner the two great principles of the law: Love to God and love to man. Upon these two principles of God's moral government hang all the law and the prophets. The first four commandments indicate the duty of man to his Creator; and the first and great commandment is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. This is not a passion, nor a fruitless faith in the existence and power of God, a cold acknowledgment of his boundless love; but it is a living, active principle, manifested in willing obedience of all his requirements.
Jesus taught his hearers that not one of the precepts of Jehovah could be broken without violating one or both of the great principles upon which rested the whole law and the prophets: Love to God and love to man. Every precept is so connected with the others in meaning and obligation that in breaking one, the whole is broken; for they are all united in one symmetrical body. It is impossible for man to love God with all his heart and yet to have other gods before the Lord. This supreme love to God does not consist in a mere acknowledgment of his universal power, and the offering of a prescribed form of worship to him, while the heart finds delight in serving idols. Self-love, love of the world, or an undue affection for any created thing, is idolatry in the sight of God, and separates the affections from him. God requires the heart's best and holiest affections, and he will accept nothing less. He must reign supreme in the mind and heart.
If the first commandments are loyally observed, the other six, which define the duty of man to his fellow-man, will be as faithfully observed. When God has his rightful place on the throne of the heart the duties assigned in the last six commandments will be performed as there directed. Love to God comprehends love for those who are formed in his own image. "If a man says, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen?" Thus Christ taught that the last six commandments are like unto the first. The two commandments which he indicated are two great principles springing from one root. The first cannot be kept and the second broken, nor the second kept while the first is broken.
The scribe was well read in the law, and he was astonished at the answer of Jesus; for he had not expected to find him possessed of so deep and thorough a knowledge of the Scriptures as was indicated by his answer. The learned lawyer was much impressed by the wisdom of the youthful Galilean; and before the assembled priests and rulers he honestly acknowledged that Jesus had given the right interpretation of the law. This scribe had received a deeper and broader view of the principles underlying the sacred precepts than he had ever before possessed, and he responded to the words of Jesus with unfeigned earnestness:—
"Well, Master, thou hast said the truth; for there is one God; and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." Here was a Pharisee who had some idea of what constitutes true religion; that it is not in outward ceremonies and vain display, but in humble obedience and love to God, and unselfish regard for others. The readiness of the scribe to acknowledge the reasoning of Jesus as correct, the decided and prompt response to that reasoning which he made before the people, manifested an entirely different spirit from that shown by the priests and rulers in their questioning.
The wisdom of the Saviour's answers convicted the scribe. He knew that the Jewish religion consisted more in outward acts than inward piety. He had some sense of the unworthiness of merely ceremonial offerings, and the continual flowing of blood in expiation of sin, while the object of the offering was foreign from the mind. The principles of love and true goodness of heart appeared to him of more value in the sight of God than all these rites. The heart of Jesus went out in pity to the honest scribe who dared to face the frowns of the priests and threats of the his heart. "And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question."
What the scribe needed was the touch of divine enlightenment which would enable him to feel the need of repentance for sin and faith in the Saviour; that no man can be saved through the law but through repentance and faith toward Christ, the sinner's Advocate with the Father. The scribe was near to the kingdom of God, in that he recognized deeds of righteousness to be more acceptable to God than burnt offerings and sacrifices. Yet he still needed to acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God. All the religious service of the Jews was of no value whatever unless connected with living faith in Christ Jesus, who was the substance of which that service was the shadow. Christ had repeatedly shown that his Father's law contained something deeper than mere authoritative commands. The moral law contains the gospel in principle.
The Pharisees had gathered close about Jesus as he answered the questions of the scribe. He now turned to them and put them a question: "What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?" Jesus was evidently testing the faith of the Pharisees in his divinity, whether they regarded him simply as a man, or the divine Son of God. A chorus of voices answered simultaneously, "The son of David." This was the title which prophecy had given the Messiah. When Jesus had revealed his divinity by his mighty miracles, when the sick were healed and the dead restored to life, the people had marveled and inquired among themselves, "Is not this the son of David?" The Syrophenician woman, blind Bartimeus, and many others had cried aloud to him for help, "Thou son of David have mercy on me!" Only a few hours before, while riding into Jerusalem, he had been hailed with joyful "Hosannas to the son of David."
In reply to the answer of the people, that Christ was the son of David, Jesus says: "David in Spirit [the Spirit of inspiration from God], called him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David then called him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions."

"I Am the Light of the World."

DARKENED soul, Christ is not dead! "I am living light," he said; Whoso cometh unto me, Blind with sin shall learn to see. Even now he passeth by— Hasten to him with your cry, Beg him lay his hand on you, Take away your blindness too; He will not your cry disdain, Never sufferer plead in vain; He will take your trembling hand, Lead you softly through the land, Talking kindly on the road, Till you reach the light of God; Then the scales of sin shall fall, And Christ shall be your all in all.
Christian! you who walk in light, Joying in your heaven-given sight, Have you not some blinded friend, Whom no earthly power can mend? Take him by the hand of prayer, Lead him often with you there, Ask the Lord to clear his sight, Take his hand and give him light. When you seek the Father's throne Come not thither all alone While such numbers blinded go Through this life to darker woe; Ever with you lead some one Who knows not the way alone, Thus more souls shall walk in light, And ye shall shine than stars more bright.

Antinomian Self-Violation.

By R. F. Cottrell

It has been truly said that no virgin ever voluntarily became a prostitute, without a sense of violating her own feelings. So we may safely say that no person ever took the broad position that the ten commandments have been abolished, without violating his own reason, and blinding by sophistry his natural sense and conscientious convictions.
Such a position is never taken at once; but by a gradual process. Step after step in the downward direction changes the virtuous woman to the unblushing prostitute; and so by degrees the person who once had some reverence for God, comes to the bold position that the code which embodies the eternal principles of his government has been abolished. And it is safe to say that but for the conflicting claims of the two days to the title of the Lord's day, or Sabbath, no Christian would ever have come to the position that the whole code of ten commandments has been done away.
In the first place, men find themselves observing the first day of the week as the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. But when compelled to give up this position, from the stern fact that the commandment requires the observance of the seventh, and not the first, day of the week, instead of yielding to the plain truth as clearly expressed, they take the position that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment was a Jewish institution and has been abolished. But how to get this one commandment out of the very midst of the moral law is the next question, and finding no means of doing it, but by the destruction of the whole code with which it stands connected, the step is taken to declare the whole law, "written and engraven on stone," abolished.
A slight step further in this direction would abolish the whole Bible; for when you have taken out of it the only moral code it contains—the sum of every moral principle—there is nothing left worth retaining; the righteous principles of God's government are gone, and in effect, the God of the Bible is abolished.
The ten commandments, leaving out the present Sabbath precept, commend themselves to every unperverted mind and conscience, as a rule of right, to regulate our conduct toward God and men. Their righteousness is self-evident; and consequently the presumptive evidence is all in favor of their perpetuity. That mind is certainly perverted that can consent to the abolition of these righteous rules. Enlightened conscience must be violated, whenever the thought of its discontinuance is entertained. No man believes that God has abolished these holy principles. The idea is revolting to every pure and candid mind. How is it then that Christians have come, and are coming, to hold that this law of God has passed away? The only reason that can be given is that the precept enjoining the observance of the seventh day, the day on which God rested from the work of creation, is in the midst of this law; and all attempts to get rid of it having failed and must fail, unless the whole can be set aside.
But how came the Sabbath law to occupy this position in the decalogue? God placed it there with his own finger. But it is claimed that it is a ceremonial law, an ordinance of the Jewish church; or by others, of large discriminating powers, that it is partly moral and partly ceremonial. In either case it should be ousted, as being out of place. The primary law of God should be purely moral. God surely had a reason for placing the Sabbath precept in the midst of it. Only one reason can be assigned by any man; and that it is of the same nature and obligation as the other precepts of the same law. Let any one who doubts this assertion give another reason.
Every unperverted, unabused mind will acknowledge that there is no reason why God should write the Sabbath in the midst of these moral precepts, but that it is of the same nature of them, and consequently must be of equal obligation and continuance. That man would be pronounced a fool, who would put a decaying stick of timber into a costly and permanent building, one that he knew must be removed in a few years. Will a man charge God with folly? The presumptive evidence is that the Sabbath was placed by the finger of God in the decalogue, because it was of the same nature, obligation, and perpetuity with the rest of the precepts of that confessedly moral and perpetual law. Therefore the conclusion is inevitable that the reason and conscience must be violated, in order to accept of such conclusions.
Sin, the transgression of this law of the Most High, hardens the heart, perverts the judgment, and smothers the conscience, by degrees, till one becomes so blinded and seared, that the thoughts and words that would have been shocking to the moral sense at first, are indulged with the utmost complacency. By the violation of ones reason and moral sense, a person soon becomes so callous that the most flagrant crimes and boldest blasphemy seem but a very small thing. And this is the tendency of the doctrine that the ten commandments have been abolished. May the Lord save the reader from abusing the moral sense and reason that God has given, and, in consequence be given over to hardness of heart and a reprobate mind. Those who will honestly try their motives, and yield to the convictions of enlightened conscience, may be saved from such a fate. R. F. COTTRELL.

Jonah's Whale.

SKEPTICS are often troubled about what kind of a fish it was that swallowed Jonah. They say the account in the Bible cannot be true, for a whale's throat is too small to admit a human body. That may be true, and the Bible correct after all. One of the definitions of the words keetos (translated whale, in Matt. 12:40) is "a large fish." The Emphatic Diaglott renders it a "great fish," which agrees with the Old Testament in Jonah 1:17; 2:1. Jonah was swallowed by a fish. Are there fish large enough to swallow an entire human body? Let those who have made the subject a study, answer:--
"The white shark is seldom seen on our coast, but is abundant in the Mediterranean [where Jonah went on his voyage], and is found in great numbers in tropical climates. It is often thirty feet in length, and swims with great swiftness." Cuvier says:--
"The French name of this terrible animal is Requin, or Requiem, 'the rest or stillness of death,' in allusion to the deadly character of its habits; and when we consider its enormous size and powers, the strength and number of its teeth, the rapidity of its movements, its frequent appearance during all the turmoil and horrors of a tempest, with death and destruction apparently in every blast and every wave, we must admit the propriety of a name expressive of the natural association of ideas which connects this cruel monster of the deep with death."
"It is a well authenticated fact that some of these monsters, at a single bite, have cut a man in two; and an entire human body is said to have been found, on one occasion, in the stomach of one of them." Willson's Fifth Reader, pp. 26, 262.
So, then, there are great fish in the sea, and of sufficient size to swallow a man entire. And when the mariners cast Jonah forth into the sea it might have been one of these great monsters of the deep that swallowed the disobedient prophet, who upon repentance was safely brought to land. B. S.
THE above was placed in my hands with the request to examine it. I do not see any necessity for departing from the words of the text in Matthew that "Jonah was in the whale's belly," because it depends only on what kind of whale you are speaking, whether its throat is large enough to swallow a man or not. By examining Chambers' Encyclopedia, Vol's ii and x, we find there are two kinds of whales, the bone whale proper, inhabiting the northern seas, and the sperm whale of the southern seas. While the northern whale has a small throat, the sperm whale has a very large throat.
Of the Greenland, or bone whale, Chambers says, "The gullet of whales is very narrow; it is said not to be more than an inch and a half in diameter even in a large whale, so that only very small animals can pass through it." Vol. x, page 151, Article whale.
Of the Cachalot, or sperm whale, Chambers says, "It may almost be said to inhabit all seas, although it is most abundant in those of the southern hemisphere. It is not of frequent occurrence on the European shores, although it sometimes enters the Mediterranean, and is occasionally stranded on the coasts of Britain ... The Cachalot sometimes reaches the length of seventy or eighty feet. The head is enormously large forming about one-half of the entire bulk of the animal, and occupying more than one-third of the entire length . . . The mouth is very large and wide; and the throat, unlike that of the Greenland whale, is very wide, sufficiently so to admit the body of a man." Vol. ii, pp. 480, 450. Article Cachalot or Sperm whale.
While in the case of the white shark which is a native of the Mediterranean sea, there was no "preparation" to be made, as it was in its own home with its massive throat all ready to swallow a man, in the case of this sperm whale the preparation would be the causing of one to wander into the Mediterranean, and be at the point in time to take up Jonah. J. N. L.
Continue reading: LIFE SKETCHES