And while any whale swallowing highlights our helplessness in the face of the power of nature and God, perhaps the real takeaway comes from the difference between Jonah and Simancas’ reactions.

You might recall, Jonah and the Whale is a biblical tale of a prophet, Jonah, who disobeys God's command to preach in Nineveh, attempts to escape, but is swallowed by a giant fish.

In the interviews after the humpback whale spat him back out, Simancas does not seem like a petulant Jonah; he’s even generous toward the whale’s intentions in scooping him out of the water.

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’ (Matthew 12:39-40; cf. Luke 11:29-32) ...

Jonah and the Whale (1621) by Pieter Lastman “Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and declare against it, for its wickedness is come up before me. Jonah 1:2.

Jonah Lomu, who was the youngest ever New Zealand rugby union player and who rose to become the sport’s biggest icon, is to be immortalized in “Lomu,” a feature documentary.

We called out recently for more memories of Jonah and got a lively response on the T&A’s We Grew Up in Bradford Facebook page: Gilly Mags recalls: “I remember seeing it as a child in the 1950s.