There is nothing else in the entire Bible that is like the prophecy of Jonah. It is simply a whale of a tale. It is short, consisting of only four chapters. Old Testament scholars speculate that it was written sometime after the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews, which occurred in the sixth century BCE. It is a fictional story, not intended to be perceived as factual, although countless biblical literalists believe it to be factual. It would be like supposing that Gulliver’s Travels or Pilgrim’s Progress are historical accounts.