The Old Testament of the Bible contains a small book about a prophet named Jona/Jonah/Jonas, who didn't want to go preach repentance to the city of Ninevah. The part about not wanting to preach repentance makes perfect sense to me, for people prefer to hear that they aren't doing anything wrong rather than hearken to calls to change their ways.
Avoiding the missionary call, Jonah runs away in a ship. A storm comes up, and Jonah says to the sailors, "I'm the reason for the storm, so throw me overboard to save yourselves." The sailors don't want to do it, but finally give in to Jonah. Jonah spends the next three days in a "dag gdul," which is Hebrew for "big fish." ("Dag" means fish.)
For centuries, people have tried to understand this event as an actual fish or whale having swallowed Jonah, similar to what happened to the fictional Geppetto in the book/movies of Pinocchio. I think that is an unnecessary, faith-risking way of reading the story of Jonah, for it is more plausible that he was in a smaller fish-shaped cargo dinghy, one that could have been towed by the first boat and then cut loose to float where the wind and currents took it. The sailors made it quite clear they didn't want to cause Jonah's death in the ocean, and I think they came up with a compromise where they put Jonah off their boat but didn't leave him to drown deprived of any flotation aids.
Is there a precedent for small fish-shaped freight vessels in that part of the world anciently? Yes. Reed boats come to mind. Often too small to put sails on, but cheap and definitely invented by Old Testament times. (Please look at some images of ancient Mediterranean reed boats, then come back to read the rest of the post. It will make more sense when you can envision the reed boats yourself.)
When Jonah talks about his time in the water, he says,
The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
Jonah 2:5, Old Testament, The Bible
If weeds were wrapped around his head and waters were all around him, then it seems Jonah wasn't sitting in a big air pocket inside Moby Dick somehow avoiding digestion (I'm too close to Star Wars Day not to be envisioning a watery Sarlacc right now....). This verse, especially the part about weeds being wrapped around Jonah's head, is logical and believable if Jonah was surviving a stormy sea in a small reed boat.
Another ancient account compares riding across the ocean in small boats to being in sea creatures:
And the Lord said: Go to work and build, after the manner of barges which ye have hitherto built. And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did go to work, and also his brethren, and built barges after the manner which they had built, according to the instructions of the Lord. And they were small, and they were light upon the water, even like unto the lightness of a fowl upon the water. And they were built after a manner that they were exceedingly tight, even that they would hold water like unto a dish; and the bottom thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the sides thereof were tight like unto a dish; and the ends thereof were peaked; and the top thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the length thereof was the length of a tree; and the door thereof, when it was shut, was tight like unto a dish.
And it came to pass that the brother of Jared cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, I have performed the work which thou hast commanded me, and I have made the barges according as thou hast directed me. And behold, O Lord, in them there is no light; whither shall we steer? And also we shall perish, for in them we cannot breathe, save it is the air which is in them; therefore we shall perish. And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: Behold, thou shalt make a hole in the top, and also in the bottom; and when thou shalt suffer for air thou shalt unstop the hole and receive air. And if it be so that the water come in upon thee, behold, ye shall stop the hole, that ye may not perish in the flood. And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did so, according as the Lord had commanded. And he cried again unto the Lord saying: O Lord, behold I have done even as thou hast commanded me; and I have prepared the vessels for my people, and behold there is no light in them. Behold, O Lord, wilt thou suffer that we shall cross this great water in darkness?
And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels? For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light of fire. For behold, ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth. And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come....
Ether 2:16-25, The Book of Mormon
Note that the people talked about in this account were to be in barges, not inside large animals, and they were being compared to being in whales while traveling the sea.
I can believe in the God of the Bible without believing that Jonah hung out for three days in a cetacean stomach. While God can do miracles, the book of Jonah doesn't appear to be requiring us to accept a Pinocchio scenario. (Anyone who tells you otherwise should check the length of their own noses. :) )
We can all be more curious and cautious when it comes to canonizing less plausible scripture interpretations that don't even fit the texts, especially when too many people are told they must accept one "literal" interpretation or they lack faith in God. God is much bigger than our abilities to put things into words accurately.
[Update: It appears in Mishnaic Hebrew that a dinghy-like small boat was sometimes called a "dugit":
As Rashi notes, the equivalent term for a small fishing boat in Mishnaic Hebrew is dugit (see Bava Batra 73a). Rabbi Dr. Daniel Sperber explains that dugit is derived from the Hebrew word dag (“fish”), and refers to the sort of fisherman’s boat known as a lembus in Greek.
The dugit is also the subject of a halachic controversy: When one sells a sefinah (“main ship”), does one also intend to sell the dugit attached to it? According to Sumchos, since the dugit was attached to the sefinah and was typically towed by the mother ship in the middle of the sea, it is also included in the sale of the sefinah (Tosefta Bava Batra 4:1).
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/of-ships-and-boats/, "Of Ships and Boats", by Reuven Chaim Klein, dated December 11, 2021, 8:50 PM]
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