LETTER: The fish's tale

From Mr Steven Carr

Sir: David Ould writes (Letters, 22 December) that Jonah and the whale may be credible. Perhaps he is unaware that whale is a mistranslation for fish and that the story is meant to be humourous.

Jonah refused to go to Nineveh and had to be taken there in a giant fish. The goddess of Nineveh was Ishtar, whose symbol was a big fish. The symbolism would have been as obvious to Jonah's first readers as if we read a story of someone who refused to go to Wales and ended up being carried there in a giant dragon.

Yours sincerely,

Steven Carr

Prenton, Merseyside

22 December