 Though it is often called a whale today, the Hebrew, as throughout scripture, refers to no species in particular, simply saying "great fish" or "big fish" (whales are today classified as mammals and not fish, but no such distinction was made in antiquity).While some biblical scholars suggest the size and habits of the great white shark correspond better to the representations given of Jonah's being swallowed, normally an adult human is too large to be swallowed whole.The development of whaling from the 18th century onwards made it clear that most, if not all, species of whale were incapable of swallowing a man, leading to much controversy about the veracity of the biblical story of Jonah.