Chapter 14

Again, it is complained, many Christians have been led into captivity. This would be lamentable, indeed, if they had been led to a place where they could not find their God. But, Holy Scripture gives us instances of great consolations bestowed even in such calamity. There were the three boys, Daniel, and other Prophets who suffered captivity, but in no case was God’s comfort lacking.

In like manner, the same God who did not abandon the Prophet Jonas even in the belly of a monster did not desert His faithful ones in the power of a barbarous people, who were, at least, human.

Those with whom I am at issue will prefer to jest at, rather than to believe, these accounts; yet they will swallow the tale of Orion of Methymna, the celebrated harper, thrown overboard from a ship, then taken up on a dolphin’s back and brought to shore. Our account of Jonas the Prophet is more incredible. It is more incredible because more wonderful. It is more wonderful because it reveals a greater power.

Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, Books I–VII