There are actually several Biblical allusions in
Moby Dick.
One is the allusion to the
story of Jonah. The story of Jonah centers specifically around God calling Jonah to do a
job, which Jonah is reluctant to do. While sailing on a ship away from God's destination
for Jonah, a great storm threatens the ship; Jonah is thrown from the ship at his own
suggestion believing he is the cause of the storm in failing to carry out God's will.
Jonah is saved from drowning when he is swallowed by a great fish (the "whale"). During
his "captivity," he repents, and God orders the whale to throw Jonah
up.
Ahab might be seen as a Jonah-character, in that he is
a Quaker, a man of God who is supposed to be a pacifist, and yet he becomes maniacally
bent upon pursuing and destroying the whale, turning his back on the teachings of his
own religion.
Another allusion is the use of the name
Ishmael, the son of the slave girl Hagar, son of Abraham—before Abraham and Sarah's son,
Isaac (promised to them by God) is born. Though Sarah has suggested that Abraham sleep
with their slave girl Hagar in order to have a son, when Hagar's son is born, Sarah and
Hagar fight so much, that Hagar finally runs away. (God appears to her and sends Hagar
and Ishmael back to Abraham's camp; but the sense of the outcast is found here as she
laments her exile from humanity, fearing for the death of her son, as well as
herself.)
The first line, the novel's most famous, is "Call
me Ishmael" which is a direct reference to the story of Hagar and Ishmael, which
symbolizes all who feel exiled or outcast, as does the character
Ishmael.
Another reference is to the Bible can be found in
the names Elijah (a prophet of God), and Ahab is a Biblical king (and worshipper of
idols, who is eventually destroyed by God).
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