"Cross-Examination"
CLARENCE DARROW
Do you claim that everything in the Bible should be literally interpreted?
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
I believe everything in the Bible should be accepted as it is given there; some of the Bible is given illustratively. For instance: "Ye are the salt of the earth." I would not insist that man was actually salt, or that he had flesh of salt, but it is used in the sense of salt as saving God's people.
CLARENCE DARROW
But when you read that Jonah swallowed the whale -- or that the whale swallowed Jonah -- excuse me please -- how do you literally interpret that?
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
When I read that a big fish swallowed Jonah, it does not say whale.
CLARENCE DARROW
Doesn’t it? Are you sure?
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
That is my recollection of it. A big fish, and I believe it, and I believe in a God who can make a whale and can make a man and make both do what he pleases.
CLARENCE DARROW
(Unaffected)
Now, you say, the big fish swallowed Jonah, and he there remained how long -- three days -- and then he spewed him upon the land. You believe that the big fish was made to swallow Jonah?
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
I am not prepared to say that; the Bible merely says it was done.
CLARENCE DARROW
You don’t know that it was an ordinary run of fish, or made for that purpose?
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
You may guess; you evolutionists guess.
CLARENCE DARROW
But when we do guess, we have a sense to guess right.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
But do not do it often.
