A Giant Fish

Poul Anderson's Orbit Unlimited contains perhaps even more Biblical references than usual in a work by Anderson because of its character, Joshua Coffin. However, where do Biblical references end and the rest of the English language begin? Jan Svoboda, travelling in a spaceship seated beside Captain Kivi, hears around them, in their enclosed environment, the murmuring engines, oxygenators and airblowers and:

"...echoes down long resonant passageways. It was like being swallowed alive by some giant fish, he thought, and hearing its metabolism close in. He strangled on the wish to escape." (p. 82)

Again the paradox of travel through infinite space contrasted with enclosure. However, this time, the image is not of a metal coffin but of a giant fish which can only recall Jonah - and Anderson, writing this, must have thought of Jonah?

Jonah refused to travel to the ends of the Earth because he did not accept that the Word of God should be taken to foreigners. Svoboda and his companions have had to travel away from Earth because of the intolerance of its current rulers. Maybe there is some common message there or maybe I just see messages where they aren't?