What Really Happened to Jonah in the Belly of the Great Fish?
“So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.
(17) And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach
of the fish three days and three nights.”
(Jonah 1:15-17)
The story of Jonah is one of the most popular tales found within the pages of the Bible.
If you’re like me, you probably had an image of Jonah like this as a child – the prophet
doing his thing by candlelight within the belly of the fish.
Pinocchio’s influence on this image withstanding, many people, nonetheless, have wrestled with
what happened to Jonah during his time inside great creature of the sea.
You may or may not know, though, that Jesus offered some commentary on Jonah’s famous
episode, and even used it to parallel what would happen to Him.
In Matthew 12:39-40, we read:
“But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves for
a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just
as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the
Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’”
The context of this passage is that Jesus is answering some Pharisees who have come
to Him seeking a sign to validate the claims He’d been making about Himself.
In response, Jesus calls the people, “evil and adulterous,” because they’re demanding
that Jesus fulfill their criteria, rather than recognizing what God was doing through
Him.
He goes on to say that, “no sign will be given,” to them, “but the sign of Jonah.”
Jesus is not leaving these people without a proof for who He is – He is dictating
the proof that will shown to them, instead of being brought into subjection under the
demands of the Pharisees.
At this point though, we must pause and look closely at what Jesus says.
The proof that Jesus will offer is, “the sign of Jonah.”
Jesus then quotes Jonah 1:17 – “as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY
OF THE SEA MONSTER…”
He then equivocates Jonah’s time in the fish with a prophecy about His coming death
and resurrection; “so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth.”
For ancient Jews, the place where dead people went was thought to be inside of the earth…after
all, what do you do with dead bodies?
You bury them, either in a grave or a tomb in the earth.
Ancient people didn’t share our modern understanding of the Earth’s geological composition; if
you were ask them if they believed dead people were in the Earth’s core, they would not
understand what you were talking about.
That’s not what they were trying to communicate.
References to, “inside of,” or, “underneath,” the earth are simply to be understood as underground
– the place where the disembodied dead were.
The Hebrew word for this place of the dead is שְׁאוֹל (Sheol).
The equivalent word in Greek used by the translators of the Septuagint and the authors of the New
Testament is ᾍδης (Hades).
Other portions of the ancient world conceived of this place variously as the underworld
(under the earth) or netherworld (below the earth).
Sheol/Hades is not to be confused with Hell, the place of final judgment.
Both righteous and unrighteous people were described as inhabiting Sheol/Hades.
Their presence there was reflective of their being dead, not under judgment.
This is further substantiated by Revelation 20:14, where Hades is thrown into the lake
of fire, otherwise known as γέεννα (Gehenna) – Hell.
Returning to Matthew 12, Jesus is prophesying that He will spend three days and three nights
in Sheol/Hades.
In other words, the, “sign of Jonah,” that Jesus is going to give to the Pharisees
is His death and resurrection.
But…if the, “sign of Jonah,” is death and resurrection, what does that mean happened
to Jonah?
Look at what Jesus says – “…as Jonah…so will the Son of Man…”
Jesus is drawing a parallel between His legitimate death and what happened to Jonah in the belly
of the fish.
For clarity, let’s go back to Jonah chapter 2 and examine a few interesting passages:
“Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, and he said, ‘I
called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me.
I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.”
(Jonah 2:1-2)
“Water encompassed me to the point of death.
The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head.
I descended to the roots of the mountains.
The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit,
O LORD my God.”
(Jonah 2:5-6)
“But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving.
That which I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation is from the LORD.”
(Jonah 2:9)
Jonah’s prayer is that he cried to God for help from Sheol, also alluded to poetically
in these verses as, “the great deep,” “the roots of the mountains,” “the earth
with its bars,” and, “the pit,” at which he was at, “the point of death.”
He concludes his prayer acknowledging that salvation belongs to YHWH.
Upon the conclusion of his prayer, God makes the fish spit up Jonah on land (v.10)
While it is not a unanimous interpretation among theologians and biblical scholars, it
is my opinion, as well as that of many others, that Jonah was fish food – He was dead.
And, that God resurrected him as the fish vomited him up on land.
The native language of Jonah 2, as well as Jesus’ equivocation with Jonah to His coming
death and resurrection, leads me to conclude that Jonah’s encounter with the fish was
a type for the death and resurrection of Christ.