Azusa Pacific University
Abstract : The unique comparison between Jonah and the Son of Man
in the First Gospel has been notoriously difficult for several reasons.
First, “three days and three nights” cannot be fitted into the
interval of Jesus’ burial in the tomb from Friday evening to Sunday
morning; second, the resurrection of Jesus, which is understood by some
as “the sign of Jonah,” was not witnessed by “an evil and adulterous
generation,” but only by believers in Christ; third, an above sea-level
tomb like the one that contained Jesus hardly qualifies as “the heart
of the earth” in the sense of subterranean depth; and fourth,
interpreting “the heart of the earth” literally as Sheol still
does not resolve the chronological problem. However, the enigma of the
Jonah saying unravels with a shift in perspective. This article will
recognize that shift and propose a new understanding of this passage.
Keywords : heart of the earth, Jerusalem, Jesus, Jonah, Mount
Zion, Sheol , three days and three nights, Zohar .
But he answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous
generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given
to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet’ (For as Jonah
was three days and three nights in the belly of the great
fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth). ‘The men of Nineveh will
rise in the judgment with this generation and condemn it
because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold,
something greater than Jonah is here’ (Matt 12:39-41).11Unless
otherwise indicated, all translations of ancient texts in this article
are mine.