Jonah’s three days in the “grave” of the fish and his repulsive resurrection fits a typological pattern culminating in Christ’s three days in the grave and glorious resurrection. These points of contact establish historical correspondence and escalation from one resurrection to the next. Indeed, in Christ “something greater than Jonah is here” (Matt. 12:41; Luke 11:32). 

From a historical standpoint, Jonah is one of the more perplexing characters in the Old Testament. He is called to be a prophet and yet disobeys, unwilling to heed the voice of God or dwell in his presence (Jon. 1:3).[1] He ends up being swallowed by a great fish, but somehow survives only to be regurgitated three days later and vomited out near a coastline (Jon. 2:10). Moreover, after finally going to Nineveh at the word of the Lord, he is ultimately frustrated with Nineveh’s positive response, complaining about God’s mercy of all things (Jon. 4:2). Quite obviously, critical scholars dismiss these details as ahistorical, relegating Jonah to the status of “myth” in order to make sense of the story as the use of a literary character to enforce a moral lesson. But natural men do not comprehend the ways of God. 

From a theological standpoint, Jonah’s significance is not so easily discounted. In just four short chapters, the book of Jonah is full of rich theological themes, including the presence of God, divine sovereignty and human responsibility, God’s immutability,[2] and salvation, among others. In the context of the narrative, the point that Jonah is in the belly of the fish for “three days and three nights” (Jon. 1:17; Heb. 2:1) is striking for the simple fact that Jonah did not ultimately die and lived to tell the tale. Yet the significance of Jonah’s ordeal goes beyond the historical details. When we come to the New Testament we read Jesus saying, “for just 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” (Matt 12:40). In other words, an association is being made between Jonah’s experience and Jesus’s resurrection. Thus, there is more to Jonah’s maritime internment than what might meet the eye at first glance.

In this essay, I intend to address several aspects of the Jonah/Jesus relationship in two brief questions: 1) What is the nature of the association that Jesus is making between his death and resurrection and Jonah’s? And, 2) What bearing does this association have on Jonah’s historical claims?

Jonah as a Type of the One to Come

First, in the full context of Scripture, it is best to understand Jonah’s experience in the belly of the fish as a typological theme finding its fulfillment in Christ’s death and resurrection. Typology in Scripture includes divinely intended patterns of historical correspondence and escalation among certain historical people, events, and institutions which propel the storyline of Scripture forward, ultimately finding their telos (goal) and terminus (finish line) in Christ.[3] Types can be discerned initially by recognizing patterns, words, and themes that repeat within the Old Testament as they occur in biblical history, and/or by finding these Old Testament patterns, words, and themes repeated in the New Testament. In other words, the reuse by later biblical authors of persons, events, and institutions recorded by earlier biblical authors is what constitutes typology. In this way typology connects past events with present ones, while also linking current events with the past. In the biblical framework, types are not made between abstractions but historical realities, a point I will return to below.

In the present study, we can discern a relationship between Jonah and Jesus noted explicitly by both Matthew and Luke. Three patterns of historical correspondence are mentioned specifically. First, Jonah is in the belly of the fish for “three days,” while Jesus will be in the grave for “three days” (Matt 12:38–42; Luke 11:29–32). One might argue that Jonah is not in a  “grave” per se; that is, he is not dead. But Jonah states that his entombment within a fish is in “the belly of Sheol” (Jon. 2:1), using the common Hebrew term for “grave” to refer to his predicament.

Second, Jonah’s time within the fish follows the pattern of the “third day” theme in Scripture, whereby a person or nation is delivered and saved from certain death after three days: the sacrifice of Isaac on the third day (Gen 22:4), God’s descent on Sinai on the third day (Exod. 19:16), Hezekiah healed on the third day (1 Kgs. 20:5), Esther’s intervention for the Israelites on the third day (Esth. 5:1), and Hosea’s prophecy that the Lord will raise up Israel from the dead on the third day (Hos. 6:2). As it happened with Jonah on the third day, so also it will be with Christ.

Paul says additionally in 1 Corinthians 15:3 that Christ “was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” concluding the pattern established in the Old Testament. The exact “Scriptures” Paul had in mind is a matter of debate.[4] What we can ascertain is that when Jesus references “the Scriptures” in Luke 24:26–27 to demonstrate now the Old Testament anticipates his death and resurrection, he likely had many texts in mind instead of just one: “‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

Read More