The Sign of Jonah

To fulfill the Sign of Jonah, Jesus had to be in the grave for three days and three nights.

The above statement is patently false, how could anyone link the sign of Yonah, Yeshua in the tomb and three days and three nights is beyond me.

Apples and Oranges

John 2:19 Yeshua answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Clear enough.

Yeshua makes two statements in Matthew 12 & 16

Matthew 12:8 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”

39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 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.

Matthew 13:1 On the same day Yeshua went out of the house and sat by the sea. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

Matthew 15:32 Then Yeshua called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way…

Matthew 16:1 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.

2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.

Notice in Matthew 16 there’s no mention of ‘three days and three nights’, that’s because there are three days and three nights between these two statements!

So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The ‘heart’ of the earth is the region of Galilee not the grave.

Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Is your heart in the grave?

So what’s the ‘sign of the prophet Yonah?’ Glad you asked...

2 Kings 14:25 25 He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea, in accordance with the word of YHVH ELoHY of Israel, spoken through his servant Yonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.

The restored borders of Israel, 1967, The Six Day War.

Yonah 1:4 But YHVH sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
1:5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
1:6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not...

1:15 So they look up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.

Matthew 8:23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.

8:24 And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. 8:25 And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.

8:26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.

Happy First Fruits!

MbA

Then “tradition” is wrong.

If “Tradition” is wrong… Then we might as well say Scripture is false.

I did not know what to make of your Good Friday comment here-
but I assume you were accepting the poster’s position on the sign of Jonah-
and disputing the Good Friday death of Jesus.
Being Lent I wasn’t able to respond at the time,
but then today’s Mass Gospel reading nudged me –
and I remembered your post of a week ago.
We read Today – Luke 24 44:46:

Then he opened their minds to
understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
"Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead ON the third day….

I did read the entire article post of the “sign of Jonah”-
which turned out to be just a re-hash of a silly notion –
though with a specific intent to inspire.
The comments were amusing, but yours naturally caught my eye.

There are just too many places in Scripture-
today being just one example-
where Jesus refers to (or is referred to by) “on the third day” (St. Paul most notably) –
or, “within three days”.
We are looking at major, major Bible contradictions if the “Sign of Jonah” is taken literally-
explicitly- and not the literary convention that it really is.
And yes, I get the - “but Jesus said” 3 days.. 3 nights…

If Jesus was dead for exactly 3 days and 3 nights-
then he was then raised, obviously, on the FOURTH day…
which the article failed to examine.
Nowhere in scripture is Jesus attached to a fourth day for anything.
Nowhere is a fourth day mentioned in the Gospels’ Passion narratives.
And floating the conjecture about multiple Passovers is too great a leap
against the scripture that exists to the contrary.
And if Jonah was in the belly for exactly 3 days/3 nights-
he would have had to been swallowed- and spit out- exactly at sunrise and sunset-
not a minute or hour sooner- or later. Highly improbable.
It is not a literal, time convention.
Anyone who has stayed in a hotel room knows
you may book and pay for 2 nights at a hotel…
but you will check in/out there on a 3rd - or even 4th day of your stay.
Those days are called days-
not “partial” days.
So even in out modern time conventions we have (partial) days counted.

Anyway-if Jesus was repeating the sign of Jonah literally and explicitly –
then too much scripture has to be called into error.

I watched a YouTube Video rebuttal this week of a Jewish Rabbi's
outright DENIAL of the Resurrection itself- Christ rising from the dead-
Because of differences between Matthew and John's Gospels of the empty tomb.
He was busted because he used a harmonizing
Method to explain away problems with OT Jewish scripture conflicts- namely Chronicles,
But CHOSE the false, anti- Christian attack in the NT for this same Passion story.
Very sad.

But that’s not really my concern.
All too often I see Christians siding of following along
with protestant thought ideal- as they feel it may bolster their case against Catholic or “tradition” thought.
I may be wrong- but I don’t consider Mormons, Jehovahs- New Age
and many other protestant faith beliefs as fully “Christian”.
They may contain some Christian element-
but only so to show some sort of affinity to a “Christian belief”-
which is of their own making. To support error in Scripture is anti- Christian.

Christians such as yourself can choose to refuse “Tradition” and Catholic teaching-
and that is fine-
as long as you keep away from the protestantism that skews true Christian belief for their own personal needs.
Even Atheists main claim against Christianity-
is to point out “their” perceived inerrancy of Biblical scripture to prove Christianity as false.

From this perspective of the “sign of Jonah”- not a Good Friday Crucifixion - and a 4th day Resurrection-
the Atheists would be correct in saying the inherent contradictions with the scripture-
that proclaims “on the Third Day He Rose from the Dead” –
causes Christianity and it’s scripture to be false- and Atheist’s to be correct. OT and NT in the inerrant way that God wants for us.
.

You misunderstood- either intentionally -or maybe I went into too much detail.
Nowhere was I 'elevating" Church doctrine above Scripture.
That's false to interpret what I was saying.
My reference was to referring to GOOD FRIDAY ONLY !
which I assume you were calling it "tradition".
Correct me if I misunderstood THAT...
I wrote of no other tradition.

And if one holds to that twist of scripture to "prove"
Good Friday Resurrection is a tradition and myth-
then other Gospel scripture is false.
Its that simple. It can't be both ways- without denying what Christ said.
One scripture is correct then- the other is false then.
Your John 17:17 is very appropriate here- as I pointed out to you...
it was Christ who said to his Apostles AFTER he had Risen-

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead ON the third day...

Christ word here IS Truth- denying his word here, his Truth
and passing off the GOOD FRIDAY crucifixion as merely, vain "tradition" is un-Christian and un-Biblical.

He did not denigrate it by putting it down to the level of tradition, which BTW,
He never had a good thing to say about.

IF you are speaking here of Christ;s aversion to ALL tradition,
Then that is not true at all.
Christ was a devout, observant Jew.
He absolutely cherished and followed Jewish traditions.
And so,
he gave us Much of his own Tradition to hold fast to.
To name a few:

"After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name."

"DO THIS, In memory of me..."

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