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| Volume 25 Number 1 January 2023 |
Page 16 |
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| Volume 25 Number 1 January 2023 |
Page 16 |
Louis Rushmore, Editor
We have been having a class on Jonah and the teacher is trying to make the case that Jonah died while in the belly of the fish. He is basing his assumption on Jonah 2:2-6 then again in Matt 12:38-40 saying that both Jonah and Christ died and was then resurrected. I don’t believe that Jonah died. I believe that God kept him alive to teach him and us that his will will be done and that he cares for all people and allows all to repent. I also believe that the sign of Jonah was, as Christ stated, that he was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights as he was buried for three days and nights. What are your thoughts? ~ Marvin Towell
I thought I’d been around – both here and there as well for several decades – but I don’t recall having heard about anyone teaching that Jonah died while inside the “great fish” (Jonah 1:17). The notion took me a little by surprise. Nevertheless, the question of whether Jonah died while in the belly of the great fish deserves examination.
After looking at a great number of biblical resources, I was about to conclude that no reference work of which I was aware theorized Jonah died while in the belly of the great fish. Then, I came across Burton Coffman’s commentary on Jonah 2:2, in which place he cited commentators who were certain that Jonah died in the belly of the great fish.
One approach to the consideration of Jonah is to completely allegorize the account to essentially marginalize pertinent Scriptures. Contrariwise:
Those who accept the literal account of Jonah take one of two main views regarding what happened to Jonah during his time in the belly of the great fish (Jonah 2). One view holds that Jonah died and later returned to life. The second view holds that Jonah remained alive for three days in the belly of the great fish. Both views agree on a literal reading of the book of Jonah and affirm God’s supernatural ability to rescue His prophet. (“Did Jonah…”)
Well, let’s consider both perspectives of whether Jonah was alive or died in the belly of the fish. We’ll begin by reviewing relevant biblical passages.
Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. And he said: I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Then I said, I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple. The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy. But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord. So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (Jonah 2:1-10 NKJV)
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” 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. 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 up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 12:38-41)
First, consider the popular view that God kept Jonah alive in the belly of the great fish. “The following prayer is mainly thanksgiving for deliverance from drowning. It is not thanksgiving for deliverance from the fish or a prayer of confession, as we might expect. Jonah prayed it while he was in the fish. Evidently he concluded after some time in the fish’s stomach that he would not die from drowning” (Constable). “Inside the fish Jonah prayed. …Jonah viewed the fish as a means of deliverance and thanked God for His salvation” (Holman Bible Handbook emphasis added). “…He prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly. When he found that he had escaped the death he anticipated and that the power of God kept him alive, he realized that the Lord his God would also deliver him” (Gaebelein emphasis added). “…When Jonah had been swallowed by the fish, and found that he was preserved alive in the fish’s belly, he regarded this as a pledge of his deliverance, for which he praised the Lord” (Keil and Delitzsch). “He was like a man in the unseen world among the dead” (Spurgeon).
…What is the evidence that Jonah stayed alive for the three days he spent in the belly of the great fish? First, it is clear that Jonah prayed from inside the fish: “Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish” (Jonah 2:1). At the very least, Jonah lived long enough to offer his prayer. Second, the language of Jonah’s prayer is poetic in nature. Terms such as Sheol and the reference to “the pit” (Jonah 2:6) do not have to be interpreted so literally as to require physical death. (“Did Jonah…”)
“…The words ‘the depths of the grave,’ seen as a poetic turn of phrase, could easily refer to an agonizing or horrifying experience” (“Did Jonah…”). Jonah found himself as though he were in “the unseen world, which the belly of the fish resembled,” and as such, Jonah’s phrases resemble those of the psalmist (i.e., Psalm 18:5; 30:3), where they are also used figuratively rather than literally regarding death, the grave or Sheol (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown). “Here the prophet represents himself as in the bottom of the sea; for so Sheol must be understood in this place” (Clarke).
It is certain from comparison of the book of Jonah and our Lord’s remarks in Matthew 12:38-40 that Jonah was “a type of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Ironside). As is the case with any biblical illustration, such as a parable, “a type should never be unduly pressed” (qtd. in Coffman) beyond the intended comparison.
…Jesus’ comparison does not mandate perfect congruency between the two events. Jonah’s hopeless situation was illustrative of Jesus’ death; Jonah’s sudden appearance at Nineveh was illustrative of Jesus’ resurrection. The three days was an additional similarity. Jonah returned from the edge of death; Jesus, who is greater than Jonah, returned from actual death. Analogies do not require absolute agreement in every detail. (“Did Jonah…”)
The “belly of the fish…was a grave to him [Jonah]… where he lay out of the land of the living, as one dead, and being given up for dead” (Gill). Jonah discovered himself “to be alive in such a grave; to abide there hour after hour, and day after day, in one unchanging darkness, carried to and fro helplessly, with no known escape… except to death! …What looked like death, became safe-keeping… The deep waters were as a grave, and he was counted ‘among the dead’ (Ps 88:4)” (Barnes).
Neither antagonistic toward Bible miracles nor dismissive of biblical inspiration, the narrative of Jonah alive inside the great fish is far from problematic. The “miracle of his preservation corresponds to that of the three Hebrews in the furnace (Dan 3:27), or of the burning bush (Ex 3:2,3) - element of apparent destruction becomes supernaturally element of preservation” (Pulpit Commentary).
Now, we know that even brothers in Christ are not convinced that God kept Jonah alive in the belly of the fish. “We remain uncertain whether or not Jonah actually died and was raised up from death. There was no problem at all for the Lord either way. It appears to this writer that the argument from the antitype to the effect that since Christ actually died, the type, Jonah, also, in all likelihood died…” (Coffman).
Those who argue that Jonah died and later rose again appeal to Jonah’s prayer in Jonah 2:2: “From the depths of the grave I called for help.” The use of Sheol, the Hebrew term for “the grave,” could mean that Jonah actually died. …There’s another reason that some argue for Jonah’s death and resurrection… (Matthew 12:40). The reasoning is that, since Jesus’ death and resurrection were actual, then Jonah must have also actually died and later returned to life. (“Did Jonah Die)
In conclusion, “the Bible does not explicitly state that Jonah died in the belly of the great fish. Those who theorize that he did die rely on inference and speculation” (“Did Jonah…”).
Did Jonah die in the fish, or was he alive the whole time? Either interpretation is possible, but the traditional understanding, that Jonah was alive for three days in the belly of a great fish, is more likely. Jonah, who everyone thought was a “goner,” emerged from the murky depths to bring God’s message of salvation to a lost and dying people. In so doing, he became a wonderful representation of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and life-giving message. (“Did Jonah…”)
To allegorize Jonah into a fable of little or no significance is not the correct approach to the Bible. After all, Jesus Himself validated Jonah as a prophet of God and as a preacher who was a type in His death, burial and resurrection. Furthermore, to discount divine inspiration also would be a completely unsatisfactory treatment of Scripture. Likewise, to read something into biblical accounts that is not there – not discoverable by direct statement, approved example or certain implication (from which mankind is obligated to infer) – is equally unacceptable handling of the Word of God.
There are, though, verses and religious topics about which we would like to know more and which may lend themselves to doubtful interpretation if we’re not careful (Deuteronomy 29:29). Some things are more difficult to understand (Hebrews 5:12-14), while other matters are simply hard to comprehend. “…Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15-16).
Therefore, with proper reverence for Almighty God, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, Who communicated the divine will to humans, we need to embrace what the Bible generally and what the New Testament specifically instructs us. However, regarding unsure interpretations and opinions, we must not be dogmatic. Every doctrine in God’s Word is essential, but there are also matters within Scripture that neither affect one’s salvation nor are they the basis of Christian fellowship. For instance, it appears to me that Jonah was miraculously kept alive within the belly of the great fish, but it doesn’t matter, as long as we tolerate dissent here either way.
Works Cited
Barnes, Albert. Barnes’ Notes. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2014.
Gaebelein, Arno C. Annotated Bible, The. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2015.
Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary. Electronic Database. Biblesoft, 2006.
Coffman, James Burton. James Burton Coffman Bible Study Library. Electronic Database. Abilene: ACU Press, 1989.
Constable, Thomas L. Thomas Constable’s Notes on the Bible. Electronic Database. Toronto: Tyndale Seminary P., 2014.
“Did Jonah Die While He Was in the Belly of the Fish (Jonah 2)?” Got Questions. 2 Dec 2022. <https://www.gotquestions.org/did-Jonah-die.html>.
Gill, John. John Gill’s Exposition of the Old and New Testaments. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2011.
Holman Bible Handbook. Electronic Database. Nashville: Holman Bible P., 1992.
Ironside, Henry Allen. Ironside Commentaries. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2012.
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2014.
Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament. New Updated Edition. Electronic Database. Peabody: Hendrickson P., 1996.
Pulpit Commentary, The. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2010.
Spurgeon, Charles. Spurgeon’s Expository Notes. Electronic Database. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2014.
