Thoughts please.....Did Jonah die and was resurrected or was he alive in the fish for 3 days?

[RonJohnSilver]

This is part of my SS class assignment I gave them for homework. I've read a lot of commentaries but I'm curious what all of you think. Was Jonah actually alive for 3 days in the fish or did he die and then come back to life 3 days later, as Jesus did? Parallel passages in Matthew in Luke. Also, do you think Jonah repented? His prayer is chapter 2 of the book. Thanks. RJS

 

[Tall Timbers]

I think the answer lies in Jonah 1:17-2:1. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish,

Since after 3 days he prayed from within the fish's belly, I'd say he did not die. Though his prayer says he cried out from the depth of Sheol, I figure that is speech indicating the depth of his despair by the third day of being in the belly of the whale.

If he had died and returned to the living, I think he would have returned with an attitude adjustment as well, which he did not.

I can see where some would choose to believe that Jonah spent some of that time in Sheol, but I don't think that's the case.

Did he repent? He did go to Ninevah as God's spokesman. Had Jonah repented though... not sure that he did.

 

[Andy C]

Thought I would add another view:

Question: Recently we were having a bible study on the book of Jonah and as I read the book I believe it to say that Jonah was alive in the belly of the fish that swallowed him. The instructor claimed that Jonah died in the fish & was essentially “buried” for three days, thus being a precursor to Christ. I believe that he was alive for the three days & nights, how else could he have prayed to God out of the fish’s belly?

Answer: Jonah’s prayer in chapter 2 indicates he was praying from the grave. The Hebrew word for grave is “sheol” which means “the abode of the dead.” It’s the place where the spirits of people who died went to await the resurrection. In his prayer he told of how he drowned and sank to the roots of the mountains, in other words the bottom of the sea. In verse 7 Jonah says he prayed as his life was ebbing away. Then the Lord brought his life up from the pit, which is another word for grave.

I believe Jonah experienced physical death and his spirit was out of his body and in sheol for some of the time his body was in the whale, before the Lord reunited his spirit with his body, and had the whale spit him out. This was not a resurrection, it was an out of body experience followed by a resuscitation.

We know this because Jonah died again. Up until last summer you could have visited his tomb in Mosul, Iraq, where the ancient city of Ninevah once stood. Sadly, the ISIS crowd blew it up as an affront to the Christian faith because we see this incident in Jonah’s life as a prefiguring of the death and resurrection of the Lord (Matt. 12:39-40).

Did Jonah Die? – Grace thru faith

gracethrufaith.com

 

[mattfivefour]

Ron, I guess I can only answer your question by referring to what Jesus said in Matthew 12:40. He said (literally in the Greek): "For, even as Jonah was in the belly of the huge sea fish three days and three nights, so too the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." He doesn't refer to Jonah's body or Jonah's spirit or anything else; He simply refers to Jonah. To me this simply means the entire Jonah-- body, soul, and spirit. So, according to Jesus, Jonah himself was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and nights. Based on everything in the Gospels, if Christ had meant something different (for example that Jonas' soul and spirit had gone to Sheol), He would have specified that. But He simply said Jonah was in the sea creature.

Further, Jonah himself said in Jonah 2:7 that when his life was ebbing away (the word can mean "turning aside" or "becoming feeble" or "becoming faint"), he cried out to the Lord. And he said the Lord answered him. So he was still conscious and able to pray to God. This would indicate to me that Jonah did not actually die.

I suggest it makes no more sense to interpret Jonah's mention of "calling from the belly of Sheol” as meaning he had died, anymore than it would to interpret Jesus' mention that He would be "in the heart of the earth” to mean that somehow He wound up in the center of the earth for the three days and nights that He was dead. Clearly the body of Jesus was not placed in the heart (figuratively the center) of the earth. He was in fact in a tomb that, even if it were recessed into the earth, would have been no more than a few feet deep. These types of expressions are common poetic devices used in Hebrew literature. Jesus was simply stating that he would die and be completely buried in the earth for three days and nights. Jonah was praying from the belly of the fish and the use of the word "Sheol" in his prayer (which is unmistakably poetic in it's use of language), was certainly a dramatic expression of the utter hopelessness of his situation.

I once believed that Jonah had actually died and went to Sheol; but the more I studied this passage, the more I became convinced that that was incorrect. And now I hold to the view that Jonah in all likelihood survived in the belly of that special sea monster for 3 days. Now, of course, if one chooses to believe that Jesus was actually speaking of Jonah's death being an actual type of Christ's coming death, rather than Jonah's experience being a symbol of Christmas actual death to come, then that would argue in favor of Jonah actually having died. I know a few of my ministerial brothers hold to this view.

This is indeed a fascinating topic! Fortunately, it is not a salvational issue; and regardless of what we who have faith in Christ's finished work for us believe, we're most certainly going to go to Heaven one day, where the truth of this --and many other questions-- will be shown us. Oh, what wonders await!

 

[Batman]

Hard to believe a person could be under water in the belly of a great fish for 3 days and still be alive due to the oxygen factor, but also hard to believe that our King of Kings and Lord of Lords couldn't do it! I can't wait to ask him in person.

 

[Andy C]

I have to admit, until this thread, I never gave it any thought as to wether he died or not.

Interesting.

 

[Tall Timbers]

I have to admit, until this thread, I never gave it any thought as to wether he died or not.

Interesting.

Me neither. I had to look at the Book of Jonah and investigate the question. @RonJohnSilver has both sides of the coin discussed here, so maybe the thread will be useful for him with his SS class.

Which way do you lean on the question, @RonJohnSilver?

 

[Tall Timbers]

Hard to believe a person could be under water in the belly of a great fish for 3 days and still be alive due to the oxygen factor, but also hard to believe that our King of Kings and Lord of Lords couldn't do it! I can't wait to ask him in person.

Apparently there was a fisherman who was in the belly of a whale for 2 whole days and survived the experience. I came across that when I was researching the question posed. Don't know if I could find that again.

 

[Greg]

I lean towards he was alive the whole time. I can't add much to the reasoning up thread, but one possible wrinkle that just came to me was when did Jonah really repent? When he went overboard, when he was spit onto the shore or later? I tend to think it was at the very end of the book after God's lesson with the plant. I do think he repented, though, because he obviously stuck around the area and died there. Interesting theological implications if a dead guy came back to life and repented later.

 

[RonJohnSilver]

Me neither. I had to look at the Book of Jonah and investigate the question. @RonJohnSilver has both sides of the coin discussed here, so maybe the thread will be useful for him with his SS class.

Which way do you lean on the question, @RonJohnSilver?

I tend to think that he stayed in the fish which, of course, then brings up the issues of miracles of which there are several in the book. Next question will be when he actually repented, if he ever did. I want the class and all of us, really, to look past the surface issues for deeper meanings.

 

[Andiamo]

I always thought that he was kept alive so that he would have the time to think and reconsider so that he could repent.

 

[Andiamo]

Some very lame thoughts because I don’t really know what I’m talking about:
The gastric juices only come up so far (unless the fish had GERD. Haha) And the fish constantly swallowing sea water would dilute the acidity of the stomach juices.
Possibly there was an area of the fish’s anatomy inside the “belly” where Jonah was kept safe and he didn’t slide into the stomach. Some animals have two stomachs. Or maybe he was still in the esophagus…the gastroesophageal junction maybe.
But we know he was somewhere in the gastric system because he was “vomited” up later.

 

[Kaatje]

To me it is a comfort to know that even while we are often as stubborn and contrary as Jonah,
God can and does use him and us in His service.
And in the meantime teaching both Jonah and us a lesson, never to be forgotten.

I think Jonah repented in the fish, when he cried his heart out to God.
Because, when he was spit out on the beach, Jonah went to Nineveh, in stead of the wrong direction.
But I suppose while nearing Nineveh, fear struck him.
And understandably so. Just think how we would feel, if we had to go to Tehran with the same message.

So, Jonah went one daytrip into Nineveh, even though the city was 3 daytrips deep.
It looks like he ran in, spit out his message, and hastely ran out again.
Outside the city he sat himself: "Now let's wait and see how Nineveh gets his just judgement!"

And lo and behold, even on that slight warning, the city repented.
Jonah got angry with God, he even accuses God when he says: " I knew you would be merciful."

So God sends him a miracle tree and a miracle worm, to teach Jonah and us a fine lesson.
God's plans never fail, and He is just and merciful.
His ways are higher than our ways, and we need to trust Him even if we don't understand Him.

ETA, do you see Jonah is really a false prophet? He said God would destroy the city, and God didn't.
Because God gave a caveat, which Jonah didn' relay to the citizens of Nineveh.
Something to think about, maybe?

 

[RonJohnSilver]

ETA, do you see Jonah is really a false prophet? He said God would destroy the city, and God didn't.
Because God gave a caveat, which Jonah didn' relay to the citizens of Nineveh.
Something to think about, maybe?

 

[RonJohnSilver]

Sorry, I hit post too soon.

ETA, do you see Jonah is really a false prophet? He said God would destroy the city, and God didn't.
Because God gave a caveat, which Jonah didn' relay to the citizens of Nineveh.
Something to think about, maybe?

It brings up the idea of God repenting which I think, happens only when a statement is conditional, that is, I will do this unless you do that. In this case, the threat was conditional upon the repentance of the people. So, I think Jonah was a legitimate prophet because what God said would happen actually did happen, about 120 years later when the people fell back into their sinful ways.

 

[Amethyst]

To me it is a comfort to know that even while we are often as stubborn and contrary as Jonah,
God can and does use him and us in His service.

I have needed this as much as Jonah.

 

[Kaatje]

Sorry, I hit post too soon.

ETA, do you see Jonah is really a false prophet? He said God would destroy the city, and God didn't.
Because God gave a caveat, which Jonah didn' relay to the citizens of Nineveh.
Something to think about, maybe?

It brings up the idea of God repenting which I think, happens only when a statement is conditional, that is, I will do this unless you do that. In this case, the threat was conditional upon the repentance of the people. So, I think Jonah was a legitimate prophet because what God said would happen actually did happen, about 120 years later when the people fell back into their sinful ways.

I agree with what you say. God did as He said He would, but Jonah omitted part of God's message.
And his omittance made him a false prophet in deed.
He said that God said that the city would be turned down in 40 days, and it didn't.
Even so, the citizens repented! They repented on the off-chance God could be prevailed upon.
How astonishing is that?

i'm studying Balaam these days. He was a false prophet, but even so, he was a true one.
And God seems to change His mind 4 times. The mind boggles!

(I'll post my study in a seperate thread, once I tranlated it in English)

 

[Tall Timbers]

And his omittance made him a false prophet in deed.

Not a false prophet, but a prophet who did not transmit God's entire message. A faulty prophet...

 

[Hol]

Jonah 3:4 "Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, 'Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!'"

And his omittance made him a false prophet in deed.

Kaatje, just a thought about Jonah's proclamation and false prophets. If you read it in context, Jonah expresses a lot of understand of God's loving and saving character in his little book. We even get in on how he complains to God that he was certain God would not destroy evil Ninevah if they repented. Though he does not explicitly advise that an option to repent is available, it's clearly implied.

It would be like me with a 3-yo grandchild near a busy street. As she starts to wander towards the street I yell, "You are going into the street and grandma will spank you!" She stops and runs back for me and never did go into the street or get spanked.

 

[Hol]

a prophet who did not transmit God's entire message.

What do you read that I missed? Did God tell him something besides this: Jonah 1:1-2 "Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”