TOM · The Owner's Manual · Old Testament

Jonah 2

Chapter 2 in 30 seconds

Jonah prays from inside the fish, and it sounds a lot like the Psalms. He was sinking to the bottom, and God pulled him up. Salvation is from Yahweh! Then the fish throws up Jonah onto dry land, which is probably the only time a fish has gotten seasick from a prophet.

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In this chapterThe Big Question · Christians disagreeCould a Man Live Inside a Fish? · after verse 1 The Big Question · Christians disagreeThe Sign of Jonah · after verse 10 Field Notes · ArchaeologyThe Jonah Marbles · after verse 10

Jonah’s Prayer

¹From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to Yahweh his God, ²saying:

JON 2:1[NOTE]JONAH'S PRAYER. Jonah's own words to God, so they print black. Almost every line echoes a psalm, like Psalm 18:6, 42:7 and 120:1.

The Big Question · Christians disagree

Could a Man Live Inside a Fish?

A Great Fish

Jonah 1:17 · 2:10

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS: Yahweh appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights inside it, 1:17. Then Yahweh commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land, 2:10.
FISH OR WHALE?: The Hebrew says a great fish. Ancient people did not sort whales from fish. Matthew 12:40 uses ketos, a Greek word for any huge sea creature, and the KJV made it a whale.

Could a Man Live Inside a Fish? · Every View

Matthew 12:40 · Jonah 2:2

VIEW 1: A REAL MIRACLE: Most Jews and Christians through history read it as a true event. The book says God appointed the fish, so it is a miracle, not nature doing its normal thing. Jesus spoke of Jonah in the fish as a real event and tied it to His own resurrection, Matthew 12:40.
VIEW 2: A TEACHING STORY: Many scholars read the book as a story told to teach a lesson, like a parable, with a real prophet at the center. They point to the funny, larger than life details: a fish, a giant city, cows in sackcloth, a plant that grows in a day.
VIEW 3: JONAH DIED: Some who take it as history think Jonah actually died, since he says he cried from the belly of Sheol, the place of the dead, 2:2, and God raised him. That would make the sign of Jonah even closer to Jesus.
THE WHALE TALES: You may hear of a sailor named James Bartley who lived after a whale swallowed him, a story first printed in 1891. The historian Edward Davis found that his ship, the Star of the East, was not a whaler and had no James Bartley on its crew, and the captain's wife called the story untrue. It is a legend and proves nothing either way.
WHAT ALL SIDES AGREE ON: The point is not the fish. The point is a God who will not give up on a runaway, and the mercy that follows him.

“In my distress I called to Yahweh,

and He answered me.

From the belly of Sheol I called for help,

and You heard my voice.

JON 2:2[NOTE]THE BELLY OF SHEOL. Sheol is the place of the dead. Jonah felt as good as dead. Some think he really did die and was brought back.

³For You cast me into the deep,

into the heart of the seas,

and the current swirled about me;

all Your breakers and waves swept over me.

⁴At this, I said,

‘I have been banished from Your sight;

yet I will look once more

toward Your holy temple.’

JON 2:4[NOTE]YOUR HOLY TEMPLE. From the bottom of the sea, Jonah still turns toward the temple in Jerusalem, as Solomon asked, 1 Kings 8:38 to 39.

⁵The waters engulfed me

to take my life;

the watery depths closed around me;

the seaweed wrapped around my head.

⁶To the roots of the mountains I descended;

the earth beneath me barred me in forever!

But You raised my life from the pit,

O Yahweh my God!

⁷As my life was fading away,

I remembered Yahweh.

My prayer went up to You,

to Your holy temple.

⁸Those who cling to worthless idols

forsake His loving devotion.

JON 2:8[DEMONIC]Those who cling to worthless idols give up God's loving devotion

⁹But I, with the voice of thanksgiving,

will sacrifice to You.

I will fulfill what I have vowed.

Salvation is from Yahweh!”

JON 2:9[NOTABLE]Jonah's prayer from inside the fish ends with the heart of the whole book: nobody saves himself, and God saves whom He will.
JON 2:9[NOTE]FROM YAHWEH. That is also true for Nineveh, which is exactly what Jonah does not like.

¹⁰And Yahweh commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

JON 2:10[MIRACLE]The fish spits Jonah out onto dry land

The Big Question · Christians disagree

The Sign of Jonah

Jesus Points to Jonah

Matthew 12:38 to 41 · 16:4 · Luke 11:29 to 32

WHAT JESUS SAID: When leaders asked for a sign, Jesus said none would be given but the sign of the prophet Jonah. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, Matthew 12:39 to 40.
THE PUZZLE: The Gospels say Jesus died on the day before the Sabbath and rose early on the first day of the week. Counted our way, that is not three full days and three full nights. How do the views explain it?

The Sign of Jonah · Every View

Matthew 27:62 to 64 · Mark 8:31 · 1 Corinthians 15:4

VIEW 1: JEWISH COUNTING: Jews counted any part of a day as a day. A rabbi from about AD 100 said a day and a night make one unit, and part of one counts as the whole. Friday, Saturday and Sunday make three days, so Friday to Sunday fits. Most churches hold this view.
VIEW 2: A THURSDAY CROSS: Some say Jesus died on Thursday, because there was more than one Sabbath that week, the Passover Sabbath and the weekly one, John 19:31. That gives three nights in the tomb.
VIEW 3: A WEDNESDAY CROSS: Others count exactly 72 hours, from Wednesday evening to Saturday evening, so Jesus rose just before the first day began.
VIEW 4: THE SIGN IS THE MESSAGE: Luke says Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, Luke 11:30. Some say the sign is Jonah himself, a man back from death preaching repentance, more than the exact count of hours.
WHAT ALL SIDES AGREE ON: Jesus pointed to Jonah to predict His own death and resurrection. The tomb was empty, and One greater than Jonah is here, Matthew 12:41.

Field Notes · Archaeology

The Jonah Marbles

Jonah 1:17 · 2:10 · 4:6 · Matthew 12:40

Jonah Swallowed and Jonah Cast Up, marble, Asia Minor, about AD 280 to 290. Cleveland Museum of Art, public domain open access, CC0.

WHAT IT IS: A set of small marble statues that tell Jonah's story: the sea monster swallowing him, the monster spitting him out, Jonah praying, and Jonah resting under his plant. They are said to have been found together with a statue of the Good Shepherd and six portrait busts, three pairs of a Roman couple.
HOW OLD IT IS: About AD 280 to 290, a generation before Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire.
WHERE THEY CAME FROM: They were carved in Asia Minor, today's Turkey, possibly for a Christian family's tomb or home. The Cleveland Museum of Art bought the group in 1965.
THE SEA MONSTER: The artist did not carve a whale. He carved a ketos, the Greek sea monster with a dog's head, curly tail and fins, the same word Matthew 12:40 uses.
JONAH EVERYWHERE: Jonah is one of the Bible stories early Christians pictured most. He is painted again and again on the walls of the catacombs in Rome and carved on stone coffins.
WHY JONAH?: Jesus called His death and rising the sign of Jonah, Matthew 12:40. For Christians burying their dead, Jonah coming up alive from the monster was a picture of the resurrection.
JONAH RESTING: Jonah under his plant often looks like Endymion, a sleeping hero in Greek stories. Christians borrowed the familiar pose to show rest and peace in God.
WHAT IT SHOWS: Before Christians could worship openly, ordinary Christians knew Jonah's story and read it as a promise that death would not win.
THE PLANT IN STONE: Another piece in the group, Jonah Under the Gourd Vine, shows Jonah lying back under his vine, the plant of 4:6.
SEE ALSO: The Sign of Jonah and Could a Man Live Inside a Fish?, in this book.

CONFIDENCE: HIGH

Jonah 2

Jonah’s Prayer

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