Jonah 1-2 (Very briefly)

Outside Cafe Logos, Vancouver, Friday

Jonah 1-2

New American Standard Bible

Chapter 1

17 [i]And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. 

Chapter 2

1 [j]Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish, 2 and he said, “I called out of my distress to the Lord, And He answered me.

Interestingly, in the Book of Jonah sermon series continued today, my Mennonite  Brethren (MB), pastor takes a typical conservative, evangelical position that the Book of Jonah should be taken as historical and plain literal, literature and as well that Jonah lived in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

In the 2000's, my Presbyterian Church of North America (PCA) pastor also preached a series on the Book of Jonah. He also took a typical conservative, evangelical position that the Book of Jonah should be taken as historical and plain literal, literature, but he taught that Jonah died by drowning and then was in the stomach of the fish for three days and three nights. Jonah would have had to been resurrected to state the prayer from the stomach of the fish in Jonah 2: 1-2 continued.

Both pastors parallelled Jonah's event with words of Jesus Christ:

New American Standard Bible

Matthew 12 39-40

But he replied to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign. Yet no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah, 40 because just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea creature for three days and three nights,[b] so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

Scholarship seems varied on whether Jonah died in this story or not...

Got Questions using Holman Old Testament Commentary: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah by Trent Butler

Is helpful

Cited

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. The difference is whether to see Jonah 2:10 as a description of a weak and bedraggled Jonah or as a truly resurrected Jonah. 

Cited

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. Yet the words “the depths of the grave,” seen as a poetic turn of phrase, could easily refer to an agonizing or horrifying experience. There’s another reason that some argue for Jonah’s death and resurrection: Jesus said, “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” (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. 

But it is opined that

Analogies do not require absolute agreement in every detail.

Cited

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.

Based on the style of writing in this section of Jonah, within the Hebrew Bible as historical, and as Jesus' future reference to the event as historical, I view the story of Jonah as plain literal.

Michael C. Griffiths states that some within scholarship maintain Jonah died by drowning and was then resurrected (923) (parallelling Jesus Christ's statements from Matthew 12). But this author notes that Jonah may have blacked out. (923). It is reasonably possible that Jonah was either resurrected or awakened in order to pray within the fish.

Either way, the life of Jonah was miraculously continued by God. The story is no more difficult to believe as plain literal than is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I had to colourize this photo to have it close to matching what I viewed. The house farthest left that is clearly visible, with the windows, was very bright orange as shown. Last Friday.

BUTLER, TRENT, C (2005) Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, & Micah: Holman Old Testament Commentary ,Max Anders (Ed), Holman OT Commentary Series, B&H Publishing, Nashville.

GRIFFITHS, MICHAEL C. (1986) 'Jonah' in The International Bible Commentary, F.F. Bruce (GE), Zondervan/Marshall Pickering, Grand Rapids.