p. 5 | 1644.-Did Jonah Die? by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 12, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 15.

1644.—Did Jonah Die?

By Editor

Will you please explain the second chapter of Jonah and Matt. 12:40? Was Jonah dead while in the whale's belly? It has become quite a discussion here. Some claim he was alive and others claim he was dead. W. N. G.

Does it not seem clear from Jonah's prayer that he did not die? Of course, in all reason he would have died, but God brought his life up from corruption. When his soul fainted, he remembered God, and the Lord heard him and answered. Matt. 12:40 refers not to the condition of Jonah, but to the time he was in the bowels of the sea monster, which might have been a whale, or some other “great fish.” We have no account in Jonah as to the time. It was in general three days, a day and night standing for continuous time, and three days and nights a general period of three days continuous from beginning to end, tho a part of the first and some of the last day may have been wanting. “The heart of the earth” may mean in the power of the prince of this world, who controlled the Roman power, even as Jonah was in the power of an agent of destruction.