The Sign of Jonah Decoded

Here are two mysteries:

1. The Biblical book of Jonah talks about Jonah being swallowed by the whale. He lives in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17), and is then spat out on the shore. This is a very odd story. First of all, the original Hebrew doesn’t say “whale”. It says “big fish”. Big difference! Second of all, there are no fish that can swallow a human being whole, and even if there was one, the fish’s stomach acids would kill the poor fellow.

2.  In the Gospels (Mark 8:11-13, Matthew 12:38-45, and Luke 11:29) Jesus is asked to give the people a “sign”. He answers by saying that his is an evil generation. It deserves no sign. Nonetheless, he gives the people one sign and one sign only – the “Sign of Jonah”. What’s this all about? What’s he talking about and what do his listeners understand by this? All the Gospels basically agree that no one understood Jesus. Matthew states that they understood him retrospectively. Meaning, after the crucifixion it was believed that Jesus had been hinting at his own death and resurrection, comparing it to Jonah being swallowed by the big fish and then being spat out. Was Jesus referring to death and resurrection? Maybe. It all depends on what the big fish in the story of Jonah is all about.

Watch this clip from my film “Beasts of the Bible”. I think it begins to solve the mystery of the “Sign of Jonah”. At least it tells us that the big fish is bigger than we thought and not a fish at all!