If thou wert in doubt as to what We have revealed unto thee, then ask those who have been reading the Book from before thee.... (Surah 10, Yunus, verse 94)
THE SIGN OF JONAH EXPLAINED TO MUSLIMS
Rev. Andrew Abraham
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1. INTRODUCTION
2. PARALLEL TO JESUS' LIFE
AND DEATH
3. JEWISH CONCEPT OF TIME
4. JESUS' DEATH AND JONAH'S
TIME INSIDE OF A FISH
5. CONCLUSION
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1. INTRODUCTION
Most of the opposition
Jesus got during his public ministry came from the religious people of his day.
Once they challenged him to give proof for his claims to be the promised
Messiah, the saviour. In response Jesus said that only the sign of the prophet
Jonah would be given to them. The clear meaning of the Biblical passage where
that encounter is recorded has been much misunderstood by some leading Muslims.
As will be shown, they tried to interpret it from their perspective, isolating
the paragraph from its wider context.
2. PARALLEL TO JESUS'
LIFE AND DEATH
Then some of the
Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, 'Teacher, we want to see a
miraculous sign from you.' He answered, 'A wicked and adulterous generation
asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the
prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and
three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of
In this passage Jesus
refers to His death on the cross and His subsequent resurrection on the third
day.
3. JEWISH CONCEPT OF
TIME
The words "three
days and three nights" refer to a common Jewish reckoning of time and
mean the same as when a European would say "three days". According
to the Talmud, a Jewish commentary to the Mishna
(written regulations about life in the Jewish community), any part of a day
is counted as a full day in Jewish thought. Since Jesus was born into a
Jewish culture, His words need to be understood in the Jewish context. He died
on an early Friday evening (Matthew 27:45, reckoned as first day),
remained in the grave the whole of Saturday (Matthew 27:62, reckoned as second
day) and rose from the dead on Sunday morning (Matthew 28:1, reckoned as third
day). This same way of counting part of days as whole days is found in
other parts of the Bible:
'Sir', they (the chief
priests and the Pharisees) said, we remember that while he (Jesus) was still
alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' So give
the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day...' (Matthew
27:63-64)
Here we see that the words
'three days' and 'until the third day' are used interchangeable
because they have the same meaning! For more examples please read Genesis
42:17-20 where Joseph puts his brothers into custody 'for three days' and
released all but one 'on the third day'. These two phrases are
used interchangeably because they express the same truth. The words 'three
days and three nights' where an Egyptian was neither
eating or drinking in 1 Samuel 30:12 are explained in verse 13 to be
equal to 'three days'. In Esther
When Jesus refers to His
death on the cross and His resurrection as the sign of Jonah He wants to
declare the following truth: In the same way as Jonah rose again from what
normally is leading to a sure death, (being swallowed by a huge fish for three
days) Jesus too will raise again after three days from what usually no one can
escape, from death! Jesus likens what will happen to Him with the story of
Jonah mainly in regard to the time factor, the three days.
4. JESUS' DEATH AND
JONAH'S TIME INSIDE A FISH
As a matter of fact not
everything in an incident that is used as a sign to compare with another
situation must be taken literally. The truth that Jonah stayed alive in the
belly of the fish cannot be used as a proof that Jesus too must have survived
the cross alive. This way of arguing would lead us into big problems because
then we would also have to try to apply the other details of Jonah's story to
what happened to Jesus. This is impossible because Jonah disobeyed God, Jesus
did not, Jonah was swallowed by a huge fish, Jesus was not, etc. This same way
of using a comparison to communicate one major truth only is found in
other parts of the Bible:
'For as lightening that
comes from the east and is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of
the Son of Man.' (Matthew 24:27)
The context (verses 23-25)
shows that the only point Jesus makes in this verse is that His return will be
visible everywhere. To read into His statement more than this would be a
dangerous speculation. In Isaiah 55:9 God declares: 'As
the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways; my
thoughts than your thoughts.'
Again, to use the distance
between the heavens and the earth to explain any thing else other than what God
does would at best create unproved theories. If there is still doubt in the
reader's mind about the one truth in the comparison to the sign of Jonah, he
must look at the wider context. Besides many verses that clearly mention Jesus'
death and resurrection, verses 18-22 of John, chapter 2 help to further clarify
the matter:
'Then the Jews demanded
of him, 'What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all
this?' Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again
in three days.' The Jews replied, 'It has taken forty-six years to build
this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?' But the temple he
had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his
disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scriptures and the
words that Jesus had spoken.'
Here again Jesus is asked
for a miraculous sign and He repeatedly states that they would find it in His
resurrection from the dead after three days! But this time He makes it clear
that they would destroy this temple, meaning they would kill His body! It
is not uncommon for Jesus to express the same truth (as in the sign of Jonah)
but in different ways, with a slightly different emphasis (here stressing His
death as well). For more examples of this method of teaching, please read
Matthew 13:24-30 and compare it with verses 47-50, or
Furthermore, those who use
the sign of Jonah to say that Jesus did not die on the cross will have to
realise that their interpretation contradicts all the verses in the Torah,
the Gospel and accounts of secular history (Josephus in 'Antiquitates' Vol. 18, III:3) where the death of Jesus the
Messiah is clearly mentioned (e.g.: Isaiah 53:5,8-11; Matthew 27:32-28:8; Acts
2:22-24; Romans 5:6-8; John 19:26, 30,35, even Jesus Himself speaks about His
death and resurrection in Mark 8:31-32).
5. CONCLUSION
Many religious people were
rebuked by Jesus to belong to 'a wicked and adulterous generation'
(Matthew
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Copyright
© 2001, 2003, by Rev. Andrew Abraham. This publication may be reproduced in part or
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