Skip to content

Connection

The sign of Jonah

When the scribes demanded a sign, Jesus offered only Jonah: three days in the fish, and a pagan city that repented. He said the Son of Man would be three days in the earth, and that something greater than Jonah was here.

Strong allusion or echoHigh confidence

A substantial textual relationship supported by cited evidence.

Old TestamentJonah 1:17Open this record
Strong allusion or echo
New TestamentMatthew 12:39-41Open this record

Read the earlier witness

Now the Lordprovided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah 1:17 New International Version (NIV)The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

Read the later witness

39He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For 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. 41The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.
Matthew 12:39-41 New International Version (NIV)The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

Why FaithGraph draws this line

Matthew 12:39-41 alludes to Jonah 1:17.

Jesus names the sign of Jonah and compares Jonah's three days in the fish with the Son of Man's three days in the earth.

Evidence

The explanation above is FaithGraph editorial content, not Scripture.

The sign of Jonah | FaithGraph