What is the truth about the sign of Jonah being in the whale’s belly that Jesus referenced to? He said He was going to be in the heart of the earth in the same span of time as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights.
Jon 1:17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Mt 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so, shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Controversy abounds of the phrase’s meaning of “three days and three nights”. Why would there even be some question of what is meant by the term? When someone tells me they are going to be out of town for three days and three nights, I understand what they just said. They are going to be out of town three days and three nights. One + one = two + one more = three days (day light time). One + one = two + one more = three (nighttime, dark time).
There, is that so hard? There are twenty-four hours in a day. Astronomical facts back that up. Some of those twenty-four hours are of sunlight hours and the rest of twenty-four hours are dark hours because the sun no longer shines at night. There, was that so hard?
That is, oh I don’t know, maybe kindergarden-1st grade Education. There, controversy solved, Jesus was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly. Simple, is it not? Well, not for many it seems there are those that haven’t gotten their 1st grade “diploma”.
Just check out the internet and see how many “Bible scholars”, supposedly well-educated that can’t seem to understand what three days and three nights mean. Perhaps they just skipped kindergarden-1st grade and went straight to 2nd grade having missed out on some basic knowledge thinking the term three days and three nights mean parts of days and parts of nights. Are you one of those scholars?
So, why the controversy? It all comes down to the “good Friday- Sunday morning so called resurrection.
One can’t possibly fit three days Jesus being put in the tomb Friday before sunset (still part of a daylight span of hours) and calculate three full day light days and three full night times with a Sunday morning resurrection.
You are convinced that Good Friday is the day of Jesus’s death, and He was resurrected on Sunday morning about sunup. Jesus had already risen so forget about there being three parts of a daylight hour or hours as well as there being three nights or even parts of nights. But none of that matters because you have a doctrine, and you must make your doctrine fit your narrative with scripture that clearly disproves your point. But no matter you will figure a way around that!
So, lo and behold someone conjured up this doozy. The phrase three days and three nights must be an “idiom”.
idiom
(ˈɪdɪəm)
n
(Linguistics) a group of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the constituent words, as for example (It was raining) cats and dogs. (from “free dictionary”-internet)
We know it never rains, literally cats and dogs. But you can literally know what three means, (if you know basic math). You can also know what day and night mean. So, when I tell you I’m going to be out of town for the next three days and three nights, you know what I mean. The last thing to come to your mind, “oh, he must mean parts of days and parts of nights”. Are you with me yet, or did I lose you after I graduated from a first grade Education?
Let’s get to “the real heart of the matter”. Did you spot the idiom? You know what a heart is but what is “matter”? It could almost mean anything, nothing concrete. But just like raining “cats and dogs” you know it is raining lots, so to, you know by the use of an idiom, you know I’m about to dispel the false doctrine of parts of days and parts of nights and if you are one to believe in “parts”, you won’t like what I have to say, if perhaps you already don’t like what I have said up to this point.
Let’s go back in time (figuratively). If you lived in the days of Jesus’s ministry, and you heard Him say, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”, would you have then concluded right then and there and say to yourself, “He must mean parts of days and parts of nights, as He was referring to the book of Jonah”?
The New Testament hadn’t been written yet, so His words were not yet in a book for you to read. All you had is what He just said and having read the book of Jonah yourself in Greek back then, you would know what He was referring to. Parts of three days and three nights would never have been in your pea-pick- in brain, and you know it. (That is, for those who believe this lie.)
Furthermore, if you read the book of Jonah right now, you would not conclude that the book of Jonah in the very wording of the text even implies parts of days and parts of nights. Just for one minute, forget there even is a New Testament with such a reference to the book of Jonah, you wouldn’t even consider that the text in Jonah 1:17 is meaning parts of days-nights, and you know it!
But wait, there’s more, back to the time of God’s flood (not Noah’s-it is a misnomer), Noah didn’t flood anything). Ge 7:7 “And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Ge 7:4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.” Ge 7:12 “And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights”. Look here now, who in their right mind would think, this must be an idiom, “God must have meant “parts” of forty days and “parts” of forty nights? Oh, so you don’t believe it could possibly have rained twenty four day-night hours straight for a full forty days. Doesn’t almost any reader just except the plain wording that God meant just what He said. Forty days is forty days no more no less and that forty nights is just that forty nights no more no less? So why not take God (Jesus) at His word when it comes to what He says about Jonah being in the whales belly (the same wording as in the “flood”) for three days and three nights? You tell me, why not? I will say it one more time for those who have not “ears to hear and eyes to see”, the phrase three days and three nights as also forty days and forty nights are quite specific. No need to guess something other, except of course you have an agenda of a false doctrine to fit your web of lies and make it look like you and others that you teach, look sound. The problem though, there is no soundness in illogical reasoning!
One more thing, if I said it rained cats and dogs for three days and three nights, would you be looking for cats and dogs on the ground and conclude since there weren’t really to many cats and dogs all over the ground, it must have only rained parts of three days and parts of three nights?
If Jesus really meant parts of days and nights, He would have said just that. It seems that people will fall for almost any lie rather than believe the simple truth. 2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. ”2Co 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ”. Yes, simple, three as also forty is just that. If I give you three apples, do you conclude I only gave you parts of three apples, one being only a quarter of an apple, one being only half of an apple and one being only three quarters of an apple? Or are you ok with looking at the apples and seeing that all three are indeed whole apples?
Conclusion, a Friday crucifixion, and Easter Sunday morning resurrection is not Biblical by the very words of Jesus. So, all who teach this lie, now is the time to stop lying! |
