Resurrection & AscensionClear Fulfillment
The Sign of Jonah
Written: ~760 BC→Fulfilled: ~AD 30
Jesus identified Jonah's three days in the fish as a type of his own three days in the tomb before resurrection.
Prophecy & Fulfillment
Old Testament Prophecy
Jonah 1:17
"Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."
New Testament Fulfillment
Matthew 12:40
"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."
Commentary
Jesus himself identified the sign of Jonah as the only sign he would give to the Pharisees. Jonah's emergence from the fish after three days typologically prefigures the resurrection. This is one of the clearest examples of typological prophecy in the Gospels.