Johann_Kaspar

The one about the sign of Jonas. Quite funny, isn't it?

JEST2ASK

Details please ....both regarding the scriptrial source of the prophecy and what evidence (or counter evidence) you see as proving (or disproving) that prophecy ..... (parantheis added as not sure what your stance is on the matter)

JEST2ASK

Are you making reference to Matthew 12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered saying, Teacher, we want to see a sign from You...(39) But He answered and said to them ... An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah (Jonas) ...(40) For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth...

Johann_Kaspar

Not quite, for the 3 days and 3 nights are obviously wrong. And that "prophecy" and its explanation could have been written/added later. I prefer Mt 16:4 where no explanation is given, or Lk 11:29, but also here is the explanation not to the point. I guess the original text had the shortest version without explanation (and as Papias said - if I remember right - everybody tried to interpret the sayings as they could). Mk 8:12 is funny, because obviously not understanding the sign... no sign is given at all.

Notsri

Johann, Matthew's "three days and three nights" is a Semitism which simply has been used synonymously with "on the third day" (16:21; 17:23; 20:19) and "after three days" (27:63). The same idiom is found within the pages of extra-biblical literature as well. For example, Genesis Rabbah 56:1:

ביום השלישי של יותה דכתיב יותה במעי הדגה שלשה ימים ושלשה לילות

On the third day of Jonah['s tribulation, he was revived,] as it is written, "Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."

(Don't know why the nuns appear as tavs: יותה.) :huh: