“the
LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah,
and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights”
Jonah
1:17 (NIV)
and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights”
“Did
this really happen?”
In my experience this is the most frequently asked question when
reading Jonah.
“In a fish for three days, praying a beautiful prayer while in
there and surviving?”
I have read all kinds of responses to this.
Some say, “never happened, it’s a made up story”.
Others say, “Why not, God can do anything”.
Others point to examples of this having actually happened in
modern times (although internet fact checkers say these stories never
happened).
Furthermore, the issue takes on greater importance
because Jesus referred to this passage as the sign by which people would
discover that he is Lord
(Matt 16:4).
The question gets further confused when some people insist that
every aspect of the Bible must be accurate as in eyewitness news fact
reporting and others insist that there is much in the Bible that must be
read metaphorically.
And that’s only the tip of the iceberg!
Here’s
what I have discovered and concluded.
Some Bible believing scholars believe that the book of Jonah
details an event that happened in history.
Period. Other
Bible believing scholars (who also refer to the Bible as inerrant,
inspired and infallible)
believe that Jonah is more like one of Jesus’ parables, a story
written to show us what God is like over and against what many of us are
like.
So
who’s right?
Both sets of scholars are rigorous, godly, devout scholars.
What I do with this is
to open my mind to consider that either side could be correct.
Of course God can do out of the ordinary things.
And of course God can use lots of stories, metaphors, word
pictures to get his point across.
Jesus did both and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to think that
Jesus was referring to a non historical but full of truth story of
Jonah.
Here’s
one fundamental rule of how to read the Bible.
Readings from the Bible mean at least what the inspired author of
the passage intended it to mean.
If the author of Jonah was Jonah and he intended it recount
actual historical events, then that’s exactly how to read Jonah.
If the author was someone who intended the story to be read as
something like a parable then that’s exactly how it should be read.
In neither case is one reading more “true” than the other.
Either reading is God’s truth.
To
be perfectly honest, I do not feel an allegiance to one position or the
other. I
do not find compelling the argument of those who say Jesus would never
have used a parable to authenticate his deity via the resurrection, nor
do I believe that we have to remove the miracles from the Old Testament.
It all depends on who’s writing what and for what purpose.
Therefore
it’s always good to read the Bible using a Bible with notes, and to
read your Bible with a good commentary to help you understand the
context of what you are reading, who the author was, what he’s
addressing.
Above
all, do read your Bible!
Of all practices that a Christian can engage in, studies have
shown that Bible reading is the most catalytic.
For
more:
follow on Twitter @jefflampl
Jonah happened. In the OT times, it would be inconceivable for a prophet to try and convert a Gentile nation, especially an enemy nation like Assyria. Further, Jonah cried out from Sheol (2:2) and since Sheol is "the abode of the dead in early Hebrew thought", it has to be that Jonah died. Then, 3 days later, Jonah was resurrected for verse 2:6 says "You have brought up my life from the pit." So when Jesus mentioned "the sign of Jonah", He was talking of dying and being resurrected, not just being out of sight. Just one person's opinion.
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