July 20, 2025 • 22 mins
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Matthew 12: 38-42 - 'There is something greater than Solomon here.'
Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:
- 994 (in 'The Progressive Nature of the Resurrection') - Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life, announcing thereby his own Resurrection, though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the "sign of Jonah," The sign of the temple: he announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on the third day (abbreviated).
- 627 (in 'You will not let your holy one see corruption') - Jesus' Resurrection "on the third day" was the sign of this, also because bodily decay was held to begin on the fourth day after death (abbreviated).
- 635 (in 'Christ Descended into Hell') - Christ went down into the depths of death so that "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." Jesus, "the Author of life", by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. "Henceforth the risen Christ holds "the keys of Death and Hades", so that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth" (abbreviated).
- 590 (in 'Jesus and Israel's faith in the one God and Saviour') - Only the divine identity of Jesus' person can justify so absolute a claim as "He who is not with me is against me"; and his saying that there was in him "something greater than Jonah,. . . greater than Solomon", something "greater than the Temple"; his reminder that David had called the Messiah his Lord, and his affirmations, "Before Abraham was, I AM", and even "I and the Father are one."
- 678 (in 'To Judge the Living and the Dead') - Following in the steps of the prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgement of the Last Day in his preaching (abbreviated).
Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Daily Gospel
Exegesis, which is a podcast made by Logical Bible Study.
If you've been listening for a while, you know what it's all
about. It's about providing A logical
indepth, scriptural exegesis of the text of the Bible,
approaching it from a Catholic perspective, but giving you the
tools to understand the literal sense of Scripture.
(00:34):
Today, If you go to Mass, you would hear from Matthew, chapter
12, verses 38 to 42. So that is the passage we will
look at today. Here's the text.
Some of the scribes and Pharisees spoke up.
Master, they said we should liketo see a sign from you, he
replied. It is an evil and unfaithful
(00:55):
generation that asks for a sign.The only sign it will be given
is the sign of the prophet Jonah.
For as Jonah was in the belly ofthe sea monster for three days
and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of
the earth for three days and three nights.
On Judgment Day, the men of Nineveh will stand up with this
(01:17):
generation and condemn it, because when Jonah preached,
they repented. And because there is something
greater than Jonah here. On Judgment Day, the Queen of
the South will rise up with thisgeneration and condemn it,
because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom
of Solomon. And there is something greater
(01:38):
than Solomon here. So let's start, as we always do,
by thinking about the context. So Jesus has just had quite a
serious confrontation with the Pharisees and they accused him
of being possessed by the devil and that led to the famous
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit passage.
And that's we look at that text as a bonus episode of the
(02:00):
podcast. So if you're interested in
hearing an analysis of that unforgivable sin part of
Matthew, then please consider becoming a Patreon supporter.
And the link for that is in the show notes.
Today's passage continues with the theme of identity
revelations. We're going to see more aspects
of Jesus identity here, verse 38.
(02:21):
Some of the scribes and Pharisees spoke up.
So we have here two groups, the scribes and the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were basically thepopular Jewish leaders of the
common man, and they were found all over Israel.
Some were in Galilee, some high-ranking ones were in
Jerusalem. The scribes were the real
professional theologians. They were the most highly
(02:42):
trained, educated, religious Jewish elite, and they were in
charge in particular of guardingand interpreting the Torah.
So both of these two come together to ask Jesus a
question, or rather to demand something from him.
And they say master or teacher. And that's probably flattery.
(03:03):
They probably actually don't consider him to be their
teacher, but they do recognize that he is a teacher.
They say master, we should like to see a sign from you.
Now why have they said we shouldlike to see a sign from you?
It probably means something likethis.
If you really are a messenger ofGod, perform an amazing sign
(03:23):
from heaven that proves it. That's probably the angle that
they're taking this from. Now, they don't believe that
he's from God, so they don't think he's going to be able to
do it. But what's strange about this is
Jesus has already been doing miraculous signs.
The issue, of course, is that they have been attributing Jesus
power to the devil. Anyway, if you've been following
the Gospel of Matthew up to thispoint, they've already accused
(03:45):
him a couple of times of being possessed by the devil.
So even when he does do miracles, they won't accept it
as genuinely from God. So they kind of want something
blindingly obvious and on the spot, miraculous cosmic
phenomenon of some sort. And it's kind of like they're
saying Jesus forces to believe so that we won't have to trust
in you or change our hearts. So they're actually asking for
(04:07):
the easy option. They don't want to really think
it through and really trust in Jesus power.
They just want Jesus to do all the work for them.
And I guess even if Jesus did doa miracle, it's probable that
they would have attributed it tothe devil anyway.
So this is Jesus response in verse 39.
It is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign.
(04:29):
Now that unfaithful there refersparticularly to marital
relations. So another translation of this
would be, it is an evil and adulterous generation that asks
for a sign when he says here this generation or it is an evil
generation, he's thinking particularly of the leaders of
that generation. So he's talking about the Jewish
leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees.
(04:52):
Why are they unfaithful? Well, they're unfaithful to
God's covenant, basically. And God's will, really kind of
like the Old Testament Israel, which is often portrayed as an
adulterous wife in the Old Testament.
The Pharisees and the other Jewish leaders are treating God
in a similar way. They're not really trusting him.
So this generation that the leaders in particular are asking
(05:14):
for miraculous works of God rather than trusting in him, and
in particular they're not trusting in the message of the
Kingdom which Jesus is trying toreveal to them.
There's probably also echoes here of the this generation who
is what of Israel wandering in the wilderness.
In particularly in the book of Numbers, God specifically says
(05:34):
about that wandering wilderness generation.
How long will this people spurn me?
How long will they refuse to believe in me, despite all the
signs I have performed among them?
Sounds very similar, doesn't it?And maybe Jesus is deliberately
invoking that, like Israel in the wilderness, the scribes and
the Pharisees will be disinherited from the Kingdom if
(05:54):
they persist in their rejection of him, which is exactly what
happened to the Jews in the wilderness.
So Jesus now says this. The only sign this generation
will be given is the sign of theprophet Jonah.
Now Jesus here is implying that he or God could indeed do
whatever miraculous sign they want to that would satisfy their
(06:17):
demands, their criteria. But because of the belief or the
unbelief of this generation, Godis only going to choose to give
them one sign, which Jesus here calls the sign of the prophet
Jonah. And as we'll see, it's actually
a sign of judgment. The sign of the prophet Jonah,
verse 40. For as Jonah was in the belly of
the sea monster for three days and three nights, another
(06:41):
translation of sea monster thereis whale.
It's not entirely clear what kind of sea creature it was, but
you all know the story in the short prophetic book of Jonah.
In the Old Testament, Jonah is swallowed by the whale for three
days and three nights. Jesus now makes an interesting
parallel. For as Jonah was in the belly of
the sea monster for three days and three nights, so will the
(07:02):
Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and
three nights. So the Son of Man is the
Messiah. Jesus is talking about himself
here. Think about how remarkable this
prediction is, kind of just seems very casual to us because
we know that Jesus resurrects. But think about how specific
this is. Jesus hasn't resurrected yet,
(07:23):
but here he says I, the Son of Man will be in the heart of the
earth for three days and three nights.
Remarkable prediction of his resurrection.
A couple of interesting discussions often had about this
verse in theology. So some have tried to use this
verse to support the idea that Jesus was crucified on a
(07:43):
Wednesday or a Thursday. Because how else can you fit in
three days and three nights between Friday and Sunday?
You can't really, at least in modern terms.
So some scholars have thought, well, in order for Jesus
prophecy here to be fulfilled, he really couldn't have been
crucified on a Friday. That's not enough time.
But there is a solution here, and this is how exegesis helps.
(08:04):
We need to know the Jewish culture, and in particular the
way they used language. We're not required to believe,
based on this prophecy, that Jesus was in the tomb for three
nights. And the reason is this.
In the time that this text was written, 3 days and three
nights, in Jewish terms basically just meant parts of
(08:25):
three days. That's how the Jews reckon time.
A part of a day could count as afull day.
So when Jesus here says 3 days and three nights in Jewish
terms, what that meant is basically parts of three days.
And that does fit from the time period between Friday evening
and Sunday morning. So we are well within our
rights, and in fact it probably is correct to say Jesus was
(08:48):
crucified on a Friday. That's what the gospel seems to
indicate. So this, according to Jesus,
will be the primary sign which is given to the Jewish leaders.
His own resurrection will be thesign that they get.
It's not what they expect, but it's the one they're going to
get. So Jesus resurrection, like the
revival of Jonah from the whale,will be a sign of judgment
(09:09):
against those who reject God. Now this verse is often used to
also support the theory that Jonah did in fact die in the
belly of the whale, which is interesting, isn't it?
Because in the book of Jonah, it's not clear whether Jonah
dies when he's swallowed by the whale or whether he's just sort
of trapped there. There is some language in Jonah
which might suggest that he dies.
(09:30):
For example, Jonah says while he's in the belly of the whale,
I have gone down to Shiol, and if that's taken literally, it
means he did die. And Jesus here says that Jonah
will be well. He says here that the Son of Man
will be in a similar situation to what Jonah was for three days
and three nights. And that might be evidence that
Jonah did in fact die and was resurrected.
(09:53):
It's not conclusive, but it's interesting.
Jesus is now going to extend histhoughts about Jonah.
There's more parallels between him and Jonah that he wants to
bring up. So he says verse 41 on Judgment
Day. Jesus has talked about Judgment
Day a couple of times already inthe book of Matthew, and he's
(10:13):
used similar analogies so far about the towns in Galilee.
Remember, he said, woe to you Capernum, it will be terrible
for you on Judgment Day. Now he's going to use very
similar language about Judgment day, about the Jewish leaders.
He says on Judgment Day, the menof Nineveh will stand up with
this generation and condemn it because when Jonah preached,
(10:35):
they repented. Now to understand this, you need
to know the book of Jonah quite well.
After Jesus, sorry. After Jonah is resurrected,
comes out of the belly of the whale.
In the book of Jonah, he goes toa town of Nineva and preaches
that they're going to be destroyed.
Nineva is going to be destroyed if they don't repent.
And in the book of Jonah, they actually listen to Jonah and
(10:57):
they repent. So they're not destroyed.
So they repent in response to Jonah's preaching.
So Jesus now says on judgment day those men of Nineva who
repented will stand up with thisgeneration and condemn it.
So Jonah in the book of Jonah issent to an evil generation.
The town of Nineva is very evil,wicked town.
(11:18):
But when Jonah goes there, the people of Jonah noticed His
Holiness in stark contrast to their own wickedness.
And so in that sense, Jonah was assigned to them of their own
wickedness, and they actually repented in response to his
preaching, unlike the Jewish leaders in response to Jesus
preaching. Here, clearly they would be
recognizing Jesus holiness and that he's a sign of judgment
(11:41):
against them, and yet they refuse to repent in response to
his preaching. And Jesus now says they will
stand up with this generation and condemn it.
And there is now something greater than Jonah here.
So that phrase is interesting. There is something greater than
Jonah here. Jonah was a minor prophet, but
(12:01):
Jesus is the final, ultimate prophet.
He's in fact the Word Incarnate.To see the point he's making,
he's saying that, well, the Ninovites, they were willing to
repent when they hear God's message through the prophet
Jonah, whereas the Jewish leaders in Jesus time are going
to be worse off. They're going to be judged
harshly because they have accessto a fuller revelation, which is
(12:25):
Jesus himself, the Word Incarnate, and yet they don't
repent. That's his basic point.
Let's think about some more parallels here between Jonah and
Jesus. So Jonah was a Hebrew prophet
just as Jesus was. Jonah's experience sleeping on a
ship and calming a storm anticipates what Jesus does with
his disciples in Matthew 8. Of course, Jonah's 3 days in the
(12:47):
belly of the great fish foreshadows the death and 3rd
day resurrection of Jesus. In addition, the ministry of
Jonah to the Ninovites was beyond the borders of Israel.
They were Gentiles and that anticipates the spread of
Christ's gospel to all nations as well.
Now Luke's version of this account now adds another verse
(13:08):
to make it clearer. He says so will the Son of Man
be to this generation. So Luke's version makes it very
clear that that is actually whatJesus is.
He is the sign to this generation.
So the Son of Man, the Messiah, Jesus will fulfill a similar
function to Jonah. He's preaching a message of
repentance from God to a wicked generation.
(13:30):
So he's assigned to them like Jonah is.
So that's what he says about Jonah at this point.
Jesus is now going to give a second analogy to make the same
basic point. So he says on judgment day, the
Queen of the South will rise up with this generation and condemn
it. So who's the Queen of the South?
(13:51):
It's the Queen of Sheba. When Solomon is king in the Old
Testament, she hears of Solomon's wisdom and holiness
and chooses to respond and seek God as a result.
You probably know that story from when Solomon is king, the
Gentile Queen of Sheba. He is about how holy he is and
comes to get more information. So she's going to rise up with
(14:11):
this generation and condemn it. Notice the courtroom language
here. Rise up.
It's as though she's going to bethe accuser in the courtroom.
He's going to accuse this generation because she came from
the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
And now there is something greater than Solomon here.
So not only is Jesus the Messiahgreater than Jonah, he now says
(14:34):
he's greater than even Solomon, which is actually a greater
claim because the Jews held Solomon in very high regard.
So Jesus here teaches that the Messiah himself, since he's the
very son of God, he's superior to Solomon because Solomon was
only symbolically the Son of God.
But the Messiah is literally theson of God.
(14:54):
Let's think about more parallelsbetween Solomon and Jesus.
Solomon is the son of David, which of course prefigures Jesus
as the royal son of God. Like Solomon, he receives gifts
from the nations. That's interesting.
When Jesus is born, he gets gifts from the wise men, just as
Solomon did, as the wise Solomonbuilt Israel's temple.
(15:15):
You see that in the Second Samuel 7, Jesus is wisdom in the
flesh, and in fact he's God's designated builder of the new
temple, the Church. Solomon was the quintessential
wise man and temple builder. As the son of David and heir to
his Kingdom, Solomon reigned over all Israel and in fact he
extended his dominion to all nations.
(15:38):
So in that sense he prefigures Christ as the Son of David who
as we know is the embodiment of wisdom and the new temple
builder. And of course Jesus is going to
rule over the 12 tribes of Israel as well as the nations of
the world. So you see all these kind of
royal parallels here which are really interesting.
So here's the point Jesus is making about the Queen of Sheba.
(16:00):
If the Queen of Sheba, the Queenof the South, was able to
recognize the message of God in a minus sign like Solomon,
because that's what Solomon was,he was assigned to the nations,
then logically the Jews of JesusDay should have been able to
recognize the much more obvious sign of the Messiah.
But since the Jews, the Jewish leaders in Jesus Day, don't
(16:21):
respond, the Queen of the South will be among those who rise up
and condemn the generation on Judgment Day because she
repented. She did the right thing in
response to God's revelation, whereas the Jewish leaders did
not. That's the point he's making.
In other words, the Jewish leaders are more accountable
because they have been given a greater revelation, but they
(16:41):
still rejected it. So with these references to
Jonah and Solomon put together, Matthew is has included this
passage because he wants to highlight to his readers that
Jesus is both prophet and king. So what did the Queen of the
South and the men of Nineveh have in common?
Well, they're both repented whenthey heard the minor messages
God sent them, and they would have responded and repented if
(17:04):
they had heard the preaching of the Messiah too.
But on top of that, notice they're both Gentiles.
Nineveh and the Queen of the South, both are Gentile areas.
So Jesus is really digging the needle in here to the Jewish
leaders. He's telling them that if even
the Gentiles can recognize a genuine message from God, why
can't the Jewish leaders do that?
(17:25):
So this would have made them really angry.
Now whether the Queen of Sheba and the men of Nineveh will
actually literally rise up on judgment day and condemn them is
not clear. It could just be a figure of
speech. But Jesus overall point is that
the Jewish leaders are more accountable than them and they
should have repented, but they haven't, so their judgment is
going to be harsher. The next passage in Matthew
(17:48):
chapter 12 is verse 43 to 45, and that's about evil spirits
who return after being cast out.And that's actually a logical
extension of what he's been saying to the Jewish leaders
here. Now it's not included in the
electionary. You'll never hear verses 43 to
45 of the Gospel of Matthew, so this, like other parts in
(18:11):
Matthew chapter 12 we're going to cover as a bonus episode of
the podcast. So if you want to hear an
indepth exegesis of the following verses that follow on
from this, you can access that through the Patreon page.
And there's information about that in the show notes on our
next weekday. We'll continue from verse 46.
Let's now turn to the Catechism and see what it has to say about
(18:34):
the passage. We've looked at Paragraph 994 is
about the progressive nature of the resurrection already now in
this present life. He gives a sign and pledge of
this by restoring some of the dead to life, announcing there
by his own resurrection, though it was to be of another order.
He speaks of this unique event as the sign of Jonah, the sign
(18:57):
of the temple as well. He announces that he will be put
to death and rise on the third day.
So you clearly hear that here there the reference to the sign
of Jonah in today's passage, paragraph 6 through 7 makes a
really interesting point about the three days in the tomb.
So it says Jesus resurrection onthe third day was the sign of
(19:17):
this also because bodily decay was held to begin on the 4th day
after death. So this is interesting.
We often don't think about why was Jesus in there for three
days, not shorter, not longer. It appears to be because Jesus
knows that the Jewish belief at the time is that true bodily
(19:38):
decay begins on the 4th day after death, and something about
that prompts him to say I'm going to choose to resurrect
before we reach the 4th day. So there's some interesting kind
of theology going on there behind the scenes.
Paragraph 635, This is about Christ's descent into hell.
That phrase from the Apostle's Creed which says he descended
(20:00):
into hell, which we often don't talk about, but here it gets a
reference. So, paragraph 635.
Christ went down into the depthsof death so that the dead will
hear the voice of the Son of Godand those who here will live.
Jesus, the author of life, by destroying him who by dying
destroyed him who has the power of death, that is the devil, and
(20:22):
delivered all those who through fear of death was subject to
lifelong bondage. Henceforth the risen Christ
holds the keys of death in Hades, so that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, on unearth and under the
earth. So interestingly, the paragraph
references the sorry the catechism.
Here references Matthew chapter 12 when Jesus says I will be in
(20:46):
the belly of the earth for threedays and three nights.
That is does suggest that Jesus went down into the realm of the
dead. He wasn't merely in the tomb, he
went into the belly of the earth.
He descended to the realm of thedead and that is certainly a
Catholic belief. Paragraph 590 says only the
divine identity of Jesus person can justify so absolute claim as
(21:11):
he who is not with me is againstme and he's saying that there
was in him something greater than Jonah, something greater
than Solomon and something greater than the Temple.
And the paragraph goes on to list other claims Jesus makes
about himself. And lastly, paragraph 678, this
is about Judgment Day. Following in the steps of the
(21:31):
prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgment of
the last day in his preaching. So lots of interesting stuff to
meditate on from this passage. Thank you once again for tuning
in. We'll continue to look at
Matthew Chapter 12 in the next podcast.
Thanks and we'll see you then.
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Daily Gospel
Exegesis, which is a podcast made by Logical Bible Study.
If you've been listening for a while, you know what it's all
about. It's about providing A logical
indepth, scriptural exegesis of the text of the Bible,
approaching it from a Catholic perspective, but giving you the
tools to understand the literal sense of Scripture.
(00:34):
Today, If you go to Mass, you would hear from Matthew, chapter
12, verses 38 to 42. So that is the passage we will
look at today. Here's the text.
Some of the scribes and Pharisees spoke up.
Master, they said we should liketo see a sign from you, he
replied. It is an evil and unfaithful
(00:55):
generation that asks for a sign.The only sign it will be given
is the sign of the prophet Jonah.
For as Jonah was in the belly ofthe sea monster for three days
and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of
the earth for three days and three nights.
On Judgment Day, the men of Nineveh will stand up with this
(01:17):
generation and condemn it, because when Jonah preached,
they repented. And because there is something
greater than Jonah here. On Judgment Day, the Queen of
the South will rise up with thisgeneration and condemn it,
because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom
of Solomon. And there is something greater
(01:38):
than Solomon here. So let's start, as we always do,
by thinking about the context. So Jesus has just had quite a
serious confrontation with the Pharisees and they accused him
of being possessed by the devil and that led to the famous
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit passage.
And that's we look at that text as a bonus episode of the
(02:00):
podcast. So if you're interested in
hearing an analysis of that unforgivable sin part of
Matthew, then please consider becoming a Patreon supporter.
And the link for that is in the show notes.
Today's passage continues with the theme of identity
revelations. We're going to see more aspects
of Jesus identity here, verse 38.
(02:21):
Some of the scribes and Pharisees spoke up.
So we have here two groups, the scribes and the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were basically thepopular Jewish leaders of the
common man, and they were found all over Israel.
Some were in Galilee, some high-ranking ones were in
Jerusalem. The scribes were the real
professional theologians. They were the most highly
(02:42):
trained, educated, religious Jewish elite, and they were in
charge in particular of guardingand interpreting the Torah.
So both of these two come together to ask Jesus a
question, or rather to demand something from him.
And they say master or teacher. And that's probably flattery.
(03:03):
They probably actually don't consider him to be their
teacher, but they do recognize that he is a teacher.
They say master, we should like to see a sign from you.
Now why have they said we shouldlike to see a sign from you?
It probably means something likethis.
If you really are a messenger ofGod, perform an amazing sign
(03:23):
from heaven that proves it. That's probably the angle that
they're taking this from. Now, they don't believe that
he's from God, so they don't think he's going to be able to
do it. But what's strange about this is
Jesus has already been doing miraculous signs.
The issue, of course, is that they have been attributing Jesus
power to the devil. Anyway, if you've been following
the Gospel of Matthew up to thispoint, they've already accused
(03:45):
him a couple of times of being possessed by the devil.
So even when he does do miracles, they won't accept it
as genuinely from God. So they kind of want something
blindingly obvious and on the spot, miraculous cosmic
phenomenon of some sort. And it's kind of like they're
saying Jesus forces to believe so that we won't have to trust
in you or change our hearts. So they're actually asking for
(04:07):
the easy option. They don't want to really think
it through and really trust in Jesus power.
They just want Jesus to do all the work for them.
And I guess even if Jesus did doa miracle, it's probable that
they would have attributed it tothe devil anyway.
So this is Jesus response in verse 39.
It is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign.
(04:29):
Now that unfaithful there refersparticularly to marital
relations. So another translation of this
would be, it is an evil and adulterous generation that asks
for a sign when he says here this generation or it is an evil
generation, he's thinking particularly of the leaders of
that generation. So he's talking about the Jewish
leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees.
(04:52):
Why are they unfaithful? Well, they're unfaithful to
God's covenant, basically. And God's will, really kind of
like the Old Testament Israel, which is often portrayed as an
adulterous wife in the Old Testament.
The Pharisees and the other Jewish leaders are treating God
in a similar way. They're not really trusting him.
So this generation that the leaders in particular are asking
(05:14):
for miraculous works of God rather than trusting in him, and
in particular they're not trusting in the message of the
Kingdom which Jesus is trying toreveal to them.
There's probably also echoes here of the this generation who
is what of Israel wandering in the wilderness.
In particularly in the book of Numbers, God specifically says
(05:34):
about that wandering wilderness generation.
How long will this people spurn me?
How long will they refuse to believe in me, despite all the
signs I have performed among them?
Sounds very similar, doesn't it?And maybe Jesus is deliberately
invoking that, like Israel in the wilderness, the scribes and
the Pharisees will be disinherited from the Kingdom if
(05:54):
they persist in their rejection of him, which is exactly what
happened to the Jews in the wilderness.
So Jesus now says this. The only sign this generation
will be given is the sign of theprophet Jonah.
Now Jesus here is implying that he or God could indeed do
whatever miraculous sign they want to that would satisfy their
(06:17):
demands, their criteria. But because of the belief or the
unbelief of this generation, Godis only going to choose to give
them one sign, which Jesus here calls the sign of the prophet
Jonah. And as we'll see, it's actually
a sign of judgment. The sign of the prophet Jonah,
verse 40. For as Jonah was in the belly of
the sea monster for three days and three nights, another
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translation of sea monster thereis whale.
It's not entirely clear what kind of sea creature it was, but
you all know the story in the short prophetic book of Jonah.
In the Old Testament, Jonah is swallowed by the whale for three
days and three nights. Jesus now makes an interesting
parallel. For as Jonah was in the belly of
the sea monster for three days and three nights, so will the
(07:02):
Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and
three nights. So the Son of Man is the
Messiah. Jesus is talking about himself
here. Think about how remarkable this
prediction is, kind of just seems very casual to us because
we know that Jesus resurrects. But think about how specific
this is. Jesus hasn't resurrected yet,
(07:23):
but here he says I, the Son of Man will be in the heart of the
earth for three days and three nights.
Remarkable prediction of his resurrection.
A couple of interesting discussions often had about this
verse in theology. So some have tried to use this
verse to support the idea that Jesus was crucified on a
(07:43):
Wednesday or a Thursday. Because how else can you fit in
three days and three nights between Friday and Sunday?
You can't really, at least in modern terms.
So some scholars have thought, well, in order for Jesus
prophecy here to be fulfilled, he really couldn't have been
crucified on a Friday. That's not enough time.
But there is a solution here, and this is how exegesis helps.
(08:04):
We need to know the Jewish culture, and in particular the
way they used language. We're not required to believe,
based on this prophecy, that Jesus was in the tomb for three
nights. And the reason is this.
In the time that this text was written, 3 days and three
nights, in Jewish terms basically just meant parts of
(08:25):
three days. That's how the Jews reckon time.
A part of a day could count as afull day.
So when Jesus here says 3 days and three nights in Jewish
terms, what that meant is basically parts of three days.
And that does fit from the time period between Friday evening
and Sunday morning. So we are well within our
rights, and in fact it probably is correct to say Jesus was
(08:48):
crucified on a Friday. That's what the gospel seems to
indicate. So this, according to Jesus,
will be the primary sign which is given to the Jewish leaders.
His own resurrection will be thesign that they get.
It's not what they expect, but it's the one they're going to
get. So Jesus resurrection, like the
revival of Jonah from the whale,will be a sign of judgment
(09:09):
against those who reject God. Now this verse is often used to
also support the theory that Jonah did in fact die in the
belly of the whale, which is interesting, isn't it?
Because in the book of Jonah, it's not clear whether Jonah
dies when he's swallowed by the whale or whether he's just sort
of trapped there. There is some language in Jonah
which might suggest that he dies.
(09:30):
For example, Jonah says while he's in the belly of the whale,
I have gone down to Shiol, and if that's taken literally, it
means he did die. And Jesus here says that Jonah
will be well. He says here that the Son of Man
will be in a similar situation to what Jonah was for three days
and three nights. And that might be evidence that
Jonah did in fact die and was resurrected.
(09:53):
It's not conclusive, but it's interesting.
Jesus is now going to extend histhoughts about Jonah.
There's more parallels between him and Jonah that he wants to
bring up. So he says verse 41 on Judgment
Day. Jesus has talked about Judgment
Day a couple of times already inthe book of Matthew, and he's
(10:13):
used similar analogies so far about the towns in Galilee.
Remember, he said, woe to you Capernum, it will be terrible
for you on Judgment Day. Now he's going to use very
similar language about Judgment day, about the Jewish leaders.
He says on Judgment Day, the menof Nineveh will stand up with
this generation and condemn it because when Jonah preached,
(10:35):
they repented. Now to understand this, you need
to know the book of Jonah quite well.
After Jesus, sorry. After Jonah is resurrected,
comes out of the belly of the whale.
In the book of Jonah, he goes toa town of Nineva and preaches
that they're going to be destroyed.
Nineva is going to be destroyed if they don't repent.
And in the book of Jonah, they actually listen to Jonah and
(10:57):
they repent. So they're not destroyed.
So they repent in response to Jonah's preaching.
So Jesus now says on judgment day those men of Nineva who
repented will stand up with thisgeneration and condemn it.
So Jonah in the book of Jonah issent to an evil generation.
The town of Nineva is very evil,wicked town.
(11:18):
But when Jonah goes there, the people of Jonah noticed His
Holiness in stark contrast to their own wickedness.
And so in that sense, Jonah was assigned to them of their own
wickedness, and they actually repented in response to his
preaching, unlike the Jewish leaders in response to Jesus
preaching. Here, clearly they would be
recognizing Jesus holiness and that he's a sign of judgment
(11:41):
against them, and yet they refuse to repent in response to
his preaching. And Jesus now says they will
stand up with this generation and condemn it.
And there is now something greater than Jonah here.
So that phrase is interesting. There is something greater than
Jonah here. Jonah was a minor prophet, but
(12:01):
Jesus is the final, ultimate prophet.
He's in fact the Word Incarnate.To see the point he's making,
he's saying that, well, the Ninovites, they were willing to
repent when they hear God's message through the prophet
Jonah, whereas the Jewish leaders in Jesus time are going
to be worse off. They're going to be judged
harshly because they have accessto a fuller revelation, which is
(12:25):
Jesus himself, the Word Incarnate, and yet they don't
repent. That's his basic point.
Let's think about some more parallels here between Jonah and
Jesus. So Jonah was a Hebrew prophet
just as Jesus was. Jonah's experience sleeping on a
ship and calming a storm anticipates what Jesus does with
his disciples in Matthew 8. Of course, Jonah's 3 days in the
(12:47):
belly of the great fish foreshadows the death and 3rd
day resurrection of Jesus. In addition, the ministry of
Jonah to the Ninovites was beyond the borders of Israel.
They were Gentiles and that anticipates the spread of
Christ's gospel to all nations as well.
Now Luke's version of this account now adds another verse
(13:08):
to make it clearer. He says so will the Son of Man
be to this generation. So Luke's version makes it very
clear that that is actually whatJesus is.
He is the sign to this generation.
So the Son of Man, the Messiah, Jesus will fulfill a similar
function to Jonah. He's preaching a message of
repentance from God to a wicked generation.
(13:30):
So he's assigned to them like Jonah is.
So that's what he says about Jonah at this point.
Jesus is now going to give a second analogy to make the same
basic point. So he says on judgment day, the
Queen of the South will rise up with this generation and condemn
it. So who's the Queen of the South?
(13:51):
It's the Queen of Sheba. When Solomon is king in the Old
Testament, she hears of Solomon's wisdom and holiness
and chooses to respond and seek God as a result.
You probably know that story from when Solomon is king, the
Gentile Queen of Sheba. He is about how holy he is and
comes to get more information. So she's going to rise up with
(14:11):
this generation and condemn it. Notice the courtroom language
here. Rise up.
It's as though she's going to bethe accuser in the courtroom.
He's going to accuse this generation because she came from
the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
And now there is something greater than Solomon here.
So not only is Jesus the Messiahgreater than Jonah, he now says
(14:34):
he's greater than even Solomon, which is actually a greater
claim because the Jews held Solomon in very high regard.
So Jesus here teaches that the Messiah himself, since he's the
very son of God, he's superior to Solomon because Solomon was
only symbolically the Son of God.
But the Messiah is literally theson of God.
(14:54):
Let's think about more parallelsbetween Solomon and Jesus.
Solomon is the son of David, which of course prefigures Jesus
as the royal son of God. Like Solomon, he receives gifts
from the nations. That's interesting.
When Jesus is born, he gets gifts from the wise men, just as
Solomon did, as the wise Solomonbuilt Israel's temple.
(15:15):
You see that in the Second Samuel 7, Jesus is wisdom in the
flesh, and in fact he's God's designated builder of the new
temple, the Church. Solomon was the quintessential
wise man and temple builder. As the son of David and heir to
his Kingdom, Solomon reigned over all Israel and in fact he
extended his dominion to all nations.
(15:38):
So in that sense he prefigures Christ as the Son of David who
as we know is the embodiment of wisdom and the new temple
builder. And of course Jesus is going to
rule over the 12 tribes of Israel as well as the nations of
the world. So you see all these kind of
royal parallels here which are really interesting.
So here's the point Jesus is making about the Queen of Sheba.
(16:00):
If the Queen of Sheba, the Queenof the South, was able to
recognize the message of God in a minus sign like Solomon,
because that's what Solomon was,he was assigned to the nations,
then logically the Jews of JesusDay should have been able to
recognize the much more obvious sign of the Messiah.
But since the Jews, the Jewish leaders in Jesus Day, don't
(16:21):
respond, the Queen of the South will be among those who rise up
and condemn the generation on Judgment Day because she
repented. She did the right thing in
response to God's revelation, whereas the Jewish leaders did
not. That's the point he's making.
In other words, the Jewish leaders are more accountable
because they have been given a greater revelation, but they
(16:41):
still rejected it. So with these references to
Jonah and Solomon put together, Matthew is has included this
passage because he wants to highlight to his readers that
Jesus is both prophet and king. So what did the Queen of the
South and the men of Nineveh have in common?
Well, they're both repented whenthey heard the minor messages
God sent them, and they would have responded and repented if
(17:04):
they had heard the preaching of the Messiah too.
But on top of that, notice they're both Gentiles.
Nineveh and the Queen of the South, both are Gentile areas.
So Jesus is really digging the needle in here to the Jewish
leaders. He's telling them that if even
the Gentiles can recognize a genuine message from God, why
can't the Jewish leaders do that?
(17:25):
So this would have made them really angry.
Now whether the Queen of Sheba and the men of Nineveh will
actually literally rise up on judgment day and condemn them is
not clear. It could just be a figure of
speech. But Jesus overall point is that
the Jewish leaders are more accountable than them and they
should have repented, but they haven't, so their judgment is
going to be harsher. The next passage in Matthew
(17:48):
chapter 12 is verse 43 to 45, and that's about evil spirits
who return after being cast out.And that's actually a logical
extension of what he's been saying to the Jewish leaders
here. Now it's not included in the
electionary. You'll never hear verses 43 to
45 of the Gospel of Matthew, so this, like other parts in
(18:11):
Matthew chapter 12 we're going to cover as a bonus episode of
the podcast. So if you want to hear an
indepth exegesis of the following verses that follow on
from this, you can access that through the Patreon page.
And there's information about that in the show notes on our
next weekday. We'll continue from verse 46.
Let's now turn to the Catechism and see what it has to say about
(18:34):
the passage. We've looked at Paragraph 994 is
about the progressive nature of the resurrection already now in
this present life. He gives a sign and pledge of
this by restoring some of the dead to life, announcing there
by his own resurrection, though it was to be of another order.
He speaks of this unique event as the sign of Jonah, the sign
(18:57):
of the temple as well. He announces that he will be put
to death and rise on the third day.
So you clearly hear that here there the reference to the sign
of Jonah in today's passage, paragraph 6 through 7 makes a
really interesting point about the three days in the tomb.
So it says Jesus resurrection onthe third day was the sign of
(19:17):
this also because bodily decay was held to begin on the 4th day
after death. So this is interesting.
We often don't think about why was Jesus in there for three
days, not shorter, not longer. It appears to be because Jesus
knows that the Jewish belief at the time is that true bodily
(19:38):
decay begins on the 4th day after death, and something about
that prompts him to say I'm going to choose to resurrect
before we reach the 4th day. So there's some interesting kind
of theology going on there behind the scenes.
Paragraph 635, This is about Christ's descent into hell.
That phrase from the Apostle's Creed which says he descended
(20:00):
into hell, which we often don't talk about, but here it gets a
reference. So, paragraph 635.
Christ went down into the depthsof death so that the dead will
hear the voice of the Son of Godand those who here will live.
Jesus, the author of life, by destroying him who by dying
destroyed him who has the power of death, that is the devil, and
(20:22):
delivered all those who through fear of death was subject to
lifelong bondage. Henceforth the risen Christ
holds the keys of death in Hades, so that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, on unearth and under the
earth. So interestingly, the paragraph
references the sorry the catechism.
Here references Matthew chapter 12 when Jesus says I will be in
(20:46):
the belly of the earth for threedays and three nights.
That is does suggest that Jesus went down into the realm of the
dead. He wasn't merely in the tomb, he
went into the belly of the earth.
He descended to the realm of thedead and that is certainly a
Catholic belief. Paragraph 590 says only the
divine identity of Jesus person can justify so absolute claim as
(21:11):
he who is not with me is againstme and he's saying that there
was in him something greater than Jonah, something greater
than Solomon and something greater than the Temple.
And the paragraph goes on to list other claims Jesus makes
about himself. And lastly, paragraph 678, this
is about Judgment Day. Following in the steps of the
(21:31):
prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgment of
the last day in his preaching. So lots of interesting stuff to
meditate on from this passage. Thank you once again for tuning
in. We'll continue to look at
Matthew Chapter 12 in the next podcast.
Thanks and we'll see you then.
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