Matthew 12:40

Wednesday, 27 August 2025

 

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. Matthew 12:40

 

“For just as Jonah, he was in the lunker’s belly three days and three nights, thus He will be, the Son of Man, in the earth’s heart three days and three nights” (CG).

 

In the previous verse, Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees that a “Generation – evil and adulteress – it seeks a sign, and not it will be given it, if not the sign of Jonah the prophet.” He continues with that now, saying, “For just as Jonah, he was in the lunker’s belly.”

 

Two new words are seen. The first is found only here in Scripture, kétos, a huge fish. It is believed to possibly be from chasma, a chasm. That comes from an obsolete word, chao, to gape or yawn. Thus, the idea is that of the gaping mouth of such a fish. The type of fish is not stated here. Some translations say “whale.” That could be correct, even though whales aren’t fish.

 

Some say sea monster, great fish, huge fish, etc. As it is unknown whether it is a fish, whale, or other sea monster, a single word that gets the idea across is lunker, which signifies “an exceptionally large specimen of something, in particular (among anglers) a fish” (Online Dictionary).

 

The next new word is koilia, the belly or womb. It is derived from koilos, hollow. Thus, it signifies a cavity. The context of the sentence will then provide the appropriate sense of what is being referred to. Jesus next says that Jonah was in this lunker’s belly “three days and three nights.”

 

The duration is specific, but its meaning, like many such things in Scripture, must be derived from the surrounding context. That will be considered momentarily. For now, Jesus says, “thus He will be, the Son of Man, in the earth’s heart.”

 

It is a term not found in exactly this manner elsewhere, and so the meaning must be derived from the story of Jonah in relation to the events coming upon Jesus. Any other view will force something not intended into the narrative.

 

Special note: To understand the amazing details of Jonah’s life, it would be unconscionable not to read or watch the Jonah sermons from the Superior Word library. There, the incredible story is opened up and explained in a manner not found anywhere else.

 

Having said that, when Jonah was cast into the sea, a picture of Christ’s death. He was swallowed by the dagah, fish, in Hebrew, or the kétos, fish, in the Greek Septuagint. From there, it says in Jonah 2:3 –

 

“From womb Sheol, I cried, You heard my voice, And you caused to cast me – depth, In heart seas.” Jonah 2:3 (CG)

 

In Greek, the word translated as heart is kardias, the same as that used by Jesus here in Matthew. Likewise, the word translated as womb in the Hebrew text is the same as what Jesus uses here, koilia.

 

In other words, Jonah is speaking in parallelism, a literary device found elsewhere in the book and throughout the Bible. He is equating Sheol (Greek: Hades) and equating it directly to the belly of the fish. That is then set in parallelism to the heart. This is done while citing the essential contents of Jonah 2:3.

 

Jesus is taking the story of Jonah and equating the heart of the seas to His own coming death. As such, He has replaced “heart of the seas,” something the Jews were perfectly familiar with from the story, and equates His coming descent into Hades as the “heart of the earth.” This is the parallelism (Sheol = heart seas/heart earth) from which the intent must be derived. Understanding this, He next says this will be for “three days and three nights.”

 

This is a phrase that, unfortunately, leads to all kinds of misinterpretations and misanalyses of what Jesus went through. The timeline of Jesus’ passion, crucifixion, and resurrection is painfully clear when properly laid out. Jesus was crucified on a Friday, He was in the tomb throughout Saturday, and He arose on Sunday.

 

To confirm this timeline, a complete analysis of it will be attached at the end of the verses referring to Jesus’ words in this account, meaning after Matthew 12:42. Because of Jesus’ words here, however, some dogmatically claim that Jesus had to be in the grave a full three days and three nights. Some go so far as to demand a literal 72 hours.

 

This then leads to unscripturally backing up the crucifixion to Thursday or even Wednesday. But this then leads to many other unjustifiable claims, such as a “second Passover meal,” etc. These things are unscriptural, but must be made up to justify the unjustifiable.

 

The term “three days and three nights” simply speaks of any part of a day and a night. This is seen, for example, in 1 Samuel 30:12. However, it is expli