More Questions for Christians

[Jenny A]

Sorry, no one reading Jonah would conclude he was dead three days. I can't imagine a resurrection in the Bible not highlighted in bold. The grave he was referring to was a watery one from which the fish saved him at god's command.

The story I remember from memory. And though the whale makes good pics, the point of the story is what happens when a prophet runs from god. Old Jonah was on the lam. The fish tale is just extra that lends additional unbelievability. Shoel, is not a straightforward word to translate. It means Hades, but also destruction.

You're write the story is about a prophet trying to go against God's will, yet within that story there's the Messiah story. Sheol also refers to the grave. Jonah was also in the fish for thee days before he started to pray, the word "Then" in verse 1 of chapter 2 shows us this plainly. The fish did keep Jonah from drowning as was God's plan, but Jonah couldn't have lived in the fish for three days, if he had don't you think he would have had more than one prayer, especially before three days in a fishes belly.

GC

Oh I agree no man could live in a fish for three days. But then no man could be resurrected from the dead either. I find the idea that death and resurrection is the less improbable of the two quite funny. It's fiction either way.

The only real reason for choosing death is to shoehorn the tale into a pre-Jesus three days death and resurrection story. It won't wash for two reasons. First, Jonah is far from an ideal pre-Jesus. Remember he is not a willing victim and he ends up in the sea because he was running from god.

Second, Jonah's prayer is highly poetic and there's no reason to read it as a literal trip to the grave.

Finally, the traditional Jewish understanding of the story, and it is after all their story, is that Jonah was alive all three days. The Christian tendency to rewrite the OT is appalling in i's impudence. Fishy in fact.