.
• Jonah 1:17 . . Jehovah appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, so that
Jonah came to be in the inward parts of the fish three days and three nights.
FAQ: Was Jonah alive in the fish?
REPLY: Yes. (Jonah 2:1)
FAQ: The whole time?
REPLY: No.
FAQ: So you think Jonah died in the fish?
REPLY: Jonah 2:5-7 strongly suggests that he drowned prior to being swallowed
by the big fish. In other words; there's cause to believe he wasn't buried
alive: same as Jesus; he wasn't buried alive either.
FAQ: The story claims Jonah prayed from within the fish. How would that be
possible if he was dead?
REPLY: Jonah's recorded prayer was spoken very close to the end of his
adventure: the bulk of those three days and three nights were practically
over and done with already. In other words; his recorded prayer fills in the
blanks.
For a portion of his time, Jonah was in a place called sheol (Jonah 2:2) which
he located at the bottoms of the mountains (Jonah 2:6) and from which he
prayed an unrecorded prayer.
Well; the bottoms of the mountains aren't located in the tummies of fish, no;
they're located deep underground. So, the only way that Jonah could possibly
be at the bottoms of the mountains while simultaneously in a fish was for
the man and his body to part company and go their separate ways.
Also, the language of Jonah's recorded prayer strongly suggests that he
underwent a resurrection.
"But out of the pit you proceeded to bring up my life, O Jehovah my God."
(Jonah 2:6)
The Hebrew word for "pit" in that verse speaks of putrefaction.
The very same Hebrew word is located in Ps 16:8-10, which Acts 2:25-31
verifies is speaking of a dead body.
FAQ: Why should we care whether Jonah was dead or alive?
REPLY: There are well-meaning folk at large insisting that human life is
entirely physical, viz: when people die they go out of existence. But Jonah's
prayer-- not the one he prayed from inside the fish, rather, the one he
prayed while down at the bottoms of the mountains --strongly suggests that
he was existing beyond the demise of his body; which likewise suggests that
Jesus was existing beyond the demise of his body too because he likened his
own afterlife experience to Jonah's.
• Matthew 12:40 . . Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of
the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in
the heart of the earth.
The Greek word translated "heart" is kardia (kar-dee'-ah) which very often
refers to the middle, i.e. the center. For example:
• Matthew 15:19 . . Out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railings
In other words: those kinds of activities originate at the very core of one's
being, i.e. their center.
Now when you think about it, Jesus' corpse wasn't laid to rest in the heart of
the earth. In point of fact it was laid to rest on the surface. So in order for
Jesus to be in two places simultaneously, the man and his body had to part
company and go their separate ways.
* Even if it were true that when ordinary people die they go out of existence, it
would certainly not be true for Jesus Christ.
• John 5:26 . . Just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the
Son also to have life in himself.
Can the Father be taken out of existence? If not, then neither can the Son
be taken out of existence because the existence of both is maintained by the
very same kind of life.
NOTE: With a little careful sleuthing, it's possible to detect Jonah praying
three separate times: in the ocean, in sheol, and in the fish.
_
