Did Jonah actually die in the fish?

Question

I know the common understanding is that Jonah waited, alive and conscious, in the belly of the whale until he was spat out.

Has a euphemized "children's version" become accepted truth? Perhaps we can set preconceptions aside for the moment and take a fresh look at this question. In the text and from what is naturally possible, chapter 2 may depict a pretty grim condition for Jonah.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying,
“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,
    and he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
    and you heard my voice.
3 For you cast me into the deep,
   into the heart of the seas,
    and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
    passed over me.
4 Then I said, ‘I am driven away
    from your sight;
yet I shall again look
    upon your holy temple.’
5 The waters closed in over me to take my life;
    the deep surrounded me;
weeds were wrapped about my head
6     at the roots of the mountains.
I went down to the land
    whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
    O Lord my God.
7 When my life was fainting away,
    I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
    into your holy temple.
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols
    forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
    will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
    Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

([Jonah 2, ESV][esv]; emphasis mine)

Deciding what type of writing Chapter 2 is may be helpful. Deciding when Jonah made this prayer may be helpful. Though your conclusion on whether Jonah is alive or not may have more influence on that question than the other way around. Is Jonah crying out from the belly of the whale (2:1) or from Sheol (2:2) or maybe in a way its both?

The presence of Sheol and Shachath (and some surrounding language) could be read as suggesting death.

Jonah 2:6 speaks of the pit, but that phrase using the word shachath for pit also translated "corruption" and is the same term used in Psalm 16:10

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption (or the pit)

A nonreligious first reaction seems to be that it makes no natural sense that a man could survive in a whale three days, not without supernatural intervention. Should that be our starting understanding instead? Should we demand the text specifically show that he was kept alive rather than show that he died because his death would be the normal expectation?

Main Question

Did Jonah actually die and, while dead or dying, cry out to God who heard him and resurrected him?

Also, given that Jesus later compares his death with Jonah's time in the fish, is it fair to say it means death for Jesus but not for Jonah?

Answer 1

The text appears to indicate that Yona physically died at the point that the great fish swallowed him.

Yona indicates that he cried from the depths of "Sheol" (Jonah 2:2). That is, he appears to have been not only in the sea, but also "in the belly of the earth" (Matthew 12:40). Yona indicates that he had descended not to the depths of the sea, but to the "roots of the mountains" (Jonah 2:6), which are the far interior recesses of the earth.

The Hebrew word for Sheol is the same word used for the destination of the humanity of the Person of Jesus Christ (Psalm 16:10 <=> Acts 2:27 and Acts 2:31). That is, the Septuagint of the Hebrew Bible uses the same word "Hades" in Psalm 16:10 as is found in Acts 2:27 and Acts 2:31. The same Hebrew word "Sheol" occurs in Psalm 16:10 and Jonah 2:2. Thus Sheol = Hades.

In other words, Yona did NOT enter an earthly grave (but was in the belly of the great fish in the Mediterranean Sea), and of course Jesus was NOT buried at sea, but was laid to rest in an earthly tomb. Yet while one dead body was in the sea, and one dead body was in the tomb, they both were in Sheol/Hades. That is, Sheol/Hades was the destination of the souls of the dead in the Old Testament.

Finally, at not least, Yona indicates that the Lord brought his life from "the pit" (Jonah 2:6). (His "life" here was not his "nefesh" [soul] but his "Che" [body of life].) In the Septuagint this word for "the pit" is the same root word used in the NT in the context of the "corruption" (or decay) of the body of Jesus Christ, which did not happen (Acts 2:27 and Acts 2:31). In other words, the parallel between the physical death of Yona and the physical death of Jesus was not only that they were both dead for three days and three nights (and that they both went to Sheol/Hades "in the belly of the earth") but that neither of their bodies saw "corruption."

Answer 2

Did Jonah actually die in the whale?

No, there is no reason to suppose that is how the text would have been understood at the time of writing, or the time of Jesus. It is a poetic figure of speech indicating a brush with death rather than actual physical death. David uses similar language in Psalms 18 and 86 for example:

• ⁴The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; ⁵the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. _{Psalm 18, ESV}

• ¹³For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. _{Paslm 86, ESV}

Furthermore,¹ the verses you've highlighted as perhaps implying physical death for Jonah (2, 5 & 6), are before verse 7, which strongly implies his life never quite 'faded away':

⁷When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. _ESV

So:

is it fair to say it means death for Jesus but not for Jonah?

Yes. Whenever an analogy is used, you have to ask yourself "how far is it intented to correspond".

In this case Jonah's 'near death' and existence in the 'sheol-like' darkness of the fish's belly corresponds to the actual physical death of Jesus but does not imply that Jonah physically died. Similarly for Jonah's return to the land of the living. However, the strongest correspondence is with the 'sign' of Jonah, not the death of Jonah — both signs signal impending judgement but unlike the pagan Ninevites, 'this generation' will not repent:

⁴¹The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. ⁴²The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. _ESV

---

_{¹ Credit to @ScottS for his comment to this effect.}

Answer 3

Jonah didn't die:

1. When Jonah was thrown out of the boat: Jonah was still alive.

2. When Jonah was in the fish belly: Jonah was still alive.

3. When Jonah was praying to God in the belly: Jonah was still alive (he was crying too while he was praying).

4. When the fish vomits him out: Jonah was still alive (because he has to go to Nineveh for preaching).

Matthew 12:40 says "for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly...". This refers to being alive, not being dead.

Answer 4

The sea as a metaphor for death is rather common. This was true in the Hebrew mind and others (think the gods of the underworld and how closely related they were to Poseidon)

When Jonah was tossed into the sea, he was given up for dead. In the belley of the whale, he was, to all outside appearances, dead and gone. Even from Jonah's prayer, we get the sense that Jonah thought he was dead- just waiting for death inside the fish.

That Jonah "came back" is the essence of the sign of Jonah being dead for three days and coming back.

Answer 5

Jonah's song really only makes sense if Jonah actually died in the fish. He praised God for delivering him while he was still in the fish, describing the process of dying and being dead. Only after he thanks God for raising up his life does the fish spit him out. Jonah credits God for raising him from the grave before Jonah is delivered from the fish.

If death was just a metaphor for being in the fish, it makes no sense for Jonah to praise God for bringing up Jonah's life from the pit, when Jonah's life was still in the fish. Nothing would have actually changed since he was in the fish for three days.

I would have had no problem accepting the poetic language argument if Jonah had sung his song of deliverance after God spit him out. The meaning of the song is just not workable if he sung after three days in the fish without any change in his condition.

Regarding the activity of God there were only two acts performed after Jonah was swallowed:

1. Bringing up Jonah's life from the pit -Jonah 2:6
2. Commanding the fish to vomit up Jonah onto dry land - Jonah 2:10

The two actions of God resurrecting Jonah and vomiting him from the fish are chronologically separate and are not the same, as those even of the physical death camp often assert. The 'resurrection' happened in the fish and not out of the fish. Then Jonah was vomited up. There is no mention of God preserving Jonah's life for three days, which would have been a third act of God as any thinking person would acknowledge. This third act would necessarily be read into the text by the figurative death camp, since it is no where present in the text itself.

Now of course, understanding that Jonah literally died and was brought back to life strengthens the meaning of his connection to Jesus, however, I was previously comfortable with the connection without a literal death.

With regard to David and Sheol, he only describes being surrounded by the threat of Sheol or being saved from Sheol. He never actually locates himself in Sheol the way Jonah does.

Answer 6

I like what Michael Houdmann said in his website, gotquestions:

Those who accept the literal account of Jonah take one of two main views regarding what happened to Jonah during his time in the belly of the great fish (Jonah 2). One view holds that Jonah died and later returned to life. The second view holds that Jonah remained alive for three days in the belly of the great fish. Both views agree on a literal reading of the book of Jonah and affirm God's supernatural ability to rescue His prophet. The difference is whether to see Jonah 2:10 as a description of a weak and bedraggled Jonah or as a truly resurrected Jonah.

Those who argue that Jonah died and later rose again appeal to Jonah's prayer in Jonah 2:2: "From the depths of the grave I called for help." The use of Sheol, the Hebrew term for "the grave," could mean that Jonah actually died. Yet the words "the depths of the grave," seen as a poetic turn of phrase, could easily refer to an agonizing or horrifying experience.

There's another reason that some argue for Jonah's death and resurrection: Jesus said, "For just 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). The reasoning is that, since Jesus' death and resurrection were actual, then Jonah must have also actually died and later returned to life. However, Jesus' comparison does not mandate perfect congruency between the two events. Jonah's hopeless situation was illustrative of Jesus' death; Jonah's sudden appearance at Nineveh was illustrative of Jesus' resurrection. The three days was an additional similarity. Jonah returned from the edge of death; Jesus, who is greater than Jonah, returned from actual death. Analogies do not require absolute agreement in every detail.

The Bible does not explicitly state that Jonah died in the belly of the great fish. Those who theorize that he did die rely on inference and speculation. What is the evidence that Jonah stayed alive for the three days he spent in the belly of the great fish?

First, it is clear that Jonah prayed from inside the fish: "Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish" (Jonah 2:1). At the very least, Jonah lived long enough to offer his prayer.

Second, the language of Jonah's prayer is poetic in nature. Terms such as Sheol and the reference to "the pit" (Jonah 2:6) do not have to be interpreted so literally as to require physical death.

Did Jonah die in the fish, or was he alive the whole time? Either interpretation is possible, but the traditional understanding, that Jonah was alive for three days in the belly of a great fish, is more likely. Jonah, who everyone thought was a "goner," emerged from the murky depths to bring God's message of salvation to a lost and dying people. In so doing, he became a wonderful representation of Jesus' death, resurrection, and life-giving message.

I agree that Jonah was alive the whole 3 days and 3 nights.

Answer 7

The point of 'the root of the mountains' is that this would be several thousand feet below the sea level. At this depth inside or outside the fish the pressure would have killed a human being. Thus as well as being kept alive inside the fish (which is recorded as having happened in other cases), there would need to be the miracle of protecting Jonah from the extreme pressure. Thus he is either miraculously preserved in a living if rather unpleasant state or being miraculously resurrected. The problem with the latter is that it seems to require the possibility of prayer after death which is not usually accepted as possible, But does it?Given that this is poetry and not therefore necessarily meant to be chronologically precise, did Jonah pray as he was engulfed by the fish and as he was dying and then he was later resurrected 'from the pit'. This would fit with “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you," (verse 7). This allows for prayer from the fish whilst still (just) alive but with that life ebbing away (which would result in death), This then works in all respects with the Matthew and Luke passages.

Answer 8

There is a theological issue with the original question, "Did Jonah die in the fish"?

If Jonah died, then he had to be resurrected. If Jonah was resurrected from the dead, then Jesus the Messiah is not the first-fruit of resurrection. So I think the question is a real theological problem. However you can make the case that someone had to be descended to Sheol to be really resurrected. This should be the logical conclusion...

Did Jonah descend to Sheol if he did die?

The answer would be determined on your understanding of how long the soul stays with the body before descending. There are some Jewish customs that say the soul stays with the body for 3 days before departing to Sheol. This custom would be why family members would stay in the tombs with the body for 3 days, anointing them with oils and fragrances while reciting the Psalms. This might also be why Jesus chose to raise Lazarus from the dead on the 4th day. This might be declaring that Jesus had the power to bring souls out of Sheol. However this is all speculation. We can only be conclusive on what the scriptures say definitely. I personally don't think Jonah died due to the fact that death is a very important theme is scripture and is never left out of the story.

Answer 9

While I’m not a scholar, or theologian, I will simply state the obvious. There is no oxygen in the belly of a whale. Then there’s digestive enzymes and stomach contractions to contend with. It is simply not possible for a human being to survive for more than a few minutes before they would lose consciousness and then die shortly thereafter.

While it’s not definitive, because God had to do a miracle either way, I would suggest that both are equally implausible, and thus the sovereign intervention of God is the real story here. God spared Jonah and the Ninevites. And Jonah was angry instead of grateful!

Answer 10

Matthew 12:40 says:

For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish 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.(New Living Translation).

Based on the idea that Jesus did die, we can tell by the wording especially that Jonah must have died as well. They used Jonah's 3 days and 3 nights to describe Jesus' story/condition, and we are using Jesus' physical condition to describe Jonah's story/condition.

Answer 11

Unfortunately, the story of Jonah is being manipulated to support the Crucifixion story.

There is no evidence anywhere in the bible that Jonah died and was resurrected. He goes back to Nineveh and preaches the word of God, no one mentions anything about resurrection.

Sheol

This is found in the Bible sixty-five times. It is translated “the pit” three times, “the grave” thirty-one times, and “hell” thirty-one times. Hades is used eleven times, being rendered “hell” ten times and “grave” once.

There is difference of opinions some say this is where someone goes when they die and others believe its a place of torment where the soul of the wicked will be put after physical death, what we understand as Hell.

Either way from the available evidence the strongest opinion would be that that someone has died and gone to Sheol.

2: 1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 2 He said: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.

Note[John 11:41-42 ….“Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me,… - this is same as being answered God heard Jesus and he also heard Jonah]

2:7 “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer

Note [(1) ebbing = dying NOT dead – (2) you cannot pray if you are dead – see below]

Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

There is nothing in the OT prophesies to say Jesus was going to die

very briefly

Hurt / wounded etc… doesn’t equate to death. Remember Jesus is always heard John 11:41-42.

Psalms 16 - 10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

Psalm 4:3 - 3 Know that the LORD has set apart his faithful servant for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.

Psalms 22

8 “He trusts in the LORD,” they say, “let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”

10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

16 Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. [should be translated ‘like a lion’ (Ka-a-ri)] see note 1 below

21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

Psalms 91

10 no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.

14 “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

Psalm 20:6 6Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He answers him from His holy heaven with the saving power of His right hand.

Psalms 18

6 In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.

17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.

19 He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

Psalms 9:13 “O you who lift me up from the gates of death”

Note [again and again it is said Jesus was saved, heard, rescued, answered as he is always heard by God – this would relate to Jesus vehement prayers similar to Jonah praying and being heard]

Conclusion:

Based on the evidence it is clear that Jonah did not die. Considering, this was apparently the only sign Jesus gave it would also imply that Jesus didn’t die, otherwise it would be contrary to Jesus own prophecy.

Apocalypse of Peter confirms that - The Savior said to me, "He whom you saw on the tree, glad and laughing, this is the living Jesus. But this one into whose hands and feet they drive the nails is his fleshly part, which is the substitute being put to shame, the one who came into being in his likeness. But look at him and me." But I, when I had looked, said "Lord, no one is looking at you. Let us flee this place."

Note 1(Ka-a-ri): https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/a/77814/33268

Note 2 was Jesus ‘forsaken’: https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/a/62632/33268

Answer 12

We are told that the word of the Lord came to Jonah a 2nd time, because when he received the word from the Lord the 1st time he rebelled and ran away. In referring to his resurrection Jesus spoke of Jonah in the belly of the whale. And this speaks of life out of death then after Jonah had dealt with his fear he was able to be obedient to the word of God. Jonah means dove, which speaks of the work of the Holy Spirit. At first he resisted the Spirit because of his fear, which we all inherit from Adam. It means that we will never be obedient to the will or to the word of God as long we haven’t dealt with the old nature. In Isaiah 9:8 it says ‘The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it has lighted upon Israel’. The name speaks of a person’s character and the name Jacob means cheat, supplanter, and twister and after wrestling with the Lord he received a new name, a new character and he was called Israel meaning prince of God. Jacob speaks of the natural man and Israel speaks of the spiritual man. The word of the Lord could not come on to Jacob because the old sinful nature we received from Adam is disobedient to the word of God. Israel speaks of the spiritual man and only that which is born of the spirit can be obedient to the word of God. When Jacob was blessing his sons on his death bed he called them ‘sons of Jacob’ meaning sons of the old natural man but he told them to ‘listen to Israel your father’ listen to the spiritual man the hidden man of the heart. The natural man cannot understand the word of God. That’s why Jesus could not use any of the Scribes and Pharisees in his own day. They had all the understanding in their heads but they had no heart knowledge. Why didn’t they recognise the Messiah? All the Scriptures pointed to him. It doesn’t matter what theological college you have been to. It doesn’t matter how many degrees or letters you have acquired after your name, because your head knowledge, your intellect and your education will never give you the revelation that you need to discern what is written, for only the Holy Spirit can reveal Christ to you and only the Holy Spirit can enlighten this word to you, otherwise it is just a book of words. Whenever you try to interpret without the Spirit it may say something totally different to what it means.

Another example would be Gideon who was threshing the wheat in the wine-press for ‘fear’ of the Midianites. The Lord told Gideon to pull down the altar to Baal that belonged to his father and to cut down the sacred post at the side of it and then to take his father’s fattened calf and to sacrifice it to the Lord. Gideon was ‘threshing the wheat’. This represents the purging or the refining that goes on through the word of God. There has to be a sweeping and a cleansing of that which will contaminate the word. Sometimes you get a lot of dross that is mixed with the word of God. Just because something is traditional, doesn’t necessarily mean that it lines up with the word of God. Sometimes tradition can be man’s interpretation of the word of God and not the Holy Spirit’s interpretation. Gideon was sitting in the winepress which speaks of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. So this tells us that in order to rightly divide the word of truth, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He may have to use pressure or adversity so that we can get rid of all the husks away from the word. Like the prodigal son or Jonah, we may have to reach the pit before we can come to our senses and then He can get our attention.