Bible Stories

The passages in the Synoptic gospels that deal with the Jonah sign (Mt. 12:38-42; Mk. 8:11-12; Lk. 11:29-32) were also scrutinised. In the gospel according to Mark—we read that the Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign (Mk. 8:11-12):

“The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven.

He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it.”

According to the author of Mark, Jesus did not comply with the request by the Pharisees, but emphasised that no sign would be given to them. If we compare this to the Matthew and Luke gospels, conspicuous differences are evident. In Matthew 12:38-42 we read the following:

“Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.”

He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

^{For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here. 42} The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.

In Luke 11:29-32 we read the following:

As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.

For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.

The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.”

The verbatim agreements between the narratives in Matthew and Luke of this episode brought scholars to the conclusion that the material about the sign of Jonah was copied from another written source. They called this source Q. (Q is derived from the German word “Queue” which means “source” or “document”.) Their arguments can be presented as follows:

However, in spite of the verbatim correspondences there are a number of differences between the accounts of Matthew and Luke. According to Matthew, the sign of Jonah involves Jonah’s stay of three days and three nights in the belly of the fish (Mt. 12:40). According to Luke, the sign of Jonah involves Jonah’s acts as a prophet in Nineveh (Lk. 11:30). The order in which the material is presented in the two gospels also differs. Luke first mentions the queen of the South (Lk. 11:31) and then the men of Nineveh (Lk. 11:32). In contrast, Matthew first mentions the men of Nineveh (Mt. 12:41) and then the queen of the South (Mt.12:42).

Research on the Q source revealed that the author of Luke usually copied and narrated the Q material with fewer editorial changes. On the basis of this argument it is evident that the author of Matthew is responsible for the alternative interpretation of the sign of Jonah. The author of Matthew uses typological interpretation to interpret Jesus‘ death and resurrection for the readers of his gospel. On the basis of this research we could say that Jesus probably did not speak these words about the sign of Jonah (as Matthew narrated it). It is therefore preposterous to accuse people of assuming that Jesus is a liar when they do not accept that Jonah was literally in the belly of a huge fish. According to Mark’s gospel (which is older than Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels), Jesus did not comply with the request for a sign. According to the Q source Jesus did comply with the request, and presented Jonah as a sign. Originally the sign of Jonah was related to Jesus‘ own actions as a prophet and not to his death and resurrection. The writer of Matthew reinterpreted the sign of Jonah for the readers of his gospel.

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