The Sign of Christ’s Resurrection from Matthew 12:38-39

³⁸ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” ³⁹ But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

In a previous post I put forward the hypothesis that Christ was crucified on Wednesday evening and resurrected on Saturday evening (in the year 30 CE). In the post, I used His reference to Jonah in the belly of a fish as a critical indication of the truth that Messiah was in the tomb for a full three days or exactly seventy-two hours. However, in that essay, I did not explain sufficiently why I believe that this reference is so important. In this short addendum to the previous work I hope to clarify the concept.

The two keys to its importance lies in the context of the verses and the word “sign” used in both verses.

The context is the sinful unwillingness of the Scribes and Pharisees with whom he had been debating to acknowledge Him as the Messiah. I think this is made clear by v. 34 and again by v. 42 which act as bookends for vs. 38-39.

In these verses we find the intransigence of these particular Pharisees being roundly condemned by Yeshua. And when they ask for a sign, it’s as if Yeshua thought to himself, “Oh, so you want a sign do you? OK, I’ll give you a sign!” And of course the sign He says will be forthcoming—for He does not immediately cave in to their agenda, but makes them wait—is the sign of Jonah.

Now, as it is used in the Renewed Covenant (aka the NT), the Greek word for sign is sēmeíon. And in virtually every occurrence this word is not used in the mundane or common sense of a mere indicator. Indeed, it has much greater consequence. For instance, the Discovery Bible describes it as, “4592 sēmeíon – a sign (typically miraculous), given especially to confirm, corroborate or authenticate. 4592 /sēmeíon ("sign") then emphasizes the end-purpose which exalts the one giving it. Accordingly, it is used dozens of times in the NT for what authenticates the Lord and His eternal purpose, especially by doing what mere man cannot replicate or take credit for.” The Master responds to the Pharisees’ request for a miraculous sign by promising the miraculous, supernatural sign of the prophet Jonah. Surely, Christ is responding to their request in His own style and using the occasion to indicate—prophetically—the coming event (entombment and resurrection). In this context, we cannot gloss over the use of the reference. It cannot be taken as a casual expression or as a “simile.” The Lord does not say “a sign like the sign of the prophet Jonah” which would allow for flexibility in the timing of the burial/resurrection event. The Lord is referring unequivocally to the very three days and three nights spent by Jonah in the fish. I believe these verses are indeed reinforced by the fact that Jesus defined day and night as periods of twelve hours each. To quote from my previous post, “Nor does Yeshua leave us to determine on our own what He means by the terms “days” and “nights.” According to Scripture (Gen. 1:4-13; John 11:9-10) the terms “day” and “night” were defined as periods of light and darkness, each period lasting twelve hours.” On this basis, one full day (i.e. including periods of both light and darkness) would equal twenty-four hours. Three twenty-four hour periods equals a total of seventy-two hours. (And if we believe the Bible to be correct when it comes to Jonah’s being swallowed alive by a fish, only to be regurgitated seventy-two hours later, then surely we must accept the Lord’s words in our verses from Matthew as categorical and imperative.) He was stating emphatically that this would be the miraculous sign for the generation of His time and place. In the circumstances, we cannot understand these verses in any other way, nor do we need to. The Lord says in these verses that He was soon to give a miraculous—not mundane—sign of what would surely and certainly happen. The sign He gives is the sign of Jonah. (It is interesting to speculate that God intentionally contrived the Jonah event to act, at least in part, as a type for the future burial/resurrection event.) If we reject the intentionally of these verses, it puts us in jeopardy of rejecting the truthfulness of the entire drama of the passion of Christ. I, for one, am unwilling to go that far and have no logical reason to reject His prophecy—a prophecy from the very Son of Adonai Elohim, which consequently must be true.