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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
Did Jonah Die in that Fish?
Jonah 1-3
Introduction
Jonah chapter 2 is one of the weirdest chapters in the entire Bible.
I mean, think about it: at the end of Jonah 1, he gets swallowed by a giant fish in the Mediterranean Sea. At the beginning of Jonah 3, he’s spat back out on dry land. In between those events, Jonah lifts up this prayer or lament about his situation to heaven, and that’s what chapter 2 consists of. But Jonah 2 has to be the only chapter in the whole Bible that takes place entirely inside of animal.
That’s pretty unique. And kinda weird. And it’s an interesting factoid about that chapter that always sticks out to me every time I read it.
But there may be an unconsidered angle to this story: was Jonah actually dead as he spoke these words and prayed that prayer?
All my life, ever since I was a young kid, I’ve heard the story of Jonah, and it’s always been taught as if Jonah was alive the whole time he laid in that whale’s belly for three days.
And if you watch the Veggie Tales version, you’ll know that was even a host of black choir singers in there as well!
But is it possible we misunderstood what was actually going on? Is it possible that Jonah was actually dead once he got swallowed by that fish, and then was resurrected back to life when he got spat out?
This theory has been around for a while, but it’s been making the rounds here lately on social media.
I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore whether it’s true in the Bible.
Turn to Jonah 2, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
What Jesus said in Matthew 12
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about whether Jonah died when he was in the belly of that whale.
Now, some way “whale,” some say, “fish,” some argue about whether a whale should be considered a fish or a mammal and then we could further argue about whether the Bible writer would care about that distinction.
If I say “whale” today, I’m not making a claim one way or the other on that. I am focusing instead today on what exactly happened to Jonah. Today’s episode goes out to Ben who asked me about this topic about a month ago. I’m in a series right now where I am answering some listener-suggested questions and feedback, and that’s what we’ll be doing for at least the next 6 or so episodes.
Now, why are people questioning the narrative that most of us were told about Jonah when we were kids: that Jonah was basically given a three-day time-out by God as he sat in that whale’s stomach, but not that he literally died while he was in there?
Because of something Jesus says in
Matthew 12:40
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.
The Son of Man is clearly Jesus speaking about Himself, and Jesus is giving a sort of prophecy about His death and resurrection; He is saying that He will be in the heart of the earth for three days and nights. This refers to going to the grave, or Sheol in the Old Testament sense. He is speaking of the time that He was dead between the cross and the resurrection.
Maybe someday we should do a series on the things that Jesus did during that period, but for now, we’ll stick to the Jonah comparison.
We know that Jesus’ body was dead for those three days, even though His spirit was doing other things. He makes a comparison about this time to what happened to Jonah. So since we know Jesus was dead during that time, does this also mean that Jonah was similarly dead?
I would say that it could go either way. The Matthew comparison doesn’t necessarily mean that Jonah was dead. But since it raised the question, let’s go back to the book of Jonah itself and revisit what it says happened to Jonah after he was swallowed.
What the book of Jonah says
Jonah 1:17 ends the chapter this way
And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
So Jonah 1 doesn’t say that Jonah drowned or died in the fish. It just says he was there. But was it just his body there? Did his spirit die and go into the grave? Let’s read what Jonah said next in chapter 2.
Jonah 2:1-2
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.
So he says he cried out from the belly of Sheol. What is Sheol? Sheol refers to the underworld. It’s where the dead go when they die. Their body is on earth, their spirit or soul goes down into the underworld.
Now we’ve got to mention one thing here about the underworld, because it sounds very negative and hellish. But you need to know one thing about the underworld in the Old Testament: this was the place where all people went when they died, both sinner and saint, or in other words, both believers and unbelievers. Even believers like Moses or King David did not go to heaven when they died in Old Testament times; that’s because Jesus’ death on the cross had not happened yet, and so they could not go up to heaven until their sins had been paid for.
So instead, believers in the Old Testament like King David went to a holding place in the underworld called Abraham’s Bosom. Now, don’t ask me why it’s called Abraham’s Bosom. I didn’t come up with the name, and if I did, I probably would’ve come up with a better one. But that’s another discussion for another time. All you need to know today is what the afterlife consisted of in the Old Testament: if you were a believer in God and would someday be accepted up into heaven, you went to this place of peace called Abraham’s Bosom. If you were an unbeliever or someone in rebellion to God, you went to the bad side of Sheol, which is what we would call “hell” in modern English. So going to Sheol can be a good thing or a bad thing.
Now, let’s proceed for the next few minutes as if Jonah really did die. Which part of Sheol did Jonah go to? It’s a little ambiguous. I mean, Jonah was a prophet of God, so we’d think that makes him a good guy. But Jonah was also living in rebellion to God’s command to him at this point in his story, so perhaps he’s more of a bad guy. Let’s keep reading.
Jonah 2:6
I went down to the land
whose bars closed upon me forever;
yet you brought up my life from the pit,
What are the “bars” right there that it’s talking about? Well, you might be surprised to find that bars are often mentioned when someone passes into the realm of the dead.
In Job 17:16, Job says
Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?”
In Job 38:17, God says
Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
In Psalm 9:13, David says
Be gracious to me, O Lord!
See my affliction from those who hate me,
O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
So we see that bars and gates are mentioned as being associated with entering into Sheol or the underworld. But we also see that this can be spoken of metaphorically when someone is having a near-death experience, such as David in that passage from Psalm. So it still could be ambiguous whether Jonah was dead in that fish.
One person who does have a firmer opinion on this is Bill Weise. He’s the author of the book 23 Minutes in Hell. Bill claims to have had a vision or out-of-body experience in hell itself. Now, the first time I saw his book on the shelf at Walmart as a teenager, I thought: this is junk. God doesn’t take people on trips to hell. I disregarded it. But over the years, I have met and talked to Bill at least 3 times. Maybe more, I can’t quite remember. But I have seen his presentation numerous times now and I believe he is telling the truth. He is a very mild-mannered, ordinary, intelligent, logical, normal person. Not some wild nutcase by any means. So I find him a credible person and I encourage you to read his story of what he saw when God allowed him to have a vision experience of hell.
In his book, Bill writes this on page 2: November 22, 1998. That was the night I was catapulted into the very pit of hell. My point of arrival was a cell that was approximately 15 feet high by 10 feed wide with a 15-foot depth. With its walls of rough stone and rigid bars on the door, I felt as though I was in a temporary holding area, a place where a prisoner would await his final hours before meeting a far more terrifying destiny…
Now, I will stop there, and you can read his whole book or watch his testimony on Youtube if you’d like to know more of his story, but I just want to note one thing: the first thing he mentions about his surroundings as he arrives in hell are the same thing the Bible writers point out: bars. He said: With its walls of rough stone and rigid bars on the door…”
Now, I just bring up Bill Weise’s testimony because everything Bill talks about in his books and his talks is also backed up by the testimony of Scripture, and I always remember that he cited Jonah’s words in Jonah 2:2 when he talked about what hell is like. He says in his book:
Some theologians think that Jonah was in hell. Others think he was only at the gates of hell. In Jonah 2:2 KJV, Jonah states: “I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.” Then he continues in verse 6: “The earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast though brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.” The word bars…is bariyach, which means “A relatively long, ridged piece of any solid material used for support or barrier.” Whether he was at the gates or inside the gates is not the important issue. The fact is that he was there…
So Bill sees a similarity with his experience enough that he thinks perhaps Jonah was literally in hell, which would mean that Jonah died while within the whale.
But what if Jonah was alive?
But of course, the idea that a prophet of God actually went to hell, despite his temporary rebellion, can be a hard pill to swallow. Would God actually put his prophet in hell?
Now, I want to be fair: there is also some evidence within Jonah 2 that he was alive the whole time this was going on and that he wasn’t down in the underworld. That he was just speaking poetically about the afterlife. And that evidence would be statements like
Jonah 2:7
When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
He didn’t outright said he died, he said his life was fainting away. So that could be taken as evidence that God was sustaining Jonah throughout this experience, if even just barely. Perhaps Jonah kept praying and didn’t stop praying for three days as this happened, and it kept him alive.
The verse I maybe find the most interesting of this whole thing is verse 4. Jonah will say in verse 6 that the bars of the grave will close over him forever. Yet back in verse 4, Jonah confidently states this:
(Verse 4)
Then I said, ‘I am driven away
from your sight;
yet I shall again look
upon your holy temple.’
So right there, he expresses some confidence that he will survive this experience and once again go to God’s temple. That’s a strange thing to say if he was already dead.
So what was it: was Jonah swimmin’ with the fishes, or was he sleepin’ with the fishes? I’ll give you my opinion as we close down in a minute…
Housekeeping/Mailbag
Next time on this podcast, I want to continue my trend here of listener-submitted questions, so we will be exploring one of the most confusing and strange passages in the New Testament, where Peter talks about baptism in I Peter 3. This is a passage that confuses a lot of people but I am excited to teach it because I believe that baptism has an angle on it that you never heard of before.
Make sure you’re subscribed so you can get it!
What weird stuff in the Bible do you want to know more about? weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com
A few quick mailbag segments I’d like to share on my most recent episode, the Zombie Apocalypse in Matthew 27, which has been my most popular episode so far. Thank you so much to all who have joined or listened lately.
One said: I hadn't previously realised that the zombies didn't go into the city until AFTER the resurrection.
That was a thing that surprised me, too. I never realized that either until I started digging into all this a few weeks back.
This from Marvin: I thought this was going to be over Zechariah 14:12, which describes the rotting flesh. Or Ezekiel 37, where dry bones came to life
That passage in Ezekiel is often described as a zombie story. If I remember right, though, Ezekiel 37 didn’t actually happen, it’s just a vision. A valley of dry bones didn’t literally come back to life. However, I’ll be studying that chapter pretty soon in my other podcast, which is called The Book of Ezekiel: A Cross References Bible Study. And I just finished chapter 33 on that show. So if you’re interested in knowing more about Ezekiel, I’d encourage anyone to go check that out and I’ll crack that egg open before long.
Another comment I received: “This is the first time your podcast popped up on my algorithm, but from weirdo to weirdee, just wanted to say this content was pretty wholesome and interesting. Keep up the good work, wish you many blessings and tell your wife to stay weird.
Thanks for that feedback. I like that phrase “from weirdo to weirdee,” I guess I’m the weirdee in this scenario. This might have been made in reference to my wife saying she doesn’t like the phrase “weirdo” for my listeners. I told her if she has something better, give it to me. Until then, she is by my decree, a weirdo. She said the name has to come up organically. So, I kinda like this phrase “weirdee.” Maybe I should change it to weirdee. You can let me know, do you guys want to be called weirdos or weirdees? I’ll go with whatever you guys think is weirder.
Closing Thoughts
Did you know that Jonah is one of the most-attacked books of the Bible. Genesis and Jonah. They are the two most-attacked books by critics of the Bible. Genesis because of its explanation for the origin of the world and Noah’s flood; everything in Genesis is constantly under fire.
The other most-attacked book of the Bible is little old Jonah. Why? Because it’s just too far-fetched. A man actually survived being inside a fish or whale for three days? No way. That’s too much for some people.
I remember watching well-known apologist William Lane Craig being asked about this one time, if he actually believed that Jonah was alive for those three days in the whale. His response was that no, he didn’t believe Jonah survived it, but that when Jonah was spat out onto dry land, he was resurrected by God on that beach.
Now, ever since I heard that explanation and revisited the Jonah passage years ago, I have found myself leaning that direction. That just as Jesus died and rose again, Jonah died and rose again, fulfilling that pattern that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 12.
Now I get why most people think Jonah was alive the whole time. I have no problem with that view. And I totally understand why Veggie Tales went that route. It would have been a lot more traumatizing for the kids to see that piece of broccoli get drowned and then fall into hell for 45 minutes. I get that.
But when we read the text as written in the Bible, I do think it’s ambiguous. I’m not dogmatic about what the right answer is. And it could be something in between: perhaps Jonah was having a Near Death Experience, or NDE.
I read a book called “Imagine Heaven” last year, and this was a book all about NDEs. People who sometimes saw elements of the afterlife when they were on the verge of death. Or perhaps their body did die in a drowning or an accident but then they were resuscitated in a hospital bed later, and they talked about the things they saw.
I’d say if Jonah lived, he was close enough to death that he started seeing these things. That he came within inches of being dead, basically. Close enough that he visited that veil between two worlds. He prayed for a second chance and God granted it to him.
Perhaps in this in-between state, God maybe didn’t send Jonah to hell, but gave Jonah a terrifying vision of hell to impress upon him the terrible fate that awaited the Ninevites if they didn’t repent. That was Jonah’s mission: to go and preach to Nineveh. And maybe God showed him this to show Jonah was this mission was so important. Yes, the Ninevites were terrifying, but if they didn’t repent, and infinitely more terrifying fate awaited them.
Jonah’s book is constantly attacked because it’s too far-fetched, too supernatural, too weird. But when I look at it that way, Jonah’s story isn’t so weird after all.
So some think it’s pretty weird to believe that Jonah actually lived for three days in the belly of that fish or whale.
Some think it’s a little less weird if Jonah did die but was raised back to life.
But whether you take one view or the other, I hope you do believe it happened, because we shouldn’t just have faith in God’s Word when it’s easy. We should should have faith in God’s Word even when it gets weird.
So if believing the Bible is weird, I hope you’re a little more weird today, too. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time.