Bible Strands
Matthew 12:40
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses a demanding generation in Matthew 12:39-41, responding to their request for a sign by pointing to the prophet Jonah.
The words — The Greek ὥσπερ (hōsper) translates literally as "just as," establishing a direct structural parallel. The term κοιλίᾳ (koilia) means "belly" or "abdomen," specifying the exact location of Jonah’s confinement.
The thread — The text explicitly links to Jonah 1:17, where Jonah spends three days and three nights in a great fish, and aligns with Jesus’ later statements in John 2:19 and Matthew 27:63 about rising after three days.
Why it lands — The verse states a direct comparison between Jonah’s physical confinement and Christ’s burial, requiring the reader to accept the three-day period as a concrete sign of authority rather than a symbolic timeframe.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Cross-references
- Jonah 1:17 Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.
- Matthew 27:63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while He was alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’
- John 2:19 Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.”
- Matthew 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
- Matthew 17:23 They will kill Him, and on the third day He will be raised to life.” And the disciples were deeply grieved.
- Matthew 27:40 and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross!”
- Jonah 2:2 saying: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered me. From the belly of Sheol I called for help, and You heard my voice.
- Psalms 63:9 But those who seek my life to destroy it will go into the depths of the earth.
- Matthew 8:20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”