Matthew 12:38-40
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, “Teacher,[a] we wish to see a sign from you.”(A) 39 He said to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful[b] generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. 40 Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights,[c] so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 12:38 Teacher: see note on Mt 8:19. In Mt 16:1 the request is for a sign “from heaven” (Mk 8:11).
- 12:39 Unfaithful: literally, “adulterous.” The covenant between God and Israel was portrayed as a marriage bond, and unfaithfulness to the covenant as adultery; cf. Hos 2:4–14; Jer 3:6–10.
- 12:40 See Jon 2:1. While in Q the sign was simply Jonah’s preaching to the Ninevites (Lk 11:30, 32), Matthew here adds Jonah’s sojourn in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, a prefigurement of Jesus’ sojourn in the abode of the dead and, implicitly, of his resurrection.
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