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MATTHEW 12:40 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 12:39Matt 12:41
“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.”
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 sign of Jonah is the resurrection: as Jonah spent three days in the fish's belly and emerged to preach to the Ninevites, so the Son of Man will spend three days in the heart of the earth and emerge in resurrection. The comparison is the first explicit resurrection prediction in Matthew's Gospel. The sign that will be given to this generation is the greatest sign — and the generation that rejected the miracles will also reject the resurrection (Matthew 28:12–15).

Church Fathers on Matthew 12:40

Because the Lord had so oft repressed the shameless tongue of the Pharisees by His sayings, they now turn to His works, whereat the Evangelist wondering, says, 'Then certain of the Scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign of thee;' and that at a time when they should have been moved, when they should have wondered, and been dumb with astonishment; yet even at such time they desist not from their malice. For they say, 'We would see a sign of thee,'…

Chrysostom · 4th century · Hom., xliii

They require a sign of Him, as though what they had seen were not signs; and in another Evangelist what they required is more fully expressed, 'We would see of thee a sign from heaven.'

Jerome · 4th century

Then He begins to answer them, giving them a sign not from heaven, which they were unworthy to see, but giving it them from the deep beneath. But to His own disciples He gave a sign from heaven, to whom He shewed the glory of His blessed eternity both in a figure on the mount, and after in verity when He was taken up into heaven.

Rabanus Maurus · 9th century
Read all 12 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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