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Obviously, these words are meant to be taken symbolically, not literally. There is scarcely a person who does not believe that the story of Jonah, who was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, has an inward symbolical meaning rather than an outward physical one. That the resurrection of Christ is in like manner to be taken symbolically is shown by His own words. Christ likens His own death, and burial, to that very story of Jonah and the big fish. (103:3) When the Pharisees accused Christ of casting out devils with the help of the prince of devils, Beelzebub, Jesus branded those who believed such a doctrine a "generation of vipers". They asked Christ for a sign. They wanted a proof or a miracle to show that He was the Messiah. (103:4) Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.11 (103:5) Christ refused to work a miracle or to give them a sign. He said: (103:6) An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: (103:7) 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.12 (103:8) Christ was crucified on the day which has come among Christians to be known as Good Friday. He arose, or was resurrected, from the earth on what is called Easter Sunday. Obviously He was then only two nights, Friday night and Saturday night, in the earth and not three nights as Christ promised He would be. The meaning is obviously a symbolical one.
(103:9)
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