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Matthew 12:39-41
New Catholic Bible
Matthew 12:39-41
New Catholic Bible
39 He replied, “An evil and adulterous[a] generation asks for a sign, but the only sign it will be given is the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.[b]
41 [c]“On the day of judgment the inhabitants of Nineveh will rise up with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Matthew 12:39 Adulterous: i.e., in the spiritual sense of being unfaithful to the generation’s spiritual husband (God).
- Matthew 12:40 Three days and three nights: this manner of speaking denotes a common Jewish way of reckoning time and includes at least part of the first and part of the third day. Any part of the whole was counted as if it were the whole. Thus, even the time from Jesus’ Death till sunset on Good Friday is counted as a day. (The Old Testament depicted the Messiah as one who would suffer [Ps 22; Isa 53] and rise from the dead on the third day [Ps 16:9-11; Isa 53:10f].)
- Matthew 12:41 The people of Nineveh who repented (see Jon 3:1-10) and the queen of the south (i.e., of Sheba—see 1 Ki 10:1-3—a country in south-west Arabia now called Yemen) were pagans who responded to lesser opportunities than the one that had been presented to Israel in the person of Jesus, one greater than Jonah or Solomon.
