Jonah's Ordeal As Type Of The Resurrection

It likely comes as a surprise to Christians of the Twenty-first Century that Christians of the early Church used Jonah as one of the primary symbols of the resurrection. The image of Jonah and the great fish is very common among burial effigies. Jonah's three days and nights in belly of the great fish and Jesus' burial in the earth for three days caught the imagination of the early church. Above is a third century carving from a Christian tomb.

The literature of the early Church chose Jonah as a "type" of one who escapes from hell portrayed as escaping from a gaping mouth of a fish/cave. The carving above is from a third Century sarcophagus.