ACC ~ Matthew 12 v40

THE THREE DAYS OF JESUS’ DEATH AND RESURRECTION

THEODORE OF HERACLEA: Christ says he will spend “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” He is referring to the end of Friday, all of Saturday and the beginning of Sunday [of the passion week], in keeping with the way people understood the beginning and ending of days. For we too commemorate the third day of those who have died, not when three days and three nights, completed in equal measure, have gone by. But we reckon as a single, complete day that day on which the person died, regardless of what hour the death occurred. We count as another day that on which we take our leave of the departed in hymns before the tombs. Following this same kind of sequence, then, the Lord announced that he would spend a full three days and nights under the earth. A clear indication of this is the fact that the women arrived at that very time, in order to fulfill those things that the law prescribed to be done for the dead upon the third day. FRAGMENT 90. [1]

[1] MKGK 81-82.

JONAH PREFIGURED THE SON OF MAN

AUGUSTINE: The Savior pointed out that Jonah the prophet, who having been tossed into the sea was caught in the belly of the whale and emerged on the third day, prefigured the Son of Man who would suffer and rise on the third day. The Jewish people were censured in comparison with the Ninevites, for the Ninevites, to whom Jonah the prophet had been sent by way of reproof, placated God’s wrath by repenting and gained his mercy. “And behold,” he said, “something greater than Jonah is here,” [1] the Lord Jesus implying himself. The Ninevites heard the servant and amended their ways; the Jews heard the Lord and not only did they not amend their ways but moreover they killed him. SERMON 72A.1. [2]

[1] Mt 12:41; Lk 11:32.

[2] MA 1:155-56; WSA 3 3:281.

CHRIST FORETOLD BY THE PROPHETS

ANONYMOUS: In the mystery of this analogy, Jonah was considered to have been a prophet through Christ. Through Jonah, Christ was shown to be the Son of God. What do I mean by this? Unless Christ had come into the world and fulfilled those things foretold by the prophets, it would not have been certain that these men were prophets. For those who are said to foretell the future are considered to be seers only when the things they foretold have come to pass. Thus Christ was indeed born after the prophets. Before that, however, he accorded the prophets a distinction, and later he accepted it from them. Christ therefore showed them to be prophets by his deeds, because they showed him to be the Son of God by their words. INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 30. [1]

[1] PG 56:788.