Arthur King
Active Member
In Matthew 12, Jesus makes a remarkable statement about his death and resurrection:
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him,
“Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
But He answered and said to them,
“An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign; and so no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.”
Jesus says his death and resurrection is like being swallowed and then vomited back up by a sea monster—the sea monster obviously representing death. This imagery that Jesus uses was elaborated on by Christian theologians especially during the Patristic period (the first 750 years of Christianity). Death, who has already swallowed humanity because of our sin, swallows Christ as well, but in so doing swallows perfect divinity and sinlessness, which death cannot keep down. Death is therefore forced to vomit up humanity, hence the resurrection.
John Chrysostom on 1 Corinthians 10:23-24:
Just as when someone swallows food and can't keep it down and so vomits up what was in them; so this also was what happened to Death. Death swallowed the body of Christ, but Death could not digest it, and therefore had to vomit the body up. Indeed, Death travailed in pain, while he held Christ, and was straightened until He vomited Him up. This is what Peter the Apostle is referring to when he says that Jesus “has loosed the pains of death (Acts 2:24)”. For not even a woman in labor with a child has ever been so full of anguish as Death, torn and racked in sunder while he held the body of the Lord in his belly. And that which happened to the Babylonian dragon, when, having taken the food it burst asunder in the midst, this also happened unto him. For Christ came forth again not by the mouth of death, but by the belly of the dragon, having burst it asunder and ripped it up in the very midst.
Gregory of Nyssa:
“In that way, as it is with a greedy fish, he [Death] might swallow the Godhead like a fishhook along with the flesh, which was the bait. Thus, when life came to dwell with death and light shone upon darkness, their contraries might vanish away. For it is not in the nature of darkness to endure the presence of light, nor can death exist where life is active.
John of Damascus:
Wherefore death approaches, and swallowing up the body as a bait is transfixed on the hook of divinity, and after tasting of a sinless and life-giving body, perishes, and brings up again all whom of old he swallowed up. For just as darkness disappears on the introduction of light, so is death repulsed before the assault of life, and brings life to all, but death to the destroyer.
Augustine (saying the Devil took the bait rather than Death) says:
The Devil exulted when Christ died, and by that very death of Christ the Devil was overcome: he took food, as it were, from a trap. He gloated over the death as if he were appointed a deputy of death; that in which he rejoiced became a prison for him. The cross of the Lord became a trap for the Devil; the death of the Lord was the food by which he was ensnared. And behold, our Lord Jesus Christ rose again. Where is the death which hung upon the cross?
Martin Luther:
Even so has our Lord God dealt with the devil; God has cast into the world his only Son, as the angle, and upon the hook has put Christ’s humanity, as the worm; then comes the devil and snaps at the (man) Christ, and devours him, and therewith he bites the iron hook, that is, the godhead of Christ, which chokes him, and all his power thereby is thrown to the ground. This is called sapientia divina, divine wisdom.
We find this “Belly of the Beast” narrative also in many films and works of fantasy literature, in which a hero confronts a dragon or monster that has an impenetrable exterior. In order to defeat the monster, the hero must be swallowed whole so that he can destroy the beast from the inside. Recent examples include Men in Black, The Avengers (This example is interesting because the hero who enters the beast, Iron Man, specifically mentions Jonah and the Whale before intentionally being swallowed), Hercules, The Mandalorian, Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. This is a classic fantasy image because it is a gospel image. Jesus is swallowed by the dragon of death, and blows it apart from within by his resurrection.
Though imagery such as this was extremely popular in the Patristic period, it seems foreign to modern theology. John Stott says that the analogy of the fish hook is “grotesque, as is Augustine’s sermonic use of mousetrap imagery.” But this is how Jesus describes his own death! Jesus says his death is like being swallowed by a sea monster, and his resurrection like being vomited up by the sea monster. If we find this imagery grotesque today, then there is something deeply wrong with our understanding of the cross. We are in bad shape if we think that Jesus’ own descriptions of his death on the cross are “grotesque.”
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him,
“Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
But He answered and said to them,
“An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign; and so no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.”
Jesus says his death and resurrection is like being swallowed and then vomited back up by a sea monster—the sea monster obviously representing death. This imagery that Jesus uses was elaborated on by Christian theologians especially during the Patristic period (the first 750 years of Christianity). Death, who has already swallowed humanity because of our sin, swallows Christ as well, but in so doing swallows perfect divinity and sinlessness, which death cannot keep down. Death is therefore forced to vomit up humanity, hence the resurrection.
John Chrysostom on 1 Corinthians 10:23-24:
Just as when someone swallows food and can't keep it down and so vomits up what was in them; so this also was what happened to Death. Death swallowed the body of Christ, but Death could not digest it, and therefore had to vomit the body up. Indeed, Death travailed in pain, while he held Christ, and was straightened until He vomited Him up. This is what Peter the Apostle is referring to when he says that Jesus “has loosed the pains of death (Acts 2:24)”. For not even a woman in labor with a child has ever been so full of anguish as Death, torn and racked in sunder while he held the body of the Lord in his belly. And that which happened to the Babylonian dragon, when, having taken the food it burst asunder in the midst, this also happened unto him. For Christ came forth again not by the mouth of death, but by the belly of the dragon, having burst it asunder and ripped it up in the very midst.
Gregory of Nyssa:
“In that way, as it is with a greedy fish, he [Death] might swallow the Godhead like a fishhook along with the flesh, which was the bait. Thus, when life came to dwell with death and light shone upon darkness, their contraries might vanish away. For it is not in the nature of darkness to endure the presence of light, nor can death exist where life is active.
John of Damascus:
Wherefore death approaches, and swallowing up the body as a bait is transfixed on the hook of divinity, and after tasting of a sinless and life-giving body, perishes, and brings up again all whom of old he swallowed up. For just as darkness disappears on the introduction of light, so is death repulsed before the assault of life, and brings life to all, but death to the destroyer.
Augustine (saying the Devil took the bait rather than Death) says:
The Devil exulted when Christ died, and by that very death of Christ the Devil was overcome: he took food, as it were, from a trap. He gloated over the death as if he were appointed a deputy of death; that in which he rejoiced became a prison for him. The cross of the Lord became a trap for the Devil; the death of the Lord was the food by which he was ensnared. And behold, our Lord Jesus Christ rose again. Where is the death which hung upon the cross?
Martin Luther:
Even so has our Lord God dealt with the devil; God has cast into the world his only Son, as the angle, and upon the hook has put Christ’s humanity, as the worm; then comes the devil and snaps at the (man) Christ, and devours him, and therewith he bites the iron hook, that is, the godhead of Christ, which chokes him, and all his power thereby is thrown to the ground. This is called sapientia divina, divine wisdom.
We find this “Belly of the Beast” narrative also in many films and works of fantasy literature, in which a hero confronts a dragon or monster that has an impenetrable exterior. In order to defeat the monster, the hero must be swallowed whole so that he can destroy the beast from the inside. Recent examples include Men in Black, The Avengers (This example is interesting because the hero who enters the beast, Iron Man, specifically mentions Jonah and the Whale before intentionally being swallowed), Hercules, The Mandalorian, Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. This is a classic fantasy image because it is a gospel image. Jesus is swallowed by the dragon of death, and blows it apart from within by his resurrection.
Though imagery such as this was extremely popular in the Patristic period, it seems foreign to modern theology. John Stott says that the analogy of the fish hook is “grotesque, as is Augustine’s sermonic use of mousetrap imagery.” But this is how Jesus describes his own death! Jesus says his death is like being swallowed by a sea monster, and his resurrection like being vomited up by the sea monster. If we find this imagery grotesque today, then there is something deeply wrong with our understanding of the cross. We are in bad shape if we think that Jesus’ own descriptions of his death on the cross are “grotesque.”
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Isaiah 53:11. By His knowledge, My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquity.'