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| The Sign of Jonah Engraving by Anton Wierix for Gerard Nadal, Evangelicae historiae imagines Flemish, 1593-1595
This engraving illustrates the passage from
Luke's Gospel. Jesus is seen in the foreground
speaking to the people, while the background
presents the Old Testament references. A lettered
key below the picture explains the meaning.
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"This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
(Luke 11:29-32) Gospel for Wednesday in the First Week of Lent*
In the Gospel reading for the Wednesday in the First Week of Lent Jesus speaks of the “sign of Jonah”. Just what is that?
The story of Jonah relates how, after receiving the inspiration of God to preach repentance to the town of Nineveh (in today’s Iraq) Jonah was afraid and tried to run away from his mission by sea. The ship he was traveling in was caught by a fierce storm and the sailors blamed Jonah (presumably the only passenger). To appease the sea they threw Jonah overboard (at his own suggestion), where he was swallowed by “a great fish” (later ages would call it a whale or, sometimes, a sea monster). However, Jonah was not digested by the fish, but remained alive in its belly. Jonah prayed to God, asking for deliverance and he was delivered. After three days and nights the fish spat him out. After this ordeal Jonah did go to Nineveh, where his preaching was successful.1
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| Jonah Thrown Into the Sea Roman, mid-4th century Rome, Catacomb of Priscilla |
The meaning of this “sign” is clear to Christians. As Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and nights and was returned unharmed to dry land, so Jesus remained three days in the tomb and returned glorified. But, unlike the people of Nineveh, who repented after hearing Jonah’s preaching, not all will recognize the preaching of Jesus and His followers.
This parallel between Jonah’s three days and nights buried, as it were, in the belly of the fish and Jesus’ time buried in the tomb caused the earliest Christians to see Jonah as a precursor of Jesus, a type or sign of what was to come. Not surprisingly, therefore, images of Jonah became popular among early Christians. In fact “Next to the Good Shepherd, Jonah was the most popular biblical character, appearing in Early Christian visual art ten times more than any other figure. Jonah is also unique in that he is depicted as part of a narrative sequence. Paintings and relief sculpture alike show him being tossed over the side of the boat (into the sea monster’s mouth), being spit up again, and reclining on dry land.”2
In the visual arts, Christianity was barely out of the era of discreet and tightly held symbolism, where the main visual expression was simple symbols, such as the well known outlined fish (ichthys) or the anchor or the Chi Rho, when Jonah began to appear. This is not too surprising. Since the Hebrew Bible was known to the wider Roman public, stories from it could be read by the uninitiated at their face value. The deeper, Christian, meaning of the story of Jonah would be grasped by those who understood the parallels. So, to some extent, even while readable as a straightforward story to all, the Jonah images were still symbolic to Christians.
Early images appear in several media: sculpture, painting, decorations on glass, beginning (so far as we currently know) in the late 3rd century. Some examples are shown here.
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| Sarcophagus Front with Jonah and Christian Scenes Marble, Rome, Late 3rd Century Vatican City, Vatican Museums |
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| Table Base with Jonah Swallowed and Cast Up Marble, Asia Minor, early 4th Century New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Jonah Swallowed Marble, Asia Minor, ca. 280-290 Cleveland, Museum of Art |
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| Jonah Cast Up Marble, Asia Minor, late 3rd Century Cleveland, Museum of Art |
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| Nicholas of Verdun Entombment of Jesus Mosan, 1181 Klosterneuburg Abbey, Austria |
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| Nicholas of Verdun Jonah Thrown to the Fish Mosan, 1181 Klosterneuburg Abbey, Austria |
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| Section of Klosterneuburg Altarpiece showing the three levels. At the top Joseph is thrown into the well, in the middle Jesus is placed in the tomb, at the bottom Jonah is thrown to the fish. |
For example, in the Klosterneuburg Altarpiece of Nicholas of Verdun, made in 1181 for the abbey church where it still remains, it appears as the “type” for the period “Under the Law”.
The scenes in the altarpiece are divided into three tiers: at the top are the scenes that took place “Before the Law” (that is, before the Exodus), at the bottom are the scenes that took place “Under the Law” (that is, between the Exodus and the Incarnation). In the middle row are the scenes “Under Grace”, that is from the New Testament. In this case, Jonah is thrown into the mouth of the fish at the bottom, Joseph is thrown into the well at the top and Jesus is placed in the tomb in the middle.
This use of “types” was also common in manuscript painting during the Middle Ages. As at Klosterneuburg, Jonah is often paired with the Entombment.
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| Book of Hours (use of Utrecht) Netherlandish, ca. 1425 The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek MS 133 M 131, fol. 90v and 91r On the left page is the Entombment, while the capital on the right page is Jonah |
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| Rambures Master, Entombnemt of Jesus from Biblia pauperum Hesdin or Amiens, ca. 1470 The Hague, Museum Moormano Westentrianum MS MMW 10 A 15, fol. 33r (detail) |
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| Rambures Master, Jonah Thrown to the Fish from Biblia pauperum Hesdin or Amiens, ca. 1470 The Hague, Musseum Moormano Westentrianum MS MMW 10 A 15, fol. 33r (detail) |
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| Rambures Master, Jonah Thrown to the Fish from Biblia pauperum Hesdin or Amiens, ca. 1470 The Hague, Musseum Moormano Westentrianum MS MMW 10 A 15, fol. 33r This view of the full page shows the same three stories in juxtaposition: Joseph in the well, Jesus entombed, Jonah thrown to the fish. |
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| Maitre de Boece, Jonah Thrown Overboard from Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities Bruges, 1483 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale MS Francais 13, fol. 240 |
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| Michealangelo, Jonah Italian, 1508-1512 Vatican City, Sistine Chapel |
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| Tintoretto, Jonah Cast Out By the Fish Italian, 1577-1578 Venice, Scuola Grande di San Rocco |
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| Paul Bril, Voyage of Jonah Flemish, ca. 1600 Lille, Musee des Beaux-Arts This is a copy by the artist of a painting done for the interior of the Scala Santa (Holy Stairs) at St. John Lateran in Rome. 4 |
Nonetheless, the “sign of Jonah” remains as easily understood today as it has been at any time since the Gospel of Luke was written slightly over 1,900 years ago. 3
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* Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
1. Jonah, Chapters 1-3 can be accessed at http://www.usccb.org/bible/jonah/1
2. Robin M. Jensen, “Early Christian Images and Exegesis”, in Spier, Jeffrey, et al., Picturing the Bible, The Earliest Christian Art, New Haven and Fort Worth, Yale University Press in association with the Kimball Art Museum, 2007, p. 71.
3. Most scholars place the date for the Gospel of Luke in the last decade of the first century, AD 80-90. See
http://www.usccb.org/bible/scripture.cfm?bk=Luke&ch=
4. The Bril frescoes have recently been restored. See: http://www.vatican-patrons.org/wishbook2012/Scala_Santa.pdf as well as http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8376263.stm and http://calitreview.com/5547 The restoration has completely changed one's view of Bril's work.
© M. Duffy, 2012
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