Chapter 3

Chapter Two

¹ And the Lord commanded a great sea-monster to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the sea-monster three days and three nights.[1] The word commanded stands for: he willed that the prophet be swallowed by the sea-monster; and this came to pass. For God does not enjoin upon the sea-monster as he does upon men or angels, sounding into their mind what is to be done; rather, for God to will a thing is a law and a command, of necessity fulfilled. And the manner of the obedience is unutterable to us, though to him at least not unknown. The prophet, then, is swallowed by the sea-monster, in no way harmed in the swallowing; and he passes three days and three nights in the belly of the creature — a thing which seems beyond all belief to those who hear it, and especially to those set in motion by Hellenic misconceptions; who, I marvel, do not perceive that they are caught by their own feathers. For there is among them too something of the kind told of Heracles, that, when he had been swallowed by a sea-monster and then given up, he was unharmed in all else, but lost only his hair, and that by the innate heat of the creature. Either, then, they will accept our things as well, or they will reject their own along with them. But since we must establish the firmness of our truth not from the rottenness of the myths among them, it is to be considered that, first, what could not come to pass, God willing it? And next, let the wonders wrought concerning the embryo be considered, which swims indeed in the natural moisture, and is buried as it were in the womb of her that carries it, yet lives nonetheless and is preserved, nursed in marvelous fashion by the promptings of God. And no human reason reaches to these things; yet they are believed, as things seen daily and confirmed by the effect. Neither, then, are the things concerning Jonah to be disbelieved, but they are both to be believed to have happened, and to be received as a type of a greater and more divine mystery. For human nature was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, on account of disobedience, and was hidden from him, so as to hear, Adam, where are you? And it cast itself upon the sea of this life, using the body for a ship, to which it gave the fare also — the service it rendered to it, making provision for its every desire. When, then, the spirits of wickedness troubled the sea, the waves of the pleasures rose up, and were sinking the body together with the soul. It was necessary, then, that one of those in the ship should die — I mean the body. The Lord, therefore, having put on our nature, and having become one of us, and having entered into our ship — that is, having worn the body of our lowliness, and having tabernacled among us in the likeness of sinful flesh — dies according to a lot, that is, according to the predestination which the Father predetermined, having allotted and purposed before all ages that his own Son should die for us, as Peter says and Paul. And observe: Jonah is interpreted “of the Most High, suffering,” or “a dove.”[2] The Most High, then, suffered pains for us, and is in anguish for us — willingly indeed, yet he does not slay himself, but is fastened to the cross by lawless hands; even as Jonah too, though he had condemned himself to death, does not cast himself, but is cast — the account teaching us also not to be reckless, nor to fall into deaths too rashly. When Christ, then, had died, and had been given over to the all-devouring sea-monster, the spirits of wickedness were thrust down, and the waves of the pleasures were stilled, and full calm and peace took up its citizenship in life, both in souls and in bodies, even as he himself said: Peace I leave with you; and rising again, Peace be to you, he greeted the disciples. And some say otherwise as well: that the prophet is a type of Christ; the ship, of the synagogue of the Jews; the look-out, of Moses; the sailors, of the prophets; the sea, of the sufferings which were owed by us; the lot, of the counsel of the Father, according to which Christ is cast into the sea of the sufferings, and enters into the belly of the great sea-monster of death; where, having spent three days, he rose, and preached to the nations, and those nations that repented were saved.

² And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the sea-monster, and said: I cried in my affliction to the Lord my God, and he heard me; out of the belly of Hades, the cry of mine, you heard my voice. The prophet, in no way harmed by the sea-monster, but using the monster as a house, and injured neither in body nor in mind, perceives the help of God. And not being ignorant that he had offended him by shrinking from the ministry, he turns to prayers; and he who once thought that God appeared manifestly in Jerusalem alone, now finds him present in the belly of the sea-monster, and gives thanks to the one who saved him, and says that his prayer was received — either understanding this by the prophetic Spirit, or saying it according to what was likely. For I would not have continued living, he says, until now, had you not heard my prayer. And he named the belly of the sea-monster a “belly of Hades,” both because the creature is death-bearing, and because by the nature of what had befallen him he was as good as dead; but he lived by the grace of God alone. And besides, as a type of Christ, who passed three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, it was fitting that he should say he had passed them in the belly of Hades. And observe the paradox: the one who truly tasted death said he would be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights, making no mention of Hades or of death; while Jonah, who was in the shadow of death and did not truly die, makes mention of Hades — that you may learn that to the Lord, as God, both death is self-chosen and the resurrection in his own power; therefore he named it the heart of the earth, not death, nor Hades. But for Jonah life was not in his own power; therefore, as being in Hades, so far at least as concerned the nature of what was befalling him, he made mention of the belly of Hades. And the Lord too cried out, in the affliction at the cross, to the Father: Father, forgive them the sin; and he was wholly heard. For it was forgiven to those who did not persist in unbelief. And one might call the cross also a “belly of Hades”; for it gave birth to the death of the Lord on our behalf.

³ You cast me into the depths of the heart of the sea, and rivers encompassed me. Hearing “the heart of the sea,” remember the Lord, who said that he would be in the heart of the earth, and observe the type agreeing with the truth. And the prophet expounds what befell him in many ways, magnifying the grace of God shown toward him, and at the same time displaying his power, as able to save out of every evil, however fearful it be; for he did not say simply, “into the depths,” but he added also, “of the heart.” For since the heart seems to be the innermost and chief part of the living creature, showing here a hyperbole, he said Into the depths of the heart, that is, into the innermost parts; as if he were saying: You cast me into the innermost parts of the sea (for the sea-monster lives in the depths); and the innermost parts of the sea-monster itself encompassed me. And by “rivers” he means the assaults of the waves. Or else, since rivers too empty into the sea, he who is encircled by the sea is plainly encircled by the rivers as well.

⁴ All your surgings and your waves passed over me. When I was, he says, in the ship, I had tossings, since the vessel was tossed aloft by the waves. But to you these tossings and waves belonged, as composed according to your command.

⁵ And I said: I am cast out from before your eyes; shall I yet again look upon your holy temple? At that time, he says, being in the midst of dread things, I supposed that I was cast away from your eyes and from your oversight and watching, and I was in doubt: shall I from now on live, and shall I “add” — that is, shall I be eager and zealous, shall I be counted worthy — to look upon your holy temple that is in Jerusalem? But some take it thus: I know indeed, being in the belly of the sea-monster, that you have saved me marvelously; yet I am in doubt whether I shall even be given up, and come forth into the light outside, so as to reach the divine temple itself, and in it to glorify you. And upon the Lord too there came surgings — the shadows of the lofty and haughty and unstable synagogue; and waves — the various forms of the passion, which, as coming upon him according to the Father’s will, are said to be his. Then indeed he also said: Why have you forsaken me? — like the saying here, I am cast out from before your eyes. And he said this after the human manner. For men say that those who fall into such things are forsaken. What, then, it was likely that others would say of him, this he himself says of himself. Therefore, as toward such a thought, he says: Shall I then yet look again upon the body, which is your holy temple, as fashioned for me by you? Or, as containing you within me, shall I take it up again out of resurrection? And let no one carp at the saying, as though it introduced the Lord as ignorant whether he would rise; but let him attend to what we said, that these things are spoken according to human reasonings.

⁶ Water was poured around me to the soul; the lowest abyss encompassed me; my head sank into the clefts of the mountains. I went down into the earth, whose bars are everlasting fastenings. The prophet, hymning in many ways the grace of God toward him, says both that he was encompassed by water, which had the nature to take away the soul, and that he was encircled by the lowest abyss, and that he came to be in the clefts of mountains. And by this he hints also at the size of the sea-monster, and certain mountains and caves into which the monster was likely to plunge. For there are many such things in the sea, against which the vessels dash and are destroyed. Fearing these, the most experienced of sailors are eager to avoid the sunken rocks. And he says he went down into the “earth” of Hades — not that he went down there (for he did not truly die), but that the greatness of the danger required this, namely, to seem to die, and to come to Hades itself, into which, having descended, he is held as it were by certain bars. And these are “everlasting fastenings,” that is, holding fast forever those who fall in. Or, instead of: firmly and unutterably rooted, and by none from of old loosed, and fallen from their own seat and stability. The lowest abyss for the Lord was death, the last thing he underwent for us, after the countless plots. And his head sank into the cave of the tomb.

⁷ And let my life come up out of corruption to you, O Lord my God. From his having been saved in the sea-monster he begins to believe that he will obtain even to live again; therefore he prays for this too, which he would not have prayed for, had he not from that come to believe this also to be possible for God. For, both being equally impossible, to him to whom the one is possible the other also is altogether possible. My life, then — the life in the sea-monster — let it come up to you, away from this corruption by which I think to be corrupted; that is, to your holy temple, in which you appear and are glorified, so that I too may enjoy your grace therein. And the life of the Lord too — not out of corruption (for he saw none of it), but out of the corruption of death — went up to the heavenly temple and to the Father, even as he said: I am ascending to my Father.

⁸ When my soul was failing from me, I remembered the Lord; and let my prayer come to you, to your holy temple. Afflictions are not unprofitable to the saints. So David too says: In affliction I called upon the Lord, and he heard me, into a wide place. And Isaiah: In affliction I remembered you. And Paul: Affliction works patience; and patience, proof. And Jonah too, then, when his soul was failing him from the fear of the danger, did not fall into blasphemy, he says, but, I remembered the Lord — that is, I called upon him as helper. Or, that I remembered that he is a lover of mankind, and will overlook the sin which I committed in disobeying him; therefore I also entreated him, and so might become worthy that my prayer should go up to you, which I will make toward your holy temple, when I shall certainly come to life again. For if I live again, I will both come to the temple in Jerusalem, and will pray to you. Or also: This present prayer, which I prayed to you, that my life might come up out of corruption — let it come to you, whether to your holy temple, or to the heavenly one, or to the one below. For in this alone, as was said in the prologue, they believed that God made his manifest appearances, and received in it the prayers of all. But the Lord too, when he was about to die, remembered the Father, saying: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having gone up into heaven with his body, he intercedes for us with the Father, his body being for an embassy, and being displayed to the Father in place of a great supplication, that we might be shown mercy; through which this was taken up by the Son. The ascent, then, with the body to the divine and heavenly temple will be understood as a prayer on our behalf, as was said, the one interceding through the body.

⁹ Those who keep vanities and lies have forsaken their own mercy; but I, with a voice of praise and thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you; whatever I have vowed I will pay to you for my salvation, to the Lord. Others, he says, pursuing vain and false idols, and serving gods that are not, do not ask of you the mercy. Or, that, having been shown mercy by you and delivered from misfortunes, they do not hymn and magnify the mercy which you wrought with them. Or also: They forsook you, their mercy; for by your mercy they live; as, if you should mark transgressions, who shall stand? But I, having been saved, will offer you sacrifices, with thankful voices; and whatever I vowed — that is, promised for the sake of this my salvation — I will pay to you. For there were sacrifices “of salvation” under the Law; therefore some copies have, “for salvation.” But some take it thus: Those things, he says, I will pay you, which procure salvation, and profit my soul; and these are, to obey you, and to fulfill the work of the prophetic purpose. And those who kept the Lord were keeping vanities and lies — they who forsook their mercy, that is, the mystery of the resurrection, accomplished for the whole of human nature, and altogether for them too, since they too are men — not being willing to believe that he had risen, whom they kept guard over. And the Lord himself too was their mercy, but they would not have him. But I, he says, your Son, will sacrifice to you — that is, I will become the cause that the mystic sacrifice be offered to you in the world, and I will pay you the salvation of men, which my incarnation promised. And he prayed also before the passion: Father, keep them in your name, that they too may be one.