Jonas is swallowed by a great fish; 3. prayeth with confidence in God; 11. and the fish casteth him on the dry land.Ionas is swallowed by a great fish; 3. prayeth with confidence in God; 11. and the fish casteth him on the drie land.✦

And our Lord prepared a great fish to swallow down Jonas: and Jonas was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.And our Lord prepared a great fish to swallow down Jonas: and Jonas was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.AND our Lord prepared ^a ^a great fish to swallow done Ionas: and Ionas was in the bellie of the fish three dayes and three nightes.Et præparavit Dominus piscem grandem ut deglutiret Jonam : et erat Jonas in ventre piscis tribus diebus et tribus noctibus.✦

Cornelius a Lapide

1. AND THE LORD PREPARED A FISH — that is to say: God caused a fish, as if a servant of His vengeance as well as His clemency, to be ready at hand near the ship, to receive and devour Jonah as an avenger, and to preserve him as a guardian. Jonah therefore, not swimming for long but immediately from the ship entered the fish and its belly, just as Christ from the cross immediately descended into the sepulchre, says St. Augustine, Epistle 49, at the end. Hence the Septuagint translates: And God commanded a great whale, and it swallowed Jonah. For the Hebrews call every ordinance, disposition, and providence a "command." Beautifully St. Chrysostom on Psalm 96, "The Lord reigns," etc., teaches that wild beasts serve God and the Saints, and that Jonah, being in the belly of the whale, steered it so that it went not where it wished, but where Jonah wished, namely to dry land, verse 11. "Thus," he says, "the whale was Jonah's beast of burden for three days, and led by him who steered from within, not where it itself wished: what shepherd so tamed his lambs as Daniel did the fierce lions? What king has such swift Indians as Elijah had ravens? What teacher taught a disciple to exercise hospitality without murmuring as Jonah did the whale in the sea? What army of weapons so preserved its king unharmed and restrained foreigners from attack as the Chaldean furnace drove out the Chaldean citizens of the city and preserved the Hebrews?"

A GREAT FISH. — The Septuagint, whom Matthew 12:40 follows, has "whale." Note that the name "whale" is common to baleen whales, sperm whales, orcas, sawfish, sharks, tuna, and all very large and cetacean fish. For "whale" (cetus), as Aldrovandus teaches from Aristotle in Book III On Fishes, chapter 32, properly means every kind of fish which brings forth live young without egg-laying, and truly breathes with a true respiratory instrument, namely the lung; indeed, by Galen and by common usage, any very large fish is counted among whales; not because they are whales, but because they grow to the size of whales. Hence although the carcharias [shark], about which more shortly, does not have a lung, and conceives eggs within itself — but in such a way that it vivifies them within itself and brings forth live young — it is nevertheless counted among whales by Galen, Aelian, and Oppian.

Although therefore the common people think the fish that swallowed Jonah was a baleen whale, Rondeletius denies this (Book XIII On Fishes, ch. 12), as does Ulysses Aldrovandus (Book III On Fishes, ch. 32), and from them Pineda (Book IV On the Affairs of Solomon, ch. 12), a Castro here, and others, on the ground that a baleen whale has too narrow a throat and stomach, and cannot easily swallow and contain a whole and uninjured man. This should be understood of small and common whales; for the larger ones are the size of mountains, and easily swallow whole men and oxen. They judge therefore that this fish was the one called Carcharias [Great White Shark], also called Dog-fish, and by the Italians and Nicander and others called Lamia, which is enormous, most voracious, and a man-eater, having a monstrous gape of mouth and throat, as Aldrovandus depicts and presents in an illustration (Book III On Fishes, ch. 32, p. 381). For the Carcharias, or Dog-fish, is the largest of all sharks, surpassing even tuna in size, and sometimes growing so large, says Rondeletius, that when placed on a cart it could scarcely be drawn by two horses; wherefore, when eviscerated and cut into pieces, it sometimes had to be placed on two carts. Rondeletius adds that he saw a medium-sized one that weighed a thousand pounds: and Gillius reports that the people of Nice testified to him that they had caught a fish of this kind approaching four thousand pounds, and found a whole man in its belly; and that the people of Marseilles narrated something similar to him, that they had caught a Dog-fish in which they found an armored man. Moreover Rondeletius saw another on the shore of Saintonge, whose mouth and gullet were of such vast size that it could have easily swallowed even a stout man: indeed if the mouth of a sea-dog were preserved thus gaping, with the rest of the body covered, land dogs would enter it and get into the stomach to devour the remains of fish.

It is called lamia from παρά τοῦ λαιμοῦ, that is, from its gullet and throat, because it has a great and almost monstrous throat, and is most voracious. From which gluttony those sorceresses are similarly called lamiae who attract boys and young men to themselves by their beauty, and devour those they have attracted: which, as they say, would have happened to Menippus Lucius, had not the counsel of a grave and prudent man deterred the young man from his love by saying, "you are warming a serpent, and the serpent warms you" — which is very aptly said of one who loves, cherishes, and embraces that which will ultimately bring him certain destruction, as not infrequently happens to lovers.

So Rondeletius and Aldrovandus, who accordingly think that the fish which devoured Jonah was the carcharias or lamia; which, although it is not properly a whale, is nevertheless called a whale by that usage whereby any vast and monstrous fish is called a whale. In this, however, Aldrovandus disagrees with Rondeletius, because Rondeletius holds that this lamia is the same as the lamia of Aristotle (History of Animals, Book V, ch. 5) and of Pliny (Book IX, ch. 24); but Aldrovandus denies this, on the ground that Aristotle and Pliny classify the lamia as flat, and count it among flat cartilaginous fish, which this vast and monstrous lamia is not, which is called κύων, that is "dog," by Aristotle, and is called carcharias by Theophrastus (History of Plants, Book IV, ch. 8), Columella, and others, because it is a most voracious and shameless thief, and because it excels greatly in its teeth, having them sharp and serrated; for κάρχαρος means sharp and rough: whence animals with sharp and serrated teeth arranged like a comb are called καρχαρόδοντα by Aristotle.

Truly St. Augustine, Epistle 49, Question 6, speaking of the mouth of the whale that swallowed Jonah, says: "Who would not conjecture how wide that mouth gaped, which was like the door of that cave?" See there Augustine defending this history of Jonah against Porphyry, who mocked it as fabulous.

Allegorically St. Ambrose, on Psalm 43, says: Jonah is Christ, "who was therefore sent into the sea, that He might be received and devoured by the whale, so that, placed within the belly of the whale, He might empty out its interior. Of which whale this was said — hear Job saying in chapter 3: Who, he says, is able to render the great whale captive. Who is this? Surely you recognize Him, when you read that our Lord Jesus Christ led captivity captive; for when the adversary and enemy was defeated, we who were captives began to possess freedom through Christ."

Symbolically St. Jerome, writing to Heliodorus in the Epitaph of Nepotian, applies this to death, which indeed swallows the faithful, but like Jonah keeps them as if alive, because of the hope of the resurrection, by which they will shortly rise again. "You devoured Jonah," he says, "but in your belly he was alive," according to Hosea 13:14: "I will be your death, O death." Finally, this miracle of the devouring and ejection of Jonah was done not so much for Jonah's sake as for the Ninevites, so that they through this miracle would believe Jonah — allegorically, for the sake of Christ and Christians, about which more in chapter 3, verse 5.

AND JONAH WAS IN THE BELLY OF THE FISH. — Many miracles here: First, that the extremely hot belly of the fish did not consume Jonah and reduce him to chyle; second, that Jonah was able to live and breathe there and draw in cool air; third, that the smell, which in the belly of a whale is most foul and intolerable, did not kill Jonah, but rather he bore it comfortably; fourth, that in this most cramped and uncomfortable prison, he retained possession not only of his soul but also of his mind, and inspired by the Spirit of God sang a remarkable and pious song to God. This therefore was the work of God, who in a similar way keeps an infant enclosed in the maternal womb for so many months without food or drink, without excretion, without the use of cold respiration. So Theophylactus. Rightly marveling at this common yet wondrous thing, David says: "Upon You I was cast from the womb: from my mother's belly You are my God" (Psalm 21:11). He who therefore preserved the three youths unharmed in the Babylonian furnace, the same one preserved Jonah untouched in the belly of the whale. So St. Jerome.

From Jonah the Gentiles seem to have taken the fable of their Hercules. For they invented the story that Hercules was devoured by a whale and returned from it unharmed, except that he had been stripped of his hair due to the internal heat of the beast. So Theophylactus. And Lycophron, in the tragedy of Hercules, relates that Hercules, when returning from Colchis with the Argonauts after finding the Golden Fleece, suffered a tempest, fell into the sea, was devoured by a fish, and after three days was cast forth safe from it into the sea. I believe he took this from Josephus (Antiquities, Book IX, ch. 11), who writes that Jonah was vomited up by the whale in the Black Sea. For Lycophron seems to have transferred this to the person of Hercules: for the voyage of the Argonauts was in the Black Sea. So Salmeron, vol. 8, tract. 17.

Allegorically, Theophylactus explains: Jonah is Christ, the ship is the synagogue of the Jews, the captain is Moses, the sailors are the Prophets, the sea is the afflictions owed to our sins, the lot is the will of the Eternal Father, the belly of the whale represents the secrets of death, the sepulchre, and hell, in which Christ spent three days, and after three days, rising thence, He announced repentance and the Gospel of salvation to the nations through the Apostles; then the winds, that is, the most powerful inspirations and temptations of the demons, were calmed; the storms of the pleasures of the sea, that is, of this world, were laid low; peace and tranquility were restored both to the bodies and souls of the faithful, as Christ said: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you." Hence also "Jonah" in Hebrew means the same as "dove," or as if to say, Jehovah ione, that is, "God laboring."

Three days. — I have assigned the reasons for this number three at Hosea 6:3.

2And Jonas prayed to our Lord his God out of the belly of the fish.And Jonas prayed to our Lord his God out of the belly of the fish.And Ionas ^b prayed to our Lord his God out of the bellie of the fish.Et oravit Jonas ad Dominum Deum suum de ventre piscis,✦

Cornelius a Lapide

2. And Jonah prayed to the Lord. — Hardships compelled Jonah to return to God and invoke Him. Thus God reduces His own to straits, so that they may invoke Him, and He is immediately present to those who invoke Him and comes to their aid. It is commonly said: "He who does not know how to pray, let him go to sea;" for those who sail upon it, when they see nothing but sky and ocean, and winds and waves that seem to rise to the stars and soon sink into the abyss, so that they seem about to be drowned at any moment and to descend to the depths of the sea, immediately learn to implore the help of the deity and of all the heavenly beings. Nyssenus says admirably in his Exposition of the Lord's Prayer: The prayer of Jonah made the whale a home, so that in the belly of the whale he dwelt and prayed comfortably as if in a house.

Tertullian marvels, in his book On Prayer, chapter 14: "How," he says, "could the prayer of Jonah from the belly of the whale pass through the entrails of so great a beast, from the very depths, through so great a mass of ocean, to reach heaven?" This indeed is the power of prayer, this is the power of God, who is everywhere present and hears the prayers of suppliants.

3And he said: I cried out of my tribulation to our Lord, and he heard me: out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou hast heard my voice.And he said: I cried out of my tribulation to our Lord, and he hath heard me: out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou hast heard my voice.And he sayd: I cryed out of my tribulation to our Lord, & he hath heard me: out of the bellie of hel cried I, and thou hast heard my voice.et dixit : Clamavi de tribulatione mea ad Dominum, et exaudivit me ; de ventre inferi clamavi, et exaudisti vocem meam.✦

Cornelius a Lapide

3. And he said. — This is a lyric song of Jonah, says Arias, in three-line four-stanza form, similar to that of Horace, Book I, Ode 36:

With incense and strings it is pleasing To appease, and with the blood of a calf duly owed, The Numidian guardian gods.

Except that the fourth verse is shorter in this manner:

In my affairs, exceedingly straitened, With a suppliant song I call upon You, Lord, From the lowest depths, and Hearing my voice.

I CRIED OUT OF MY AFFLICTION. — When Jonah was being cast into the sea, aroused by so great a danger to himself, he immediately began to pray and cry out at least mentally to the Lord; but immediately devoured by the whale, and seeing himself in its belly, he continued to cry out all the more. Hence St. Jerome says that Jonah, "from the moment he was cast into the sea and saw the whale, and its great body mass, and its monstrous jaws swallowing him with open mouth, remembered the Lord and cried out."

Here Rabbi Solomon, in his usual fashion, tells a fable that Jonah was first devoured by a male whale, and because he dwelt there quite spaciously and loosely, he did not cry out to the Lord; God therefore commanded the male whale to vomit Jonah into a female whale, namely a baleen whale full of offspring and pregnant, in which, when Jonah felt himself being squeezed, he began to cry out. He proves this from the fact that in verse 1, this fish is called by the masculine דג dag: therefore it was a male whale; but in verse 3, where it says "And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish," in Hebrew it is feminine: דגה dagah, that is, a female fish. But this fabulator errs: for one and the same

and that it was the same fish that swallowed Jonah and in which Jonah cried out and which vomited him out after his prayer, is clear from the last verse, where the fish vomiting Jonah onto the shore is called dag in the masculine, not dagah in the feminine. Therefore dag signifies a fish both female and male; just as the Latin words piscis, avis, ovis, camelus, equus, asinus, bos, vitulus, etc., signify both female and male: so conversely the feminine dagah signifies any fish, both male and female, as is clear from Isaiah 50:2; Numbers 11:5; Ezekiel 29:4; Genesis 1:26; Exodus 7:20; Ezekiel 47:9. So the Latin words simia, mustela, vulpes, aquila, pica, columba, etc., although they are feminine, nevertheless signify both males and females of their species.

Tropologically St. Gregory, on the sixth Penitential Psalm, "Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord," says: "Jonah cried out to God from the belly of the whale, from the depth of the sea, from the deep of disobedience; and his prayer reached the ears of God, who snatched him from the waves, rescued him from the beast, absolved him from guilt. Let the sinner also cry out, whom the tempest of desires has crushed as he departed from God, whom the malignant enemy has swallowed, whom the waves of this present age have engulfed — let him recognize that he is in the deep, so that his prayer may reach God."

AND HE HEARD ME. — Note: Jonah, cast into the sea and praying to the Lord, immediately felt His present help, by which he was kept unharmed from the sea as well as from the whale in its belly. Whence, made certain of his salvation by the instinct of God, he gives thanks to God, and sings this song, which is more of thanksgiving than of petition, to God his deliverer.

Out of the belly of hell — namely from the belly of the whale, which he hyperbolically calls hell, on account of its size, depth, and darkness.

4And thou hast cast me forth into the depth in the heart of the sea, and a flood compassed me: all thy surges, and thy waves have passed over me.And thou hast cast me forth into the depth in the heart of the sea, and a flood hath compassed me: all thy surges, and thy waves have passed over me.And thou hast cast me forth into the depth in the hart of the sea, and a floud hath compassed me: al thy surges, & thy waues haue passed ouer me.Et projecisti me in profundum in corde maris, et flumen circumdedit me : omnes gurgites tui, et fluctus tui super me transierunt.✦

Cornelius a Lapide

4. IN THE HEART OF THE SEA — in the middle, or deepest part of the sea; for whales, being enormous, love and inhabit that region: for what the heart is in an animal, that is what the depth is in the sea, and the center in the earth. Whence Christ, after His death, is said to have been for three days in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40), that is, in the Limbo of the Fathers, which is near hell and near the center of the world. So St. Jerome: "Just as the heart is in the middle of an animal, so hell is said to be in the middle of the earth."

A flood. — The Septuagint has "floods," not because the whale here passed through some river flowing into the sea, whose flowing sound Jonah heard in the belly of the whale, as Arias and some others wish; but he calls the very waves and abundance of waters "floods": for as the whale now plunged into the sea and now emerged, an abundance of waters, like resounding rivers, flowed in on every side into the sea, with Jonah hearing it, says Theophylactus, Albertus, and a Castro. For the very course and surge of waters is sometimes called a "flood," as in Martial, Book 1:

"And he who first drank the floods of the discovered Nile."

Others take "flood" to mean the sea, as a litotes. Thus Aristotle in the Meteorology calls clouds an "aerial flood," or an ocean floating through the air.

Note: This song of Jonah is very closely related to the words and sentiments of Psalm 68 of David, and seems in good part to be drawn from it. For what is said there in verse 4: "I labored with crying;" Jonah says: "I cried out of my affliction." There in verse 3 it says: "I am stuck in the mire of the deep, and there is no firm standing;" Jonah says: "You cast me forth into the deep, into the heart of the sea." There in verse 3 it says: "I am come into the depth of the sea, and a tempest has overwhelmed me;" Jonah says: "All Your billows and Your waves passed over me" — a verse he borrowed from Psalm 41:8. There David says in verse 2: "Save me, O God, for the waters have come in even unto my soul." Here Jonah says: "The waters encompassed me even to the soul, the abyss enclosed me." Therefore both David and Jonah bore the type of the suffering Christ, and expressed in themselves His anguish, prayers, vows, and groans.

ALL YOUR BILLOWS. — Pagninus: All your waves; the Septuagint, All your swellings; the Hebrew, משבריך misbarecha, that is, all your breakings, namely all your waves, which crush and shatter ships and the men sailing in them. Take "all" appropriately, namely those which You, O Lord, stirred up here on my account; for Jonah did not feel those stirred up elsewhere.

5And I said: I am cast away from the sight of thine eyes: but yet I shall see thy holy temple again.And I said: I am cast away from the sight of thine eyes: but yet I shall see thy holy temple again.And I sayd: I am cast away from the sight of thine eyes: but yet I shal see thy holie temple againe.Et ego dixi : Abjectus sum a conspectu oculorum tuorum ; verumtamen rursus videbo templum sanctum tuum.✦

Cornelius a Lapide

5. I said: I am cast away — that is to say: Placed in so miserable a state, at first I seemed to myself to have been abandoned, cast off, and lost by You: but now, through the revelation which You suggest to me, namely that I shall shortly escape safe from the belly of the whale to land, raised to certain hope, I take heart again, I give You as great thanks as my mind can now grasp, and I will give even greater thanks in the temple at Jerusalem, to which I again devote and vow myself for this purpose. So St. Jerome, Remigius, Hugo, and Clarius.

Less correctly Arias and Vatablus understand "temple" as heaven; for this is an anagogical sense, not the literal one: for Jonah did not think he was going to die and go to heaven through death, since he was certain he would emerge alive from the belly of the whale; hence there is no doubt that he returned to Judea and visited the temple, to give thanks to God there for so miraculous a liberation, and to fulfill the vows he had made in the belly of the whale.

6The waters have compassed me even to the soul: the depth enclosed me, the sea covered my head.The waters have compassed me even to the soul: the depth hath enclosed me, the sea hath covered my head.The waters haue compassed me euen to the soule: the depth hath inclosed me, the sea hath couered my head.Circumdederunt me aquæ usque ad animam : abyssus vallavit me, pelagus operuit caput meum.✦

Cornelius a Lapide

6. THE WATERS ENCOMPASSED ME EVEN TO THE SOUL. — The Septuagint: Water was poured around me even to the soul, that is to say: The waters so surrounded me on every side that they seemed about to penetrate my entire body and invade through the eyes and nostrils into the head, through the mouth into the stomach and all the intestines, through the pores into every limb, so that they seemed about to reach even to the very soul, and to submerge and overwhelm it, had not God held them back and preserved my soul: for the whale was constantly drawing in waters and filling its stomach with them, which surrounded Jonah dwelling therein on every side, and all but submerged him. Whence Vatablus explains "even to the soul" as meaning even to the separation of the soul, that is, even to death, as the Chaldean translates it, that is to say: I was in extreme danger of my life while in the waters of the sea; for I thought I would either be drowned by the waters or certainly suffocated, being deprived of the air necessary for breathing in the extremely hot belly of the whale, which was filled with water.

THE ABYSS ENCLOSED ME. — Pagninus: The whirlpool surrounded me. For "abyss" is the name given to water without a bottom, that is, the most vast and deep, such as the sea. He says the same thing and with one expression after another exaggerates the vastness of the surrounding waters. Otherwise a Castro explains: The abyss, he says, is the depth of the sea, namely the bottom, that is to say: He lowered me down to the very floor of the sea. But the Hebrew תהום tehom properly signifies not the bottom, but the abyss already described.

The sea covered my head. — For "sea" the Hebrew has suph, which properly signifies "end" and "boundary"; thence it means rush, sedge, reed, seaweed which typically grows at the edge of the sea and rivers, and because the Red Sea abounds in these, and at the same time is the boundary of both the sea and of Egypt and Arabia, hence it is called in Hebrew "the sea of suph." From this threefold meaning a threefold translation arises. First: The end was bound to my head, that is, death and destruction threatened my head. Second: Seaweed was bound to my head, so Pagninus; or: Sedge was wrapped around my head, so the Zurich Bible; or: A band of rushes was on my head. So others, that is to say: The whale entangled me together with rushes and reeds that grow on the surface, and with seaweed that grows at the bottom of the sea; or the whale was devouring seaweed which, descending into its stomach, entangled me and my head. For Pliny (Book 13, ch. 25) teaches that in the sea there are not only shrubs and trees, but also meadows and forests. Third, the Rabbis translate: The Red Sea entangled my head. Whence they believe that Jonah, who was devoured by the whale at Joppa, was carried by it and cast out in the Red Sea, so that Jonah would be closer to Nineveh, to which he was being sent by God.

Hear Rabbi Solomon: "There was shown to the Prophet the sea of reeds, and how the Israelites had crossed through the midst of it. For that fish had seven eyes, which served Jonah as so many windows, and through them he contemplated and saw whatever was in the sea." For God willed to console Jonah, who was afflicted and nearly despairing, in this way, and to raise him to a certain hope of God's help. But this is a fable: for thus the whale would have had to swim, in the space of three days (during which Jonah was in its belly), across the entire Mediterranean Sea, from Joppa all the way to Cadiz, then circle all of Africa — past the Cape of Good Hope, then Mozambique, Quiloa, Melinda — and finally head for Aden, where the Arabian Gulf, or Red Sea, begins, which is a journey of half a year and more.

Father Pineda responds, following the opinion of the Rabbis and defending it with many conjectures (Book IV On the Affairs of Solomon, ch. 12), that sharks or tuberones are the fastest fish. But no speed is so great as to cover such a distance in three days. I say therefore that the Phoenician and Tyrian sea, which is near Joppa, is called the sea of suph, that is, the Red or Erythraean Sea, because the Phoenicians themselves were called Erythraeans, since they had their origin and descent from the inhabitants of the Red Sea, as I said at Isaiah 23:16. Indeed, the word "Phoenicians" means nothing other than "red," says Strabo. Add that, according to the second explanation, because suph means seaweed, rush, or sedge, by metonymy any bounded and limited sea may be called suph, because it is full of seaweed, rushes, and sedge, and because it is bounded: for suph signifies "end." So Pineda, Book III On the Affairs of Solomon, ch. 10, and others. Hence the Chaldean translates: The sea of sedge hung over my head.

Moreover, for "covered" the Hebrew has חבוש chabus, which has two meanings: first, "was bound," and thus it properly applies to seaweed or rush; second, "was placed upon," and thus it properly applies to the sea. Hence our translator [the Vulgate] rightly expressed the meaning when he translated: "The sea covered my head," that is to say: I am submerged beneath the waves, the waves cover and overwhelm me on every side; and not only the waves, but the very ocean in all its vastness, the immense open sea itself, hangs over my head and covers and overwhelms it.

7I am descended to the extreme parts of the mountains: the bars of the earth have shut me up for ever: and thou wilt lift up my life from , O Lord my God.I am descended to the extreme parts of the mountains: the bars of the earth have shut me up for ever: and thou wilt lift up my life from , O Lord my God.I am descended to the ^c extreme parts of the mountaines: the barres of the earth haue shut me vp for euer: and thou wilt lift vp my life from corruption, ô Lord my God.Ad extrema montium descendi ; terræ vectes concluserunt me in æternum : et sublevabis de corruptione vitam meam, Domine Deus meus.✦

Cornelius a Lapide

7. I WENT DOWN TO THE ROOTS OF THE MOUNTAINS — in Hebrew בקצבי bekitsbe, that is, to the clefts or incisions of the mountains: so the Septuagint and the Zurich Bible, that is, to the ends, to the extremities of the mountains. So our translator [the Vulgate], Pagninus, and Vatablus. For the clefts of mountains are the ends and extremities of mountains, which in the sea are called promontories, that is to say: This whale, swimming, carried and led me to the rocks, mountains, and promontories, and their clefts and caverns. For whales frequent mountainous places in the sea and generally remain there, because the sea is deeper there: so Theodoret, Theophylactus, and Vatablus; for the shore of Joppa (whence Jonah had set sail) has on either side projecting rocks and huge boulders, which, though they rise from the bottom of the sea, nevertheless extend out into the sea, says Hegesippus (Book III On the Destruction of Jerusalem, ch. 20). Here therefore Jonah, thrown into the sea, descended into the abyss, from which the aforementioned reefs emerge, which block every way of swimming and escaping for the shipwrecked, and these are called here by Jonah "the roots of the mountains" or rocks, and shortly after "bars" or bolts, both of the sea which they enclose and, as it were, bar shut, and of men, lest they swim out and escape to land and freedom. So Sanchez.

THE BARS OF THE EARTH SHUT ME IN FOREVER. — What he just called "the roots of the mountains," he here calls "the bars of the earth;" for by these rocks, mountains, and caverns, he was shut in as if by bars

Jonah, so that he could not emerge from the whale and the sea forever, unless of course the power of God had brought him out thence by a miracle. Hence the Septuagint translates: My head entered into the clefts of the mountains; I went down into the earth whose bars are everlasting bonds. See how far down Jonah descended; see whence he ascended by the help of God. Here that saying is true: the abyss of my fall, descent, and misery invokes the abyss of Your, O Lord, sublimity, loftiness, power, mercy, and glory. Let whoever is pressed and nearly overwhelmed by tribulations say the same. For the greater the tribulation, the nearer is God to deliver, if He is invoked, according to that saying of the Psalmist: "To You the poor man has been left."

Thus the cloisters of religious orders, says Sanchez, which to worldly people seem to be prisons of death, are for religious a refuge and harbor, in which they, secure as if in Noah's ark, watch the worldly people shipwrecked in the heat and brine.

AND YOU WILL LIFT ME UP — that is to say: Although I have descended into the abyss, there to be corrupted and to die, yet You, O Lord, will bring me out and deliver me thence, and You will cause me not to die, but to rise up safe.

Allegorically all these things are most true in Christ, and it is very easy to apply all of them to Him. So St. Jerome.

8When my soul was in distress within me, I remembered our Lord: that my prayer may come to thee unto thy holy temple.When my soul was in distress within me, I remembered our Lord: that my prayer may come to thee unto thy holy temple.When my soule was in distresse within me, I remembred our Lord: that my prayer may come to thee vnto thy holie temple.Cum angustiaretur in me anima mea, Domini recordatus sum : ut veniat ad te oratio mea, ad templum sanctum tuum.✦

9They that keep in vain, forsake their mercy.They that keep in vain, forsake their mercy.They that kepe vanities in vaine, forsake their mercie.Qui custodiunt vanitates frustra, misericordiam suam derelinquunt.✦

Cornelius a Lapide

9. THEY WHO OBSERVE LYING VANITIES FORSAKE THEIR OWN MERCY. — First, Arias and some others, reading חבלי chable (that is, ropes) instead of הבלי hable (that is, vanities), and translating חסד chesed (which our translator renders as "mercy") as "piety" (for it signifies both), that is, impiety by antiphrasis, translate it thus: those who guard the ropes of vanity will abandon their sacrilegious piety — which they explain as follows: The sailors, the Ninevites, and other gentiles who worship vain idols, when they learn of this miracle of the God of the Hebrews, by which He freed me from the whale, will abandon their impiety and idolatry, and will worship the true God of Jonah and the Hebrews.

Second, Theodoret explains it thus: The idolatrous sailors, forgetful of their mercy, cast me into the sea. But from what was said in chapter 1, it is clear that the sailors were pious and merciful toward Jonah, and cast him into the sea unwillingly and only at the command of God and Jonah.

Third, St. Jerome, Rupert, and Vatablus explain it thus: Those who keep vanities, that is, who worship idols, turn away from themselves "mercy," that is, God from whom they ought to expect mercy and every good thing, and bring upon themselves death and every evil. Whence, more generally, the same authors take "vanities" to mean vain and illicit desires, which have nothing of true and solid pleasure or profit,

that is to say: Sinners who love and cherish their vain delights as if they were the most precious things (for this is what the word "observe" implies) — these "forsake their own mercy," that is, they are unmerciful and cruel to themselves, because they bring death and destruction upon themselves. This sense is insightful and apt: for it seems to be a general maxim and proverb. Whence St. Jerome says: "Behold the magnanimity of the Prophet in the depths of the sea: covered by eternal night in the belly of so great a beast, he does not think about his own danger, but philosophizes about the nature of things with a general maxim: They forsake their own mercy, he says. Although mercy may have been offended — by which we may understand God Himself (for the Lord is merciful and compassionate, patient and of great mercy) — yet He does not abandon those who keep vanities, He does not abhor them, but waits for them to return. But they, of their own free will, abandon the mercy that stands before them and offers itself to them." Father Pineda agrees with this, who in Book VIII On the Affairs of Solomon, ch. 1, no. 29, explains it thus: From the worshipers of lying and most vain idols nothing good is to be expected, since they seek benefits from the dead and abandon God Himself, the fountain and bestower of all good things.

Fourth, properly and genuinely he alludes to his own unfaithful sailors and their lots and idols: for Jonah, being in the belly of the whale, did not know that after his being cast into the sea and the cessation of the tempest, they had recognized the God of the Hebrews and been converted to Him. Hence, speaking of them as if they were persisting in their idolatry and of others like them, he says: "They who observe vanities forsake their own mercy," that is to say: The idolatrous sailors and passengers who worship their vain lots and idols, having been freed from the tempest and shipwreck and having obtained mercy from the true God, will not acknowledge it, nor give Him credit for it, nor give thanks, but ungrateful, will persist in their unfaithfulness and impiety: whence they will turn away from themselves both the present and eternal grace and mercy of God. But I, already certain through God's help and revelation of the mercy and deliverance to be granted to me, acknowledge it, give thanks to my God, and therefore

as soon as I am freed and have returned to my homeland, with the voice of praise I will sacrifice to Him peace-offerings, and the vows I have conceived I will pay to Him with the full jubilation of mind and voice: and thus I will attract and draw forth the same mercy of God to bestow ever new benefits upon me, both in this life and in the life to come, just as now in the belly of the whale, invoking it, I have attracted and won it: so the Hebrews (whom Emmanuel and Mariana follow), of whom some translate thus: Those who observe vanities do not remember benefits, being ungrateful; and the Chaldean who translates: Not like the idolatrous nations, which when a benefit is conferred upon them in a place

do not recognize the benefit: but I will offer my oblation before You in the praise of confession. Hence again it can aptly be translated from the Hebrew: Let those who observe vanities in vain abandon their piety, that is to say: Those who worship their lots, their idols, their pleasures in vain and to no purpose — they are impious and ungrateful toward God, from whom they have received and continue to receive life, spirit, and every good thing. This sense is demanded by the antithesis of Jonah which follows:

10But I in the voice of praise will to thee: what things soever I have vowed I will render for salvation to our Lord.But I in the voice of praise will to thee: what things soever I have vowed I will render for salvation to our Lord.But I in the voice of prayse wil immolate to thee: what thinges soeuer I haue vowed I wil render for saluation to our Lord.Ego autem in voce laudis immolabo tibi : quæcumque vovi, reddam pro salute Domino.✦

11And our Lord spake to the fish: and it vomited up Jonas upon the dry land.And our Lord spake to the fish: and it vomited up Jonas upon the dry land.And our Lord ^d spake to the fish: and it vomited vp Ionas vpon the drie land.Et dixit Dominus pisci, et evomuit Jonam in aridam.✦

Cornelius a Lapide

11. AND THE LORD SPOKE (commanded, ordained) TO THE FISH, AND IT VOMITED JONAH UPON THE DRY LAND. — Some think, such as Sulpitius (Book I of History, on Jonah), and as St. Gregory implies (Book VI of Morals, ch. 12, in the words cited at ch. 1, 3), that the whale vomited Jonah onto the shores of Nineveh. But this contradicts geography, from which it is clear that Nineveh is more than a hundred leagues from the sea. Second, Josephus (Antiquities, Book IX, ch. 11) and from him Clarius report that Jonah was vomited up by the whale in the Black Sea, near which Constantinople is situated. But this also seems incredible; for in the space of three days during which Jonah was in the belly of the whale, the whale could not have traversed such expanses of land and sea. For between Joppa and the Black Sea lies all of Asia Minor: the whale would therefore have had to swim across the entire Mediterranean Sea; then past all the Cyclades; then across the entire Aegean Sea, or Archipelago; then through the long and winding Propontis; then through the Strait of Bosporus, and thus enter the Black Sea: a journey that cannot be accomplished in three days, nor three weeks, nor three months. Even further from Joppa is the Red Sea, into which the Rabbis think Jonah was cast, but falsely, as I said at verse 6.

I say therefore that Jonah was cast out near Joppa (whence he had set sail) on the shore of Phoenicia and Syria, and from there returned by an overland journey to nearby Judea, visited the temple in Jerusalem, and there gave thanks to God and fulfilled his vows. For so great a benefit and miracle demanded this above all else. Moreover, it was fitting that he be sent and proceed to Nineveh from the Holy Land, not from the Black Sea, so that it would be evident that he was a prophet of the true God, whose throne as well as prophets were in Jerusalem. Add that from Judea to Nineveh the road was easier and flatter; for only the intervening Mesopotamia had to be crossed, and this is flat: but from the Black Sea one would have had to cross the steep mountains of Armenia and Amanus, and it is a journey of three hundred leagues to Nineveh. So Mariana and others.

Allegorically, Jonah, swallowed by the whale and on the third day restored to himself and to the land, more expressively than any other prophet, represented not by word but by deed the passion and resurrection of Christ. Wherefore Christ Himself proves and confirms this from this oracle of Jonah, in Matthew 12:40. Hence St. Jerome: "What is written, 'He vomited him up,' we must understand emphatically, that from the deepest vitals of death, victorious life came forth."

Hear St. Augustine applying each detail (Book IV On the Creed for Catechumens, ch. 6): "Jonah was sent to the city of Nineveh to preach its end; Christ was sent by the Father to demonstrate to all the end of the world. Jonah fled to Tarshish from the face of the Lord; Jonah's flight is the swift passage of Christ, of whom the prophet says: He rejoiced like a giant to run His course. The prophet boarded a ship in flight; Christ ascended the wood [of the cross], passing through the sea of this age. A great tempest fell upon the sea; the disturbance of the sea is the treachery of the Jews. A lot was cast that the fugitive prophet should be thrown into the sea; lots were cast over Christ's garments, so that unity might be preached to the whole world. Jonah was cast from the ship into the sea; the death of Christ was placed in the hearts of the nations. The prophet was received by the beast to be guarded, not to be consumed; hear here the very voice of Christ through St. David: You will not abandon My soul in hell, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. Jonah, placed in the belly of the sea-beast, prayed; the Holy One, Christ, descending into hell, raised the dead. On the third day the prophet was restored unharmed to the shore; on the third day Christ, rising from the sepulchre, was exalted above the heavens. By the preaching of Jonah the prophet, the city was saved through repentance; by the preaching of Christ, the holy city of Jerusalem was redeemed."

Elegantly also Eusebius Emissenus, Homily 2 On Easter, page 261 — or whoever the author is; for it is sufficiently clear from the style that these homilies are not by Eusebius of Emesa the Syrian, since the style savors not of a Syrian but of a Latin phrase, indeed of elegance. Baronius, in his annotations to the Roman Martyrology for November 16, thinks it is Eucherius of Lyon; Bellarmine (On Ecclesiastical Writers) attributes it to Faustus of Riez; others to Caesarius, others to Maximus of Turin; Galesinus in the Martyrology, noted April 24, ascribes it to Eusebius Gallus. Certainly from the homilies themselves it is clear that the author was a Gaul from the monastery of Lerins, who afterward seems to have been made a bishop. This author therefore says: "Jonah, about to preach the wrath of the Lord, is sent to the great city of the Ninevites, to say: In forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown. And Christ is sent to the city of the world, to announce the day of salvation and the appointed time of judgment. Jonah seeks a ship, Christ the Church. Jonah is tossed by the waves, and Christ is tried by the storms of the world. Unless Jonah is given up to destruction, the danger of the shipwrecked vessel is not calmed; so also the Church is not set free unless it is saved by the death of Christ. The sailors about to release Jonah,

yet they are fearful and say: Lord, do not lay upon us innocent blood. Does not the sailors' prayer seem to be Pilate's confession, who hands over Christ and yet washes his hands and says: I am innocent of the blood of this just man? How fittingly through a gentile person the faith of the gentiles is foretold! Therefore Jonah says in his prayer: Take therefore, O Lord, my soul, because death is better for me than life. Let our Lord Jesus Christ say this in deed: Because death is better for Me than life, that is, while living I could not save the one incredulous nation of the Jews: let Me die so that the entire world may be saved by one death." Then, applying the rest, he continues: "The whale received Jonah immersed, but did not succeed in devouring him, and the hungry beast guarded the one whom the malice of men had destroyed; full of him in its entrails, it suffers hunger, and marvels that it may do nothing with the prey it has swallowed. Who is this who can be taken into eager jaws but cannot be consumed? He is food, but there is no corruption; he is handed over to the deep of destruction, and is preserved by the very service of death. Who is this who enters safely into the vast gulfs of dangers, and enclosed beneath an immense and deadly depth, is nourished by vital air, and cast down into an alien nature of things, wanders in exile from life yet with life, and in the absolution and preservation of one nation, and in the reconciliation with God, this shipwrecked man bears forth the glory of the age to be restored, and surviving his own death, announces the coming salvation of the world? I think this is our Lord Jesus Christ, whom savage death, that insatiable beast, seized as food, and trembled at its own captive prey; trembled, I say, for even though it had known the Crucified, yet it could not hold condemned one whom it did not remember as guilty; because punishment does not make guilt, but the cause does. As if devouring a familiar food — the man lost at the world's origin — it swallowed him; but, choking, it recognized the great dignity of this food itself. And therefore the divine word records: And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land. He commanded therefore the beast, He commanded death ever hungry, He commanded the abysses and hell to restore the Savior to the world. And 'vomited up' — this we must understand to mean that from the deepest entrails of death, victorious life returned, and from the deepest recesses of hell, destruction, ulcerated, gave Him back." See also Peter Chrysologus, Archbishop of Ravenna, Sermon 37, which is entirely about Jonah and Christ.

Tropologically, St. Chrysostom, Homily 25 On the Love of Neighbor (vol. 4), teaches from the example of Jonah that a prophet, that is, a preacher and apostolic man, ought not to seek his own honor, his own rest, his own comforts, but the glory of God and the salvation of souls, even at his own inconvenience and peril: for God will be with him and will bring him out of danger not only safe but even glorious, as the savior of many. For Jonah, fleeing the danger of preaching and the salvation of souls, fell into danger of his own life, being cast into the sea. But the same man, taking upon himself in the ship the common danger, saved both himself and the ship. He fled therefore as a man, but offered himself to danger as a prophet, says Chrysostom. Let those think and do the same who are sent either by God or by a Superior to preach to heretics, Indians, barbarians, to hear confessions, especially of women. By which

there is a famous example in Palladius, in the Lausiac History, chapter 35 On Abbot Elias, who, since he was in charge of three hundred nuns and therefore felt the sting of the flesh, abdicated his governance of them; but being commanded by three angels who castrated him in a vision to resume it, he thereafter managed their care for forty years with such peace and chastity that he never felt any temptation of lust. The founder of our Society, St. Ignatius, used to say: "If God gave me the choice either of dying immediately and going to heaven, or of still living and promoting His glory but with the uncertainty and danger to my salvation, I would choose still to live and promote the glory of God; because I do not doubt that God would take upon Himself all this danger which I despise for love of Him, and would secure it for me far more." St. Xavier, setting out for the Molucca Islands, when friends dissuaded him from this journey and set before him the dangers of heat, hunger, and barbarous inhabitants who raged with sword and poison even against their own people, replied that a far greater danger would be created for him if he did not obey God calling him there. Having therefore set out, in one city of Tolo he joined 23,000 people to Christ, and enjoyed such joy of spirit that writing from there he says: "All these dangers and labors voluntarily undertaken for the sake of God alone are treasures most richly filled with divine and supreme joys, so that these islands seem especially suited to destroy the sharpness of sight with the most delightful abundance of tears. Indeed I do not remember ever being surrounded by so many, so great, and so continuous spiritual pleasures, utterly overwhelming every sense of toil and hardship." Evidently he felt what is said in Psalm 93:19: "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Your consolations have gladdened my soul." And Psalm 22:4: "For even though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me." So Tursellinus reports in his Life, Book III, chapters 2 and 3.

The first reason is that when God calls someone to an office or state whose purpose is to attend to the salvation of neighbors, He simultaneously gives grace and means for this end that are not only necessary but also suitable and opportune. For this is what the sweet and precise disposition of His providence demands. Thus He calls the bride, that is, the principal men of the Church, in Canticles 2: "Arise, make haste, my beloved." Where to? "Without doubt to the gaining of souls," says St. Bernard, Sermons 57 and 58 on the Canticle. For the bridegroom says to them what Absalom said to his servants: "Do not fear, for I am the one who commands you" (2 Kings 13:28).

St. Paul knew this, and therefore fearlessly threw himself into dangers, saying: "Our sufficiency is from God, who has also made us fit ministers of the New Testament" (2 Corinthians 3:5). For God is powerful enough to snatch us from every danger, as He snatched David (Psalm 5:13): "Lord, You have crowned us as with a shield of Your good will"; and St. Paul (2 Corinthians 1:4), and Daniel from the lions' den, and the three youths from the Babylonian furnace, and Jonah from the belly of the whale.

The second reason is that a greater danger from God the Judge threatens us if we flee His calling, as Jonah did; if we do not use for His will and glory the talents He has entrusted to us. Well known is the parable of the servant who buried his talent, who, condemned by the Lord, heard: "Out of your own mouth I judge you, wicked servant, etc.; why then did you not put my money in the bank, so that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?" (Luke 19:22), on which see St. Augustine, On Faith and Works, ch. 17.

Here applies what St. Ambrose says (Book I On Duties, ch. 3): "Let us beware lest we give account for idle silence. For there is also a busy silence," as there was in Susannah silently invoking God (Daniel 13:35): "And there is an idle silence," such as that of those who are bound to speak, teach, correct, and exhort others. Just as therefore freedom perishes by freedom, rest by rest, leisure by leisure; so conversely danger is repelled only by danger, and peace among enemies is obtained only by war, and leisure by industry.

He vomited him up. — This word signifies that Jonah so weighed upon, constrained, obstructed the breathing of, and afflicted the belly of the whale, that he compelled it to vomit him up, just as a stomach violently rejects and vomits a noxious food by which it is lacerated and afflicted. Thus Christ, descending into death and hell, so afflicted them that He not only compelled them to release Him, but also killed them — just as the ichneumon, entering through the mouth into the belly of a crocodile, gnaws it and kills it, as Pliny attests (Book 8, ch. 25). This is what Hosea says in chapter 13:14: "I will be your death, O death; I will be your sting, O hell."

From this passage some think that Jonah was

I prefigured the resurrection. So Pineda on Job 19:26, where from those words of Job: "And again I shall be clothed with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see God my savior," he probably concludes that Job rose again with Christ. For this is Jesus, that is, the Savior, whom he predicts he will see, on account of the merit of so many and so great afflictions by which he represented the suffering Christ.

Anagogically, from Jonah returning alive from the whale, St. Irenaeus proves the resurrection of bodies (Against Heresies, Book V, ch. 5, and Book III, ch. 22), where he simultaneously shows from the same example that the magnificence of God is perfected in the weakness and obedience of man: "For just as He patiently allowed Jonah to be swallowed by the whale, not so that he might be swallowed up and perish entirely, but so that once vomited out he might be more subject to God and might glorify God the more, who had granted him unhoped-for salvation; and so that he might cause firm repentance in his enemies so they would be converted to the Lord, who would free them from death, terrified by the sign that had been done regarding Jonah — as Scripture says of them: And each one turned from his evil way, etc. So from the beginning, God patiently allowed man to be swallowed by the great whale that was the author of transgression, not so that the swallowed man might perish entirely, but preparing and laying the groundwork for the invention of salvation, which was accomplished by the Word through the sign of Jonah for those who held the same opinion about God as Jonah, and confessed and said: I am a servant of the Lord, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven; so that man, receiving unhoped-for salvation from God, might rise from the dead and glorify God," etc. And further: "This therefore was the magnanimity of God, that man, passing through all things and receiving knowledge of his ways, then coming to the resurrection and learning by experience from what he was freed, might always be grateful to the Lord. And let him know himself, that he is mortal and weak; and let him understand the Lord, that He is so immortal and powerful as to grant immortality to the mortal and eternity to the temporal." So also Tertullian, in his book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter 58, proves the same by the example of Jonah, who

lived in the belly of the whale, "in which," he says, "shipwrecks were digested"; and of the three youths, who remained uninjured by the fire in the Babylonian furnace; and of Elijah and Enoch: "Who," he says, "are not yet settled by resurrection, because they have not yet undergone death; and by this very fact, already candidates for eternity, they learn immunity of the flesh from all vice, all harm, all injury and insult — to what faith do they bear witness, except that by which one must believe these are proofs of future integrity?" Accordingly, similar to Jonah buried in the whale and rising thence was St. Maternus, a disciple of St. Peter, who, having been sent by him with St. Eucharius and Valerius to evangelize Trier, on the very journey at Helli near Selestadium was seized by a violent fever and died. His companions, returning to St. Peter, received from him a staff which, applying it to St. Maternus on the fortieth day after his death, they raised him to life; and afterward he survived for as many years and was the apostle and bishop of the people of Trier and Cologne, as days he had lain in the tomb, namely forty. So his Life and the Chronicles of Liege record, and Otto of Freising (Chronicles, Book III, ch. 15), who however puts 33 instead of 40. Just as therefore Jonah, cast out of the whale, preached to the Ninevites for 40 days, so St. Maternus, rising again, preached repentance for 40 years to the people of Trier and to other Germans and Gauls.

you" (2 Kings 13:28). St. Paul knew this, and therefore fearlessly threw himself into dangers, saying: "Our sufficiency is from God, who also made us fit ministers of the New Testament" (2 Corinthians 3:5). For God is powerful enough to snatch us from every danger, as He snatched David (Psalm 5:13): "Lord, You have crowned us as with a shield of Your good will"; and St. Paul (2 Corinthians 1:4), and Daniel from the lions' den, and the three youths from the Babylonian furnace, and Jonah from the belly of the whale.

one of the Saints who rose with Christ, and with Him ascended gloriously into heaven both in body and soul (Matthew 27:52). For if Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and Job rose again, then so did Jonah. For he above all others alone prophesied the resurrection of Christ on the third day, and actually represented it in reality, when on the third day he rose as if alive again from the belly of the whale, as from a sepulchre. He therefore was the most fitting witness of the resurrection of Christ, and could say to the Jews: I am Jonah, who once foretold the resurrection of Christ, and therefore I have been sent by God to testify that the same thing has now been accomplished. I testify therefore that this is the Christ whom I foretold, and that He was truly raised from death on the third day, just as I was raised on the third day from the belly of the whale, so that this His

of Freising (Chronicles, Book III, ch. 15), who however puts 33 instead of 40 days. Just as therefore Jonah, cast out from the whale, preached to the Ninevites for 40 days, so St. Maternus, rising again, preached repentance for 40 years to the people of Trier and to other Germans and Gauls.

I might prefigure the resurrection. So Pineda on Job, chapter XIX, 26, where from those words of Job: "And again I shall be clothed with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see God my Savior," he probably concludes that Job rose with Christ. For this is Jesus, that is, Savior, whom he predicts he will see, on account of the merit of so many and so great afflictions, by which he represented Christ suffering.

Anagogically, from Jonah revived from the whale, St. Irenaeus proves the resurrection of bodies, in book V Against Heresies, chapter V, and book III, chapter XXII, where he likewise shows from the same that the magnificence of God is perfected in the weakness and obedience of man: "For just as," he says, "He patiently endured that Jonah should be swallowed by the whale, not so that he would be swallowed and utterly perish, but so that being vomited forth he would be more subject to God, and would glorify God more, who had granted him unhoped-for salvation; and would effect firm repentance among his enemies so that they would turn to the Lord, who would deliver them from death, terrified by that sign which had been done regarding Jonah, just as Scripture says of these: And they returned each one from his evil way, etc. So from the beginning God patiently endured that man should be swallowed by the great whale, who was the author of transgression, not so that the swallowed one would utterly perish, but preparing and making ready the plan of salvation, which was accomplished by the Word through the sign of Jonah for those who held the same opinion about God as Jonah, and confessed and said: I am the servant of the Lord, and I worship the Lord God of heaven; so that man, receiving unhoped-for salvation from God, might rise from the dead and glorify God," etc. And further: "This therefore was the magnanimity of God, that man, passing through all things and receiving knowledge of character, then coming to the resurrection and learning by experience from what he was freed, should always be grateful to the Lord. And let him know himself, that he is mortal and weak; and let him understand the Lord, that He is so greatly immortal and powerful, as to grant immortality to the mortal and eternity to the temporal." So also Tertullian, in his book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter LVIII, proves the same by the example of Jonah, who lived in the belly of the whale, "in which," he says, "shipwrecks were digested;" and of the three youths, who remained unharmed by fire in the Babylonian furnace; and of Elisha and Enoch: "Who," he says, "not yet dismissed by resurrection, because they have not yet undergone death; and by this very fact now candidates for eternity, they learn from all vice, and from all harm, and from all injury and insult the immunity of the flesh — to what faith do they bear testimony, except that by which one must believe these things to be proofs of future wholeness?"

Wherefore, to Jonah buried in the whale and thence rising again, St. Maternus, a disciple of St. Peter, was similar. He was sent by Peter with St. Eucharius and Valerius to Trier for evangelizing, and on the very journey at Ell near Sélestat, seized by a violent fever, he died. His companions returned to St. Peter and received from him his staff, which, applied to St. Maternus on the fortieth day after his death—

to you," II Kings XIII, 28. St. Paul knew this, and therefore intrepidly inserted himself into dangers, saying: "Our sufficiency is from God, who also has made us fit ministers of the New Testament," II Corinthians III, 5. For God is powerful to rescue us from every danger, just as He rescued David, Psalm V, 13: "Lord, You have crowned us as with a shield of good will;" and St. Paul, II Corinthians I, 4, and Daniel from the lions' den, and the three youths from the Babylonian furnace, and Jonah from the belly of the whale.

Second, because a greater danger threatens us from God as Judge, if we flee His calling, as Jonah did; if we do not use the talents entrusted to us by Him for His will and glory. Well known is the parable of the servant who buried the talent, who, condemned by the Lord, heard: "Out of your own mouth I judge you, wicked servant, etc., why did you not put my money at the bank, so that on my coming I might have collected it with interest?" Luke XIX, 22, on which see St. Augustine, book On Faith and Works, chapter XVII. To this pertains that saying of St. Ambrose, book I On Duties, chapter III: "Let us take heed lest we render an account for idle silence. For there is indeed a busy silence," as there was in Susanna silently invoking God, Daniel chapter XIII, 35: "And there is an idle silence," such as that of those who are bound to speak, teach, correct, and exhort others. Just as therefore liberty perishes by liberty, rest by rest, leisure by leisure; so conversely danger is driven away only by danger, and peace among enemies is secured only by war, and leisure by industry.

Vomited forth. — This word signifies that Jonah so burdened, constricted, impeded the breathing, and afflicted the belly of the whale, that he compelled it to vomit him out, just as the stomach, torn and distressed by noxious food, violently rejecting it, vomits it up. So Christ descending into death and hell so afflicted them, that He not only compelled them to withdraw from Him, but also killed them, just as the ichneumon, entering through the mouth into the belly of the crocodile, gnaws and kills it, as Pliny testifies, book VIII, chapter XXV. This is what Hosea says, chapter XIII, 14: "I will be your death, O death; I will be your sting, O hell."

From this passage some think that Jonah was one of the Saints who rose with Christ, and with Him ascended into heaven glorious both in body and soul, Matthew XXVII, 52. For if Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and Job rose, then so did Jonah. For he alone above the rest prophesied and actually represented the resurrection of Christ on the third day, when on the third day he rose alive from the belly of the whale as from a tomb. He therefore was the most fitting witness of the resurrection of Christ, and could say to the Jews: I am Jonah, who once foretold the resurrection of Christ, and therefore I have been sent by God to testify that this very thing has now been accomplished. I testify therefore that this is the Christ foretold by me, and that He was truly raised from the dead on the third day, just as I was raised on the third day from the belly of the whale, so that this His

of Freising, book III of the Chronicle, chapter XV, who however puts 33 instead of 40 days. Just as therefore Jonah, cast out from the whale, preached to the Ninevites for 40 days, so St. Maternus, rising again, preached repentance for 40 years to the people of Trier, and to other Germans and Gauls.

they raised him; and afterwards he himself survived for the same number of years, and was an apostle and bishop of the people of Trier and Cologne, as many years as the days he had lain in the tomb, namely forty. So says his Life and the Chronicle of the people of Liege, and Otto of Freising,

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