Abstract:
An exegetic-hermeneutical research on the Jonah evidences in Matthew
12:38ff:
The New Testament interpretation of the "sign of Jonah" (Math 12:38ff)
cannot be applied as a criterion to legitimate the historical authenticity of
the story about Jonah and the great fish in the Old Testament. it is,
however, possible to recognise the authority of Jesus' citation in Matthew
12:38ff and simultaneously quash the historical authenticity of the evidence
about Jonah and the great fish. Matthew created a new authoritative text
with an exegitical method inherent in his own context and never tried to
verify the historical authenticity of the evidence about Jonah and the "three
days and three nights" in the belly of the fish. Matthew 12:38ff as well as
the story about Jonah in The Book of Jonah should each be expounded in
its own historical, literary and theological context.
