Chapter CVII.—The same is taught from the history of Jonah.

“And that He would rise again on the third day after the crucifixion, it is written412    Matt. xii. 38 f. in the memoirs that some of your nation, questioning Him, said, ‘Show us a sign;’ and He replied to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and no sign shall be given them, save the sign of Jonah.’ And since He spoke this obscurely, it was to be understood by the audience that after His crucifixion He should rise again on the third day. And He showed that your generation was more wicked and more adulterous than the city of Nineveh; for the latter, when Jonah preached to them, after he had been cast up on the third day from the belly of the great fish, that after three (in other versions, forty)413    In the LXX. only three days are recorded, though in the Hebrew and other versions forty. The parenthetic clause is probably the work of a transcriber. days they should all perish, proclaimed a fast of all creatures, men and beasts, with sackcloth, and with earnest lamentation, with true repentance from the heart, and turning away from unrighteousness, in the belief that God is merciful and kind to all who turn from wickedness; so that the king of that city himself, with his nobles also, put on sackcloth and remained fasting and praying, and obtained their request that the city should not be overthrown. But when Jonah was grieved that on the (fortieth) third day, as he proclaimed, the city was not overthrown, by the dispensation of a gourd414    Read κικυῶνα for σικυῶνα. springing up from the earth for him, under which he sat and was shaded from the heat (now the gourd had sprung up suddenly, and Jonah had neither planted nor watered it, but it had come up all at once to afford him shade), and by the other dispensation of its withering away, for which Jonah grieved, [God] convicted him of being unjustly displeased because the city of Nineveh had not been overthrown, and said, ‘Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night. And shall I not spare Nineveh, the great city, wherein dwell more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?’415    Jon. iv. 10 f.

[107] Καὶ ὅτι τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἔμελλεν ἀναστήσεσθαι μετὰ τὸ σταυρωθῆναι, γέγραπται ἐν τοῖς ἀπομνημονεύμασιν ὅτι οἱ ἀπὸ τοῦ γένους ὑμῶν συζητοῦντες αὐτῷ ἔλεγον ὅτι Δεῖξον ἡμῖν σημεῖον. καὶ ἀπεκρίνατο αὐτοῖς: Γενεὰ πονηρὰ καὶ μοιχαλὶς σημεῖον ἐπιζητεῖ, καὶ σημεῖον οὐ δοθήσεται αὐτοῖς εἰ μὴ τὸ σημεῖον Ἰωνᾶ. καὶ ταῦτα λέγοντος αὐτοῦ παρακεκαλυμμένα ἦν νοεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἀκουόντων ὅτι μετὰ τὸ σταυρωθῆναι αὐτὸν τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἀναστήσεται. καὶ πονηροτέραν τὴν γενεὰν ὑμῶν καὶ μοιχαλίδα μᾶλλον τῆς Νινευϊτῶν πόλεως ἐδήλου, οἵτινες, τοῦ Ἰωνᾶ κηρύξαντος αὐτοῖς μετὰ τὸ ἐκβρασθῆναι αὐτὸν τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἀπὸ τῆς κοιλίας τοῦ ἁδροῦ ἰχθύος ὅτι μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας παμπληθεὶ ἀπολοῦνται, νηστείαν ἁπλῶς πάντων ζώων, ἀνθρώπων τε καὶ ἀλόγων, μετὰ σακκοφορίας καὶ ἐκτενοῦς ὀλολυγμοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν καρδιῶν ἀληθινῆς μετανοίας αὐτῶν καὶ ἀποταγῆς τῆς πρὸς ἀδικίαν ἐκήρυξαν, πιστεύσαντες ὅτι ἐλεήμων ὁ θεὸς καὶ φιλάνθρωπός ἐστιν ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς μετατιθεμένους ἀπὸ τῆς κακίας, ὡς καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν βασιλέα τῆς πόλεως ἐκείνης καὶ τοὺς μεγιστάνας ὁμοίως σακκοφορήσαντας προσμεμενηκέναι τῇ νηστείᾳ καὶ τῇ ἱκεσίᾳ, καὶ ἐπιτυχεῖν μὴ καταστραφῆναι τὴν πόλιν αὐτῶν. ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ Ἰωνᾶ ἀνιωμένου ἐπὶ τῷ τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ, ὡς ἐκήρυξε, μὴ καταστραφῆναι τὴν πόλιν, διὰ τῆς οἰκονομίας τοῦ ἐκ τῆς γῆς ἀνατεῖλαι αὐτῷ σικυῶνα, ὑφ' ὃν καθεζόμενος ἐσκιάζετο ἀπὸ καύματος (ἦν δὲ ὁ σικυὼν κολόκυνθα αἰφνίδιος, μήτε φυτεύσαντος τοῦ Ἰωνᾶ μήτε ποτίσαντος, ἀλλ' ἐξαίφνης ἐπανατείλας αὐτῷ σκιὰν παρέχειν), κἀκ τῆς ἄλλης ξηρᾶναι αὐτόν, ἐφ' ᾧ ἐλυπεῖτο Ἰωνᾶς, καὶ ἤλεγξεν αὐτὸν οὐ δικαίως ἀθυμοῦντα ἐπὶ τῷ μὴ κατεστράφθαι τὴν Νινευϊτῶν πόλιν, λέγων: Σὺ ἐφείσω περὶ τοῦ σικυῶνος, οὗ οὐκ ἐκοπίασας ἐν αὐτῷ, οὔτε ἐξέθρεψας αὐτόν, ὃς ὑπὸ νύκτα αὐτοῦ ἦλθε καὶ ὑπὸ νύκτα αὐτοῦ ἀπώλετο: κἀγὼ οὐ φείσομαι ὑπὲρ Νινευΐ, τῆς πόλεως τῆς μεγάλης, ἐν ᾗ κατοικοῦσι πλείους ἢ δώδεκα μυριάδες ἀνδρῶν, οἳ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν ἀνὰ μέσον δεξιᾶς αὐτῶν καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον ἀριστερᾶς αὐτῶν, καὶ κτήνη πολλά;