Jonas in the Whale and the Resurrection
Old Testament: Jonas 2:1
... And Jonas was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
New Testament: Matthew 12:39-40
As Jonas was in the whale's belly three days and three nights: so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
The connection
Christ names this type Himself as 'the sign of Jonas,' the only sign He offers the unbelieving generation. Jonas's three days in darkness followed by deliverance prefigures the Lord's three days in the tomb followed by Resurrection.
Moral sense
Surrender control through real darkness, trusting that descent is the road to dry land, not abandonment.
Anagogical sense
Every soul's future passage through death into resurrection, guaranteed by His.
Warrant
Checked in the Greek, and Matthew is quoting rather than resembling: ketos, koilia, treis and nyx all stand in Jonas 2:1 in the Septuagint and again at Matthew 12:40, so the sea beast, the belly, the three and the nights are the same four words in both. And the name is shared outright. Ionas stands at Jonas 2:1 in the Septuagint and at Matthew 12:39 and 12:40, where Christ calls the sign by the prophet's own name. Naming the type is as direct as a citation gets. St Augustine, Letter 102 to Deogratias, question 6, follows the Lord's own reading of the sign: "As, therefore, Jonah passed from the ship to the belly of the whale, so Christ passed from the cross to the sepulchre, or into the abyss of death."
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 994.
