The Sign of the Prophet Jonah

The Pharisees mocked Jesus, saying that no prophets come from Galilee, even though Jonah was from Gath-hepher. (John 7:52, 2 Kings 14:25) This slight to Jesus as a Galilean explains Jesus’ prediction of His resurrection:

Matthew 12
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” 39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

 

I think it's important to point out this connection, because secularists and liberal theologians often claim that the Gospel of John is somehow less historical than the synoptic Gospels. Instead, John supplements and complements the synoptic Gospels.