{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But some one may say, \"How shall I know whether the\r\nprophet Jonah said to the Ninevites, 'Yet <i>three</i> days and Nineveh\r\nshall be overthrown,' or <i>forty</i> days?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_579_579\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_579_579\">[579]</a> For who does not see\r\nthat the prophet could not say both, when he was sent to\r\nterrify the city by the threat of imminent ruin? For if its\r\ndestruction was to take place on the third day, it certainly\r\ncould not be on the fortieth; but if on the fortieth, then certainly\r\nnot on the third. If, then, I am asked which of these\r\nJonah may have said, I rather think what is read in the\r\nHebrew, \"Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.\"\r\nYet the Seventy, interpreting long afterward, could say what\r\nwas different and yet pertinent to the matter, and agree in\r\nthe selfsame meaning, although under a different signification.\r\nAnd this may admonish the reader not to despise the authority\r\nof either, but to raise himself above the history, and search for\r\nthose things which the history itself was written to set forth.\r\nThese things, indeed, took place in the city of Nineveh, but\r\nthey also signified something else too great to apply to that<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_274\">[Pg 274]</a></span>\r\ncity; just as, when it happened that the prophet himself was\r\nthree days in the whale's belly, it signified besides, that He\r\nwho is Lord of all the prophets should be three days in the\r\ndepths of hell. Wherefore, if that city is rightly held as\r\nprophetically representing the Church of the Gentiles, to wit,\r\nas brought down by penitence, so as no longer to be what it\r\nhad been, since this was done by Christ in the Church of\r\nthe Gentiles, which Nineveh represented, Christ Himself was\r\nsignified both by the forty and by the three days: by the\r\nforty, because He spent that number of days with His disciples\r\nafter the resurrection, and then ascended into heaven, but by\r\nthe three days, because He rose on the third day. So that, if\r\nthe reader desires nothing else than to adhere to the history\r\nof events, he may be aroused from his sleep by the Septuagint\r\ninterpreters, as well as the prophets, to search into the depth\r\nof the prophecy, as if they had said, In the forty days seek\r\nHim in whom thou mayest also find the three days,—the one\r\nthou wilt find in His ascension, the other in His resurrection.\r\nBecause that which could be most suitably signified by both\r\nnumbers, of which one is used by Jonah the prophet, the other\r\nby the prophecy of the Septuagint version, the one and selfsame\r\nSpirit hath spoken. I dread prolixity, so that I must\r\nnot demonstrate this by many instances in which the seventy\r\ninterpreters may be thought to differ from the Hebrew, and\r\nyet, when well understood, are found to agree. For which\r\nreason I also, according to my capacity, following the footsteps\r\nof the apostles, who themselves have quoted prophetic\r\ntestimonies from both, that is, from the Hebrew and the\r\nSeptuagint, have thought that both should be used as authoritative,\r\nsince both are one, and divine. But let us now follow\r\nout as we can what remains.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK EIGHTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-459"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"46ec7710c7119440e585cd09018038910ac01093d038b35a7d359de144c36931","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_579_579","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_579_579","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_579_579\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_579_579\"><span class=\"label\">[579]</span></a> Jon. iii. 4.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_579_579","text_sha256":"6cc8f724bcc8c6e92714013a0fb0fba373add5d305e92cc5697f1125044ee565","verified":false,"work_id":null}