Jonah's Eclipse Foreshadows
the Fall of Israel

by John P. Pratt
8 Sep 2019, Firstfruits (UH), 13 Reed (SR), Holy Son (S)

©2019 by John P. Pratt. All rights Reserved.

Index, Home

Contents
1. Jonah Symbolized Christ
2. Jonah's Solar Eclipse
3. Eclipse to Israel Fall: 40 Years
4. Josiah to Siege: 40 Years
5. Conclusion
Notes
Jonah's 40-day prophecy foretold the fall of Israel, not Assyria, in 40 years.

The Biblical account of the prophet Jonah is unique among ancient Israel: he was called to go to the non-Israelite enemy nation of Assyria, he fled from that appointment, when he finally was persuaded to accept his charge, he was totally successful in getting the entire city of Nineveh to repent, and finally, he was disappointed that they were not destroyed after 40 days! No dates have ever been proposed in my work for these events because of the scanty chronological information in the Biblical record.

Jonah becomes a type of Christ.
It has been proposed that the reason for the complete acceptance of Jonah's message likely was caused by a known total solar eclipse over Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, at about the time of Jonah.[1] It has also been noted that Jonah's prophecy of destruction in 40 days might be tied to the destruction of Jerusalem 40 years after Christ, using the "day-year pattern" of the scriptures.[2]

That possible 40-year connection seemed worth investigating with sacred calendars. That led to the discoveries that the prophecy of Jonah, based on the timing of the eclipse, ties to the fall of Israel to Assyria's forty years, allowing the very day of the captivity to be determined. Thus, precise dates for Jonah's prophecy as well as the Fall of Israel are proposed. The link suggested by others between Christ and the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 was only partially verified and remains for a possible future article.[3]

Let us now consider several ways in which Jonah was a type of Christ, then study the total solar eclipse over Nineveh, link it to the Fall of Israel 40 years later, and then review another witness from King Josiah confirming Jonah's prophecy date.

1. Jonah Symbolized Christ

First, let us review how some of the actions of Jonah were a type of Jesus Christ. After Jonah had been called to preach to the wicked nation of Assyria, an enemy of Israel, he attempted to escape the calling by boarding a ship headed for Spain (Tarshish), fleeing in the opposite direction! A huge storm at sea arose, threatening to kill all aboard. Jonah slept while others feared for their lives, and finally the captain asked him to call upon his God so that they would not perish (Jonah 1:4-6, compare Mat. 8:24-25). When it was determined that it was God's anger at Jonah which was the cause,[4] Jonah volunteered to be thrown overboard and he prophesied that such would calm the raging tempest. Thus, Jonah, like Jesus, volunteered to be a sacrifice in order to save the lives of many others.

Jonah also calmed the storm!
The tempest immediately subsided (Jonah 1:15, compare Mat. 8:26), so he also was awakened to calm a raging sea, like Jesus. Then Jonah was swallowed by a huge fish or whale. After three days and nights of slowly being digested, which he compared to burning in hell, Jonah chose to accept his mission and was vomited up onto the beach (Jonah 2:1-2, 9-10). In a sense, Jonah had appeared to have died, been in hell, and then been revived (resurrected) again three days later, just like Jesus. The fact that this was indeed an intended type of Christ was told to the heckling Pharisees who asked Jesus for a sign. Jesus replied to them:

An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.[5]

The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
-- Mat. 12:39-41

Let us consider a possible reason why the king of Assyria caused his entire capital city to repent.

2. Jonah's Solar Eclipse

Perhaps the strangest part of the story of Jonah is that the king of Assyria believed the words of a foreign prophet who proclaimed that in forty days, "Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4)! The entire city fasted, dressed in sackcloth and ashes, and truly repented (Jonah 3:5-9). What?? Did that ever happen in Israel? The standard procedure of the Jews was to stone any prophet who dared to suggest they were not righteous. There must be more to the story which was not included!

Forty years ago it was pointed out that there was a total solar eclipse over Nineveh near midday on Mon 7 Jun 763 BC (Gregorian), which corresponds to the approximate time that Jonah preached repentance there. Here's a summary from a recent article:

"Taking Jonah to be historical as I do, the Bible's one specific clue as to when he lived was during the reign of Jeroboam II, or around 786-746 BCE, if we take 2 Kings 14:25 as evidence of the latest that he could have prophesied.

Eclipses could bring panic.
A total solar eclipse over Nineveh in northern Iraq on June 15, 763 BCE fits this time frame for the life and career of Jonah. Assyriologist Donald Wiseman, a former curator at the British Museum, and editor of Chronicles of Chaldean Kings and The Alalakh Tablets, published a lecture in the Tyndale Bulletin in 1979
[6] where he argued persuasively that this eclipse would help explain the dramatic reaction to Jonah's preaching.

According to the Assyrian writings cited by Wiseman, here's what a solar eclipse would have meant to them: 'the king will be deposed and killed, and a worthless fellow will seize the throne ... rain from heaven will flood the land ... the city walls will be destroyed.' The Assyrians tell us that at such a time, there would be solemn fasting, and the king would hand over his throne to a substitute until the danger passed. At least once when there was a total solar eclipse, the Assyrians cry, 'Nineveh shall be overthrown!' (in Assyrian, adi arbat ume alninuaki innabak, which can also mean, 'Nineveh shall be made to repent!').

I believe that Jonah was in Nineveh in June of 763 BC during the total eclipse of the sun, which would help explain the remarkable response of the people of Nineveh. Jonah preaches at exactly the right time for the people of Nineveh to listen to him. The Assyrian nation was weak and in chaos in the decade around 760 BCE. They had one earthquake (one sign of divine wrath). There was a famine from 765-758 BCE. Assyria was losing battles and losing territory to its enemies. There were domestic riots. With all the trouble they already had going on, they could have easily believed that Jonah's warning would come to pass. Now was a perfect time for a prophet from far away to arrive on the scene and command a response."[7]

Another link of Jonah to Jesus is that the 40-day prophecy of Jonah and the 40-day fast of Jesus after his baptism in AD 29 both began on the major holy day 1 Prime on the Venus (V) Calendar! (Minor holy days or years are shown in italics and major in boldface italics). That is a very important and rare alignment because that day only occurs once every 585 days. That may be the link to show in a future article that some important event of the Fall of Jerusalem 40 years later occurred on 1 Prime (V) in AD 69, just as we will now see that the Fall of Israel occurred exactly 40 years after Jonah's eclipse.

3. Eclipse to Fall of Israel: 40 Years

The exact day of the Fall of Israel has not been known to me, nor published in my articles. The year has been indicated as being 723 BC, one year earlier than agreed on my most scholars, because that year fits perfectly into a series of Great Years on both the Perpetual Hebrew (PH) and also Uniform Hebrew (UH) calendars.[8] In particular, the first year (NEW YEAR) of a Great Year (PH) began on the very day of Jacob's vision of the ladder to heaven (New Year), which began that whole episode of his life of meeting his wives, and the beginning the family of Israel (Jacob). Named years are shown in CAPITALS. Precise days referenced in this article are listed in my Religious Chronology which lists references to their derivation. The next Great Year (PH) began with the Exodus of Israel from Eqypt (again in NEW YEAR), and King David was born near the beginning of the next Great Year, in the year named END PASSOVER (PH). The very next Great Year began in another year NEW YEAR, which is perfect for corresponding to the new beginning of the captivity of Israel in Assyria. The exact day of that year, however, has not been known.

Israel falls to repentant Assyria.
(Click to enlarge.)
Now comes the link to Jonah. He prophesied that Assyria would be destroyed in 40 days (Jonah 3:4). They repented and the Lord changed His mind, which could be the subject of another entire article! In many other times in the Bible, when 40 days is mentioned, there often is a corresponding 40-year period. That is part of the day-year symbolism. Examples are the 40 years of Israel's wandering in the wilderness after the Exodus (Num. 14:34) and the 40 days of Ezekiel's prophecy of the coming siege of Nebuchadnezzar (Ezek. 4:6). Those latter 40 days were symbolic of the 40 years it had been since Judah had last followed the Lord in days of Josiah.[9]

It turns out that it was just 40 years from Jonah's eclipse in 763 BC until the captivity of Israel in 723 BC. And the irony is that Israel was captured by Assyria, which had repented. Thus, the "sign of Jonah" (Mat. 12:39) may have also applied to Jonah's prophecy having included Israel, that they had forty years to repent before their kingdom would end! No wonder that Jesus told that the men of Assyria would condemn the Pharisees who rejected Him, because those in Nineveh had been converted by Jonah (Mat. 12:41).

Because of the day-year pattern, a precise date can now be proposed for the Fall of Israel. It is known from my previous work that the Biblical 40-year interval is often tied directly to the Venus Calendar because 40 Hebrew years can be very nearly 25 Venus cycles. Thus, often the exact starting and ending days of the 40 year period are the same (usually holy) day on the Venus Calendar. For example, at the Exodus, the day of the Parting of the Red Sea was on 1 Birth (V) and the prophesied forty years in the wilderness ended when the manna stopped falling on 1 Birth (V). Even more closely tied to Jonah is the forty years of Ezekiel: the period began with the Purge of Josiah on 1 Resurrection (V) and ended with the beginning of the siege by Nebuchadnezzar 40 years later on 1 Resurrection (V).

Ancient Ninevah and NASA eclipse map.[10]
(Path of totality shown between blue lines.)
In this case, the obvious beginning day for the prophecy is the very day of the eclipse. For starters, that day was 1 Light, the first day of the Sacred Round (SR). That is a perfect day to begin an interval, especially one that had to do with light! Moreover, that day was 1 Prime (representing "rebirth", V). Again, that just happens to fall on a major holy day on the Venus calendar, similar to the two example 40-year intervals just given. That alone is a compelling witness that this date begins a 40-year prophetic period.

But there is more! That day of the eclipse was also the major holy day 1 Resurrection on both the Mercury (M) and Uniform Mercury (UM) calendars. Moreover, the day was also the major holy days 1 Rebirth on the Mars (Ma) and 1 Translation on the Uniform Mars (UMa) calendars! Remember, this was the very day of the eclipse, not one picked near it. That day was holy on six sacred calendars! Also notice that the holy day represents "rebirth" on both the Venus and Mars calendars which is both rare and also symbolic of the rebirth of Assyria to become a major world power after it had been languishing.

What about 40 years later, as measured by exactly 25 Venus Cycles, for a proposed date of the Fall of Israel? That day, Sat 14 May 723 BC, chosen because it was 1 Prime (V), turns out to be ideal, being holy on 9 sacred calendars, where those days help describe the event. The day was 1 Deer (SR), the very day of the Beginning of Mortality at the Fall of Adam, and the day of the beginning of the siege and also subsequent Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70! That was a "fall" day. It was 1 Death (M), which is a match to what happened and to the Fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC. Moreover, it was 1 Adult (UM, UMa), representing the beginning regressing spiritually, when Mars begins its retrograde motion. On the Uniform Star Calendar (US) it was Trumpets and 1 Scorpion, the trumpets heralding news and the Scorpion representing the beginning of Judgment. And that is the very year which was NEW YEAR (PH), proposed in my earlier articles as the year of the Fall of Israel. All of those taken together are overwhelming evidence that this date indeed represents the day of the Fall of Israel. All of that was deduced from one day "written in the heavens", namely, that of the eclipse coupled with the day-year pattern and prophecy of Jonah!

4. Josiah to Siege: 40 Years

Josiah's purge of idols.
Another witness for the correctness of dating the prophecy of Jonah to the solar eclipse comes from the forty-year period between the purging of idols from Judah by King Josiah until the beginning of siege of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The holy day on which King Josiah began to purge all of the idols out of Judah was published sixteen years ago in my work.
[11] Like the day of Jonah's eclipse, that day began a forty year period, so it is worth considering for comparison purposes in this article. That proposed day was Mon 21 Dec 629 BC. That day was 1 Light (SR), 1 Resurrection (M,UM), 1 Rebirth (Ma), 1 Translation (UMa). But we have just seen that the day of eclipse also occurred on all five of those same major holy days on those same five sacred calendars! That rare coincidence, coupled with the fact that both days also occurred on the major holy days of rebirth and resurrection on the Venus Calendar, provides compelling evidence that the eclipse date indeeds marks the ministry of Jonah! Also the multiple occurrences of "Rebirth" and "Resurrection" symbolism is appropriate for both because they repented and turned to righteousness, which is the very concept of rebirth!

5. Conclusion

The fact that the prophet Jonah prophesied the destruction of Nineveh in 40 days led to considering the possibility that the prophecy may have been fulfilled 40 years later, according to the Lord's use of the day-year pattern. The idea came from several YouTube videos which connected the Savior's mentioning the sign of Jonah linked to the forty years between AD 30 and the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Research did not verify the period from AD 30-70, but two new dates were discovered from the day-year pattern being linked from the total solar eclipse on Mon 7 Jun 763 BC (G) over Nineveh about the time that Jonah was known to have preached there. First of all, it turned out that the very day of the eclipse was a major holy day on 6 calendars, including on the Venus Calendar (1 Prime), which is the usual starting point of 40-year prophetic periods. Thus, it is proposed that the eclipse marks the very day of the beginning of Jonah's prophesying in Nineveh.

Looking at the date of the same Venus holy day 40 years later on Sat 14 May 723 BC, led to a day in the very year which has been proposed in earlier articles for the Fall of Israel in 723 BC. That year had been proposed because it was a NEW YEAR (PH), beginning a Great Year. Now the day indicated by the day-year Venus pattern is also seen to have been holy on six other sacred calendars, with symbolism of a fall (1 Deer, SR), death (1 Death, M), turning evil (1 Adult, UM & UMa), and judgment (1 Scopion, US). Those many witnesses make a compelling argument for the correctness of that day for the Fall of Israel.

A strong witness for the date proposed herein for the beginning of Jonah's prophesying (on the eclipse date) is the comparison to the 40-year period between King Josiah's purging of the idol to the siege by Nebuchadnezzar. The beginning date of that Venus Cycle interval was the same five major holy days on the same five sacred calendars as was the day of Jonah's eclipse. That is compelling evidence that the beginning date of the interval is also correct.

Thus, the day-year pattern has again allowed the beginning and end dates of yet another 40-year prophetic period to be determined with precision. Truly, all of these witnesses together form conclusive evidence that these calendars have been created and used by an all-knowing Creator.

Notes

  1. See Hobson, Tom, "Jonah and the Eclipse in Ancient Nineveh" at patheos.com (7 Aug 2017).
  2. There were several videos on YouTube by preachers with this suggestion of linking Christ in AD 30 to the destruction of Jerusalem 40 years later in AD 70. The day-year pattern is discussed in my "Celestial Witnesses of the Meridian of Time" Meridian Magazine (10 Jul 2002) Section 1: The Day-Year Pattern.
  3. It has been suggested by others that the sign of Jonah combined with the day-year pattern might be related to the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 occurring 40 years after AD 30. They usually relate this to the Crucifixion which most scholars believe occurred in AD 30. It has been shown in this work that Jesus began his public ministry in AD 30 was the Crucifixion occurred in AD 33 as was generally believed because of a straightforward reading of the Bible before scholars got involved. That makes more sense to correlate to Jonah because it would be the beginning of Jonah's ministry linking to the beginning of Christ's ministry. This was a lead worth checking out, and was, in fact, what led to the discoveries of this article. The first point to consider is to see whether there is any sacred calendar connection between the date of the beginning of Jonah's ministry and the beginning of Jesus' ministry on Sat 6 Apr 30. The answer is no, there is no correlation of this date to the beginning of Jonah's ministry. The next point to check is whether the fall of Jerusalem occurred using the 40-year Venus Calendar pattern, namely that the two end points of the interval occurred on the same (preferably holy) day of the Venus Cycle. In other words, this is just a check to see if the interval applies at all to the Fall of Jerusalem in the same manner as the other 40-year periods. Here again the answer appears to be negative. There is, however a strong connection between the 40-day fast of Christ after his baptism and the 40-day prophecy of Jonah: they both began on the day 1 Prime (V)! That is strong evidence that there is indeed yet another correlation of Jonah to Christ. A future article might show that 40 years later on Thu 26 Sep 69 some important feature of the Fall of Jerusalem occurred.
  4. Pratt, John P., "Is God Speaking in Natural Disasters?" Meridian Magazine (9 Dec 2003) Section 1.1 Jonah and the Tempest.
  5. This reference to "three days and three nights", which was not given to a bunch of hecklers to enlighten them, has been misleading, and caused many to reject the witness of all four gospels that Jesus was crucified on a Friday (called "the preparation") and was resurrected before dawn on Sunday morning. In Hebrew (and the Lord's) reckoning, any part of a day counted as an entire day. Jesus died on Friday afternoon, visited the Spirit World on Saturday, and resurrected Sunday morning, so that counted as three days and three nights even though it was only about a day and a half in total hours. Hopefully, Jonah also only needed to be in the whale's belly for that same amount of time!
  6. The PDF article can be downloaded at www.tyndalehouse.com/TynBul/Library/TynBull_1979_30_02_Wiseman_JonahsNineveh.pdf.
  7. See Hobson, Tom, "Jonah and the Eclipse in Ancient Nineveh" at patheos.com (7 Aug 2017).
  8. Pratt, John P., "Holy Years Testify of Christ and His Servants" (22 Sep 2018) Section 3.5 Fall of Israel & Judah.
  9. Pratt, John P., "Ezekiel's Prophecy of the Siege of Jerusalem" (15 Aug 2018) Section 3: Judah Start Date.
  10. Source of solar eclipse path: NASA Eclipse Web Site.
  11. Pratt, John P., "The Timing of David and Solomon's Reigns" Meridian Magazine (12 Nov 2003) Section 3.3 Josiah's Cleansing.