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"This experience gave Jonah the compulsion to preach, and the Ninevites the compulsion to repent.
In the same way as God's rescue of Jonah revealed Jonah's prophetic mandate which led many
Ninevites to repent, SO CHRIST'S RESURRECTION would reveal His Messiahship which would
lead many to believe" (ibid.).

The vast majority of the commentaries that I have consulted in preparation for this article
AGREE in interpreting the sign of Jonah as being PRIMARILY the sign of Christ's resurrection.
We read in The New International Commentary, for example, the following: "Jonah was a sign
to the Ninevites, because he appeared there as one sent by God after having been miraculously
saved from the great fish (as it were, raised from the dead) as a proof that he was really sent by
God. So also Jesus will by His resurrection prove conclusively that He has been sent by God as
the Christ, the promised Redeemer" (Norval Geldenhuys, "The Gospel of Luke").

In the Insight On the Scriptures we read --

Rather, he [Christ] told them that the only sign that would be given them was "the sign of
Jonah the prophet." (Mt. 12:39-41; 16:4) After about three days in the belly of a huge
fish, Jonah had gone and preached to Nineveh. Jonah thereby became a "SIGN" to the
capital of Assyria. Jesus' generation had "the sign of Jonah" when Christ spent PARTS
OF THREE DAYS in the grave and was resurrected after which his disciples proclaimed
THE EVIDENCE OF THAT EVENT. In this, Christ was a sign to that generation (vol. 2,
p. 941).

In a similar vein we find, in All the Miracles of the Bible, the following:

Personally, we believe that the miraculous in this transaction was not in Jonah's preserva-
tion alive and conscious for three days...in a living prison, BUT IN HIS RESURREC-
TION AFTER HAVING DIED. We do not doubt for one moment that by the working of
Almighty God, he was not able to keep Jonah alive and well in the sea-monster's belly for
the period mentioned. A comparison of Matthew 12:40; 16:4 with I Corinthians 15:4
shows that the period of Jonah's stay in the fish was divinely ordered to be a TYPE of
Christ's being three days in the heart of the earth. IN BOTH CASES WE AFFIRM
THERE WAS DEATH AND RESURRECTION.

This volume goes on to say --

Would not his [Jonah's] emergence ALIVE from the fish greatly influence those Nin-
evites as Jonah intreated them to repent? It is said that the Florentines looked upon Dante
as he passed through their streets with awe, and whispered to each other, "This is the man
who has looked into hell." Jonah must have created a similar impression. Here was a
prophet BROUGHT BACK FROM HIS PECULIAR GRAVE to preach the message of
divine grace, and as the apostles were so dynamic in their witness as they preached "JE-
SUS AND THE RESURRECTION," so Jonah had added power in his preaching AS
ONE WHO HAD DIED AND RISEN AGAIN. Not only forgiven but RESTORED TO
LIFE and to his office, Jonah is anew commissioned and is now ready to obey. -- By Her-
bert Lockyer. Zondervan Books, Grand Rapids, MI. Pp. 144-145.

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