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Jonah


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Marble Table Base with the Story of Jonah in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2018

Marble Table Base with the Story of Jonah in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2018
Marble Table Base with the Story of Jonah
Roman; found in 1876 at Tarsos (modern Tarsus in Southern Turkey)
Carved early 300s

Accession # 77.7

This table base, part of a table for funerary feasts held at gravesites, displays an Old Testament story (Jonah 1:12- 2:10) and features a rare detailed depiction of a Roman merchant ship. Jonah is swallowed by a ketos, a legendary sea-monster of the classical world. Tarsos, the birthplace of Saint Paul, was an important Christian city. The story of Jonah was probably meant to be a foretelling of the Resurrection of Christ, as is indicated in the Gospel of Matthew (12:40).

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.

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