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Just for the record, I believe that Jesus "literally" fulfiled the prophecy regarding "three days and three nights". He was in the heart of the earth "just as" Jonah was in the belly of the fish. The "sign" of Jonah was actually fulfulled as a witness to the Jews who were looking for a sign.
However, that does not require that anyone take the phrase "three days and three night" as a "literally" precise 72 hours period of time. The Jews did not take it that way. It was a Jewish idiom.

Okay, give me a yes or no on these questions:

Do you also believe the "three days and three nights" that Jonah was in the fish is an idiom?

Do you believe that the scribes and Pharisees and all those who had ever read or heard of the story of Jonah had no idea of how long Jonah was actually in the fish?

The answers to these questions are vitally important. They point out whether or not one is believing a lie, or the truth.

I of course believe that the scribes, pharisees and all those who had ever heard of the story of Jonah believed that Jonah was literally in the fish for 3 days and 3 nights. Whether this was 71 hours and 58 minutes or 72 hours and 3 minutes is immaterial. Scripture says that he was the fish for 3 days AND 3 nights, measured by sunsets.

If Jonah was swallowed by the fish at 3 PM on a Wednesday, then he stayed in the fish, according to God's word, until Saturday around 3 PM...or a time period that encompassed three full days and three full nights.

Now if this is an idiom, then we do not know exactly how long he was in the fish.

If he got swallowed at 3 PM Wednesday then he could have been in there only until 10 AM Thursday because you figure Wednesday day as 1 day, Wednesday night as 1 night, and Thursday day as 1 day...or a total of three days and nights.

Or he could have been in there until 12 noon on Friday if you count another way. Or 3 AM Saturday morning if counted another day.

Here's the important point and one that you don't seem to want to deal with:

If it was not a literal 3 days and 3 nights that Jonah was in the fish, then the only sign that Jesus Christ gave that he was the messiah is invalid and Jesus IS NOT the messiah.

Don't you see?? If Jesus was NOT in grave exactly as long as scripture (Jonah) said, and exactly as long as Jesus prophesized, then Jesus would not have been the messiah. He would have been a false prophet.

Mat 12:39 But he answered and said unto 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 Jonah:
Mat 12:40 For as Jonah 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.

The sign, the miracle, the token, the wonder, of the prophet Jonah was that he was swallowed for three days and 3 nights AND then came out.

And with that...I''m done with this subject. Feel free to comment or not.