How a dead body is treated is prescribed by culture and law. Jesus’ body was wrapped with spices, but how, and for how long!?
Nicodemus also came with about 30 kilograms of spices made from myrrh and aloes. This was the same Nicodemus who had visited Jesus one night. The two men wrapped the body in a linen cloth, together with the spices, which was how the Jewish people buried their dead (John 19:39-40, CEV). A man named Joseph in fact gave use of his own new tomb to take care of Jesus' body: Taking it down, he wrapped it in fine linen and placed it in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever been placed (Luke 23:53, CSB). Apart from Mark, all the Gospels want us to know that no other body had yet been placed in the tomb. Special provision for a special person. (Tombs contained multiple burials over time - see image.) I see a particular interest in the wrappings which were used on Jesus' body.
How much time that day did the pair have for their sad task? Were they rushed? Perhaps they thought the necessary was done? Watchers did not agree. (Those others would later buy "burial spices" and go to the tomb, intending to anoint the body - see previous post.)
Sometime after that the cloth alone remained in the new tomb. Where were the spices? Still contained? The men used something like 30 kg of "myrrh and aloes", an amount which could be noticed if spread, but which would weigh down an empty wrapping. (I am unclear if the spices were more liquid than solid; they were certainly aromatic, to compete with the odour of decay.)
Someone (Joseph?) must eventually have removed the material. Nothing is said about what later became of the wrapping(s). Probably there was some staining but the linen would have had value. (At least until Rome destroyed the city, the tomb would be re-used, as was usual.)
Three specific words are used by the Gospels in telling the wrapping detail. There is a general word used for a linen wrapping (sheet), a more particular word for wrapping material, and a specific borrowed (Latin) word used for a smaller piece enclosing the head.
As Jesus' remains were cared for we meet the burial custom of that time and place, in more detail. (I wonder if the other two bodies that day remained on their crosses...) All four Gospels report on the burial, but John alone uses a different word for the wrapping material and includes specific information on the spices.
As you can see from the alternative translations (below*), the word John uses may be taken as strips. However, the same word is used in the Greek Old Testament (LXX) to name a sheet of linen. There is a similar word in Acts 11:5 for a "great sheet". The word used in the other three Gospels is different; their word is still in today's Greek dictionary as "sheet", or "pall".
The procedure the men followed can be imagined. Matthew and Luke describe the action as wrapping; Mark uses a word which suggests being wound, as when a sword was wound around for storage; John uses a different word which may convey being bound.
An interesting, informative, and unique, use of that Synoptics' wrapping word comes in an (unexplained) streaker episode from the time of Jesus' arrest: A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked (Mark 14:51-52, NRSVUE). So, whoever the certain young man was, he, like the others, ran for his life. Unlike them, he was naked. Here the word used can hardly mean strips of cloth! (Why did he have a sheet alone wrapped around him - I wonder? Was it an escape strategy, just in case?)
There are some other Gospel glimpses of contemporary burial culture. There was an occasion which Jesus met up with a sad procession: As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus[a] gave him to his mother (Luke 7:12-15, ESV). The body was being carried out to be placed in a tomb. The mother was with them. The young man was able to sit up, despite any wrappings.
On a later day Jesus' friend Lazarus had succumbed to illness and had been entombed. Jesus had them take him out to the place; Then he told the people to roll the stone away. But Martha said, “Lord, you know that Lazarus has been dead four days, and there will be a bad smell.” (John 11:39, CEV). People (Martha) knew about inevitable decay. Jesus was not deterred: Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!” Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen (John 11:43-45, NLT). John here uses a unique word which would describe cords used to tie linen and spices to the body. Also there we see the headcloth - a borrowed Latin word. The dead man came out - evidently made whole again; irreversible decay incredibly reversed. ("Believed in Jesus" - did it stick?)
Tombs were away from dwellings. This would be of benefit re the odour. The tombs were also whitewashed, to assist people avoid accidental contact, for contact would mean ritual impurity. Whereby hangs a message from Jesus: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity" (Matthew 23:27, CSB). There was a serious problem. Better compliance with rules was not the answer. A new heart was needed - as God had anciently said (Jeremiah 31:33). Jesus today offers inner change to all who trust him.
Jesus' empty headcloth comes into some prominence in the body-less borrowed tomb. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’s head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself (John 20:5-7, NRSVUE). There is emphasis on the separateness. All sounds neat and tidy. Something to note and ponder and wonder about. (It is also possible to more fully read the description of the headcloth's appearance as "rolled as it had previously been and still was". The parsing info: participle, perfect, passive.) How long did followers dare to spend on the site that morning? Imagine the climate of fearful uncertainty - until they knew.
"By itself" - see the head rests in the typical tomb. The "headcloth" sat there as it had been, so to speak, but now, incredibly, empty. (I see a hint of the mystery of resurrection.) The viewers saw an undisturbed scene, simply lacking a body!
To describe the linen cloth (wrappings) used by the two men as they prepared to place Jesus' body in the tomb (see above), John uses a particular word. In the "empty tomb scene", he alone consistently uses that word, which can be taken as strips, rather than a sheet, of linen. (It is the kind of word which would be used in Egypt.) Some translations treat it that way and read the other Gospels similarly. (As I show above, that does not really fit.)
The same word is also found in Luke 24:12, a verse which may be included in marginal readings. Since Luke otherwise uses the linen sheet word, it indicates, apart from anything else, the likely ancient equivalence in meaning. From the marginal notes, we read valued ancient manuscripts saying: But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened[a] (Luke 24:12, NRSVUE). That particular plural word, consistently used only by John, for the linen wrappings, is variously translated as strips of cloth or linen cloths.
There are documented uses of these words in ancient Greek writers. However, the NT writers were not classical Greek authors! Early Christian era usage in Palestine is more to the point.
Interpreting words used:
In the account of Jesus restoring Lazarus from the dead to life, we read of Lazarus coming out (shuffling and stumbling) of the tomb. He was hindered by cords (unique word) which would have bound the wrapping and spices to his body. He also had a covering over his head, which would mean he had no vision.
In that other instance (Luke 7; above), a deceased young man sat up from the bier (stretcher, or coffin) on which he was being carried after Jesus spoke to him. The young man began to speak! This instance does not give us information about how bodies were prepared for burial, but clearly the now living young man was able to sit up and speak. That indicates something about the nature of the wrapping used…
It was cultural to entomb human remains soon after death. It was also customary for a much later step of collecting the bones. Tombs were used for further burials. By the time of Jesus the culture had been impacted by the ways of Greeks and of Romans.
And so consider the details: John - Joseph of Arimathea, with Nicodemus, wrapped the body in linen cloth (a large sheet I imagine), with a lot of spices included in the wrapping. Matthew and Luke - report on Jesus’ body being wrapped in linen. Mark - more specifically described the action, using a unique word, saying Jesus was wrapped or rolled up.
A lot of focus on pieces of cloth? Imagine if a coffin was taken to the burial site and then found to be unaccountably empty. That would be memorable! These cloths were equivalent to a coffin and the tomb equivalent to a grave.
Care was taken; great care. More care was planned. This was the body of their friend, their teacher, their Lord. They did not comprehend the very short time Jesus' body would be in that tomb. He had told them - but how to understand and assimilate such truth...? There was no expectation of what happened -
*John 19:40 in other versions:
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