Truth 9: His highly unusual Burial …
Truth #09: THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF JESUS’ BURIAL ARE UNUSUAL … There are actually quite a few details surrounding Jesus’ “burial” that are just as intriguing as his quite unusual “death” … Feel free to consider the following elements thereof:
* Intriguing Detail A) First & foremost, Jesus was actually not buried at all, but was rather entombed in a “sepulcher” – a most unusual practice in Jesus’ day. Yes, it was a common practice to store bodies for a time – either to avoid violating Jewish cleanliness laws, &/or to make sure that the person involved was indeed dead, and it is indeed possible that this is what Joseph of Arimathea was doing with Jesus’ body – that he merely stored it in his private tomb until he could bury it properly at a later time. AND YET we are dealing with the Bible here, and the Bible states that this was not the purpose of Jesus’ entombment.
* Intriguing Detail B) Jesus’ body was also placed in a tomb that had never before been used — one that was privately owned by Joseph of Arimathea (see Matthew 27:60a, Luke 23:53 & John 19:41). Now, Jerusalem was about 25 miles from Joseph’s hometown of Arimathea (no small distance in those days), so we have to wonder — why would he have had a new tomb hewn out of rock so close to Golgotha at that particular time?
* Intriguing Detail C) Matthew 27:59 also confirms the fact that Joseph did not expect Jesus to be in the grave for long. In this verse, it says that Joseph took Jesus’ body and “wrapped it in a clean linen cloth” (Matthew 27:59, Mark 15:46a, Luke 23:53 & John 19:40). The Greek word for “wrapped” here actually means “rolled up”, and the word for “cloth” is sindon (like a sheet) – a different word than that used for traditional Jewish burial wrappings, which were strips of cloth that were traditionally wound around a body only after it had been covered with ointments and spices.
* Intriguing Detail D) Traditional Jewish burial practices had bodies prepared for burial before being taken to their tombs. Indeed, there is no mention of burial rites being given to Jesus’ body anywhere in the Gospels.
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