Grave-Clothes
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [1]
Grave-Clothes —The account in the Gospels of the circumstances attending the burial of our Lord illustrates fully the general practice of the time with regard to grave-clothes. The body of Jesus, doubtless after being bathed, after the manner of the Jews as well as of the Greeks ( Acts 9:37, cf. Gospel of Peter , 6), was ‘wrapped’ (ἐνετύλιξεν, Matthew 27:59, Luke 23:53) or ‘swathed’ (ἐνείλησεν, Mark 15:46) in the shroud of linen cloth (σινδόνι) which Joseph of Arimathaea had procured on his way back to Golgotha, and which is described as ‘fresh’ or ‘unused’ (καθαρᾷ, Matthew 27:59), in accordance with the sacred use to which it was put (cf. Mark 11:2). Spices were next crumbled between the folds of the linen (μετὰ τῶν ἀρωμάτων, John 19:40), and the whole was then bound together with strips of cloth (ὀθονίοις, John 19:40; cf. κειρίαις, John 11:44). The face was covered with a separate face-cloth or ‘napkin’ (τὸ σουδάριον, John 20:7).
In later Judaism it was held that the resemblance of the future to the present body was so close that men would rise in the same clothes in which they were buried, on the analogy of the grain of corn which comes up from the earth not naked, but clothed (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:37). And accordingly the Rabbis were in the habit of giving careful directions as to their grave-clothes (Weber, Jud. Theol. 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] p. 370). This frequently led, however, to such unnecessary expense in the way of luxurious wrappings, that by way of protest Rabbi Gamaliel left directions that he was to be buried in simple linen garments, while his grandson limited the number of grave-clothes to one dress (see Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life , p. 168 f.). At the present day, among Jews as well as Mohammedans, the corpse is attired in the ordinary holiday attire of life.
Literature.—See under art. Burial, also art. ‘Begräbnis bei den Hebraern’ in Herzog, PR E [Note: RE Real-Encyklopädie fur protest. Theologic und Kirche.] 3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , with the literature there cited.
George Milligan.
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [2]
denotes, firstly, "a band" either for a bed girth, or bed sheets themselves (Sept. of Proverbs 7:16 .); then, "the swathings wrapped round a corpse;" it is used in the plural in John 11:44 .
