Difference between revisions of "Embalming"

<p> The process of embalming dead bodies among the [[Egyptians]] was as follows: The embalmers, who were looked upon as sacred officers, drew the brains through the nostrils with a hooked piece of iron, and filled the skull with astringent drugs; they drew all the entrails, except the heart and kidneys, through a hole cut in the left side, washed them in palm-wine, and replaced them, filling the cavity with astringent and preservative drugs. The body was anointed repeatedly with oil of cedar, myrrh, cinnamon, etc., about thirty days, and was then put into nitre for about forty days; by which process it was preserved from decay, retaining at the same time a lifelike appearance. When [[Moses]] says that forty days of his continuing in the salt of nitre, not including the thirty days spent in the previous ceremonies; so that, in the whole they mourned seventy days for him in Egypt, &nbsp;Genesis 50:2,3 . </p> <p> The body was afterwards taken out of the salt, washed, wrapped up in long linen bandages, dipped in myrrh, and closed with gum. It was then restored to the relatives, who inclosed it in a coffin, and kept it in their houses, or deposited it in a tomb. Thus the body of [[Joseph]] was preserved, to be conveyed into the land of promise after nearly two centuries, &nbsp;Genesis 50:26 . Great numbers of mummies are still found in Egypt, in the subterraneous vaults where they were deposited two or three thousand years ago. </p> <p> The common people of that country were embalmed by means of bitumen, a cheap material and easily managed. With this the corpse and its envelopes were smeared, with more or less care and diligence. [[Sepulchres]] have been opened in which thousands of bodies had been deposited in rows, one on another, without coffins, preserved in this manner. </p> <p> The usual embalming of the Jews was less elaborate and effectual. It consisted mainly in wrapping the body in many folds of linen, with a profusion of aromatic spices-myrrh, aloes, etc. Thus the body of the [[Savior]] was embalmed entire by Joseph and Nicodemus, while, ignorant of this, the two Mary's and their friends were prepared to render him a similar honor when the [[Jewish]] [[Sabbath]] was past, &nbsp;John 19:38 - &nbsp;40 . The practice, even in this form, does not appear to have been prevalent among the Jews. See [[Burial]] . </p>

<p> '''Embalming.''' A process by which, dead bodies are preserved from decay. When [[Jacob]] died in Egypt, "Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father, for burial in Canaan." The process occupied forty days. Joseph also was himself embalmed, that his body might be carried with the children of [[Israel]] when they left [[Egypt]] for Palestine. &nbsp;Genesis 50:2-3; &nbsp;Genesis 50:26. It does not appear that the Hebrews practiced the mode of embalming of the Egyptians. Still some partial process was employed, tending to soothe surviving friends by arresting or delaying natural corruption. Thus Asa was laid in a bed "filled with sweet odors and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries' art." &nbsp;2 Chronicles 16:14. Also the women who had followed Jesus "bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him," &nbsp;Mark 16:1; &nbsp;Luke 23:56; and [[Nicodemus]] "brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes," and "wound" the body "in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury." &nbsp;John 19:39-40. In some instances, too, the later Jews embalmed a body in honey, after having covered it with wax. See Bissell, Bib. Antiq. </p>

<p> the art of preserving dead bodies from putrefaction. It was much practised by the Egyptians of ancient times, and from them seems to have been borrowed by the Hebrews. It consisted in opening the body, taking out the intestines, and filling the place with odoriferous drugs and spices of a desiccative quality. Joseph gave orders for the embalming of the body of his father Jacob, &nbsp;Genesis 50:1-2; and Moses informs us that the process took up forty days. Joseph himself also was embalmed, &nbsp;Genesis 50:26 . Asa, king of Israel, seems to have been embalmed, &nbsp;2 Chronicles 16:13-14 . See BURIAL . </p>

<p> <strong> EMBALMING </strong> . This specifically Egyptian (non-Israelitish) method of treating dead bodies is mentioned in [[Scripture]] only in the cases of Jacob and Joseph (&nbsp; Genesis 50:2 f., &nbsp; Genesis 50:26 ). </p>

<p> The art of preserving dead bodies from decay by means of antiseptic agents applied both externally and internally; although known to other people, <i> e. g </i> . the Peruvians, the art was chiefly practised among the Egyptians, and the practice of it dates back to 4000 B.C.; the thoroughness of the process depended on the money expended, but it usually involved the removal of the viscera, save the heart and kidneys, the extraction of the brain, the introduction of drugs to the cavities, and the pickling of the body in native carbonate of soda, and the wrapping of it in linen; experiments in embalming, more or less successful, have been made in recent times, and even still are. </p>

<p> '''''em''''' -'''''bam´ing''''' ( חנט , <i> '''''ḥānaṭ''''' </i> , "to spice"): Embalming. is mentioned in Scripture only in the cases of Jacob and Joseph (&nbsp;Genesis 50:2 f,26). It was a distinctly Egyptian invention and method of preserving the bodies of men and animals. Examples of it reach back to over 3,000 years ago. It prevailed to some extent among the peoples of Asia, and at a later period among the Greeks and Romans, but was in origin and use distinctly non-Israelitish. See [[Burial]] . </p>

<p> [[Embalming]] [BURIAL] </p>