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To: Swordmaker
“Actual evidence ...”

Source, please?

57 posted on 10/06/2009 4:13:33 AM PDT by Cloverfarm (Where are we going, and why are we in a hand-basket?)
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To: Cloverfarm
Source, please?

What I wrote was a summary of what I have learned from a lifetime of reading on this subject, attending scholarly symposia on the Shroud of Turin where papers were presented, plus discussions with a Conservative Jewish Rabbi on burial customs of the early Jews.

However, here are some sources that might help you:

This one is sort of a popular summary about how the body was handled, placement in the tomb and what was done after a period of decomposition...

Jewish Burial Customs in the First Century: Sidebar to "Ossuary Inscriptions from the Caiaphas Tomb"

This article mentions the bindings on hands and feet in Lazurus' burial:

'Lord, He Stinketh': Jewish Burial Practices, Mourning Customs and Rabbinic Theology in John 11

A lot of my information comes from discussions with my Conservative Rabbi friend who drew on the Talmud for rules on burials. There is also another ancient Jewish text he consulted in our researches called the Tractate Semahot, that deals completely with burial and mourning laws. I figured that primary sources are best... but I can't read Hebrew or Aramaic.

However, a good discussion of such practices is found in a book I read many years ago when the Rabbi recommended it to me. I have since donated to my church's library.

The book is: The Jewish People in the First Century: Historial Geography, Political History, Social, Cultural and Religious Life and Institutions, Edited by Shmuel Safrai, Translated from Hebrew to English by Menahem Stern, pub. 1988.

You can read partially about the 1st Century Jewish Burial practices in this Amazon excerpt from the book. which I was pleasantly surprised to find available when I did a search for it just now. Unfortunately, is skips pages with a lot of interesting information but it is the best I can provide for this really heavy tome... unless you want to spend $82 to buy it. In particular note the following sentence from the first paragraph in the section on Death, Burial, and Mourning on page 775, which provides proof positive of the binding "around the head" was intended to keep the mouth closed:

"Care was taken to ensure that the body did not become distorted: this was done by binding the cheeks, in order to keep the mouth closed, and by closing the orifices of the body to prevent swelling."

And, finally, a Biblical source from the King James version of the Bible— John 11:43-44

"43And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

44And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

Note that "bound about" can mean either around horizontally, or it can mean the jaw binding—under the chin, around the face, tied over the crown— mentioned earlier, to keep the mouth closed in death. Archaeologists report finding remnants of this jaw binding in graves of the period. A large Shroud is not mentioned here because Lazarus was a probably poor man and his family could not afford the considerable expense for a large sheet to cover his body while it decomposed (destroying the cloth with it).

I found this when I was searching for some current links for you... it is an interesting read and goes into quite a bit of detail about Jewish burial for executed criminals.

Jewish Burial Traditions and the Resurrection of Jesus by Craig A. Evans

I hope this helps, Cloverfarm.

68 posted on 10/06/2009 11:37:21 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!)
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