You’ve got to remember, Tex, that we are reading an English translation of a Greek document written from an Aramaic and Greek oral recounting of the events that took place. If you read it in the original Greek writing it doesn’t quite say what you read in English. It’s interesting to read the various even English translations that use such words as “towel”, “napkin”, and “handkerchief.”
There was something very important about the burial cloths that impressed themselves on the people who went in to the tomb so much that they were retained. Something was important about that head cloth.
The Greek does not say “on” his head, but rather uses a Greek word that translates as “about” or “around” his head/face. One of the things we know from the Mishnah about Jewish burial practices is that if was and is customary to bind the jaw closed, as well as binding the limbs to keep them from flopping akimbo when rigor mortis passes. This jaw binding typically would pass under the jaw, up and around the ears, and then be tied at the crown of the head, thus closing the jaw shut. If you picture it, it would be “around the face”, not covering the face, as covering the face would be not required with a full body Shroud.
It is thought, with a good deal of evidence, that the face cloth still exists. Today it is referred to as the Sudarium of Oviedo.
The Sudarium of Oviedo
Like the Shroud, it too is a cloth of Linen, only this one is a simple one-over-one weave. The Sudarium, literally “sweat cloth”, a cloth that is often rolled and then tied around the brow or forehead to keep sweat from dripping into the eyes, shares the same stains of a blood type as those found on the Shroud, AB Negative, and also shares many of the same blood stain characteristics as the Face on the Shroud. The patterns of blood stains and wrinkles show signs of being rolled diagonally into a kerchief like rope which would be ideal to make an around the face jaw binding to keep the mouth closed in death.
It is also thought, based on the patterns of blood and fluid stains on the Sudarium, that it was pressed into service to cover the head of someone after dying on a cross, and while being taken down from a cross, and while lying supine, and then while being carried with a bloody hand supporting the head. The hand print has been identified on the face.
Under Jewish custom, anything with the blood of a person who dies by violence, must be buried with that person if at all possible, because of the belief that “Life is in the blood.” It would be natural to bury this bloody cloth with the body, pressing it again into service as one of the binding ties.
As this binding would be one not on the body, but around the head, it’s logical to see a resurrected Jesus, walking away from the niche, leaving behind the other grave cloths, but then reaching up, pulling this last one, the jaw binding, from around his face, and dropping it on his way out of the Tomb, separated from the rest. The series of events support that scenario.