New research on the Shroud of Turin, page 5

a reply to: VegHead

I thought there might be other strips used and then a long piece of cloth covering the entire body. But this was pure speculation on my part.

In understanding the method which was used in caring for the body of Jesus requires a little more explanation than assuming what most interpreters of scripture understands.

Jesus died about three hours before the High Sabbath which was on Wednesday at about the ninth hour. You must remember that all of this was not a normal operation because of a High Sabbath which was about to start on the twelfth hour. That left only three hours for Jesus’ uncle to gain permission to recover the body and remove the body with the proper credentials from Pilate.

This was a hurried and not normal procedure because the High Sabbath was very close and the dead must all be interred very quickly. This is why the body was simply taken down from the tree and placed on this sheet of linen which also served as a stretcher for Joseph and Nicodemus. The tomb of Jesus’ uncle Joseph is believed (by some) to have been about one and one half Kilometers from the place of crucifixion so as you can understand that Joseph had to seek out Pilate, get his authorization for the body, return to the body, remove it from the tree, and take the body to Joseph’s tomb.

Now I do not really understand how long that would take because no one is certain of the exact location of where Jesus was put to death nor where the tomb of Joseph is located. But we can understand that it had to have taken a good portion of the three hours which were left to do all of this. So with my understanding, the body was simply laid on the tomb slab and the face uncovered with the sudarium (napkin) which is the custom. The purpose of the sheet of linen was to not only act as a means of handling the body but also use as a temporary covering of the body till it could be properly spiced and wrapped.

The day after Jesus’ death was the Sabbath High day which was revered the same as the Seventh Day Sabbath and the following day (our Friday) was when Luke tells us that the spices were purchased to spice the body but no one can be allowed to do this till after the Passover and the Saturday Sabbath is complete. The following day (our Saturday) is the Regular Sabbath which will end that evening at about 6 PM.

The following morning (our Sunday) is when the women were to spice and wash the body of Jesus and found Him gone. Now what does this mean? It means that Jesus’ body was never spiced nor was it ever prepared properly. It was impossible according to scriptures. Jesus’ body was not anointed with oil as a bath and the water as a bath which is the preparation before the perfumes and spices were administered to the body. From what I understand only the feet and hands were bound together by strips of linen. I could be wrong here but I believe most people are looking at this with the Egyptian mummification process and that is totally wrong.

Now Luke tells us that the spices were purchased the day between the Sabbaths, That would be between the High Sabbath (Thursday) and the Regular Sabbath (Saturday) so by this we know that the preparation of the body could not even have been started. if they had already used strips of linen and had bound His hands and feet then why were the women there on the first day of the week seeking to spice the body?

According to scripture, Jesus was in a terrible condition when dead and was probably unrecognizable when He expired. He had no perfumes, oils, spices, or proper entombment involved in this at all. In fact, had it not been for the Jews demanding their temple guards putting a seal upon the door for 72 hours, I doubt that any of this could have been verified by scripture.