Jewish Burial Practices and Jesus' Burial
Jewish Burial Practices and Jesus' Burial
The Jews required that dead bodies be buried within 24 hours after death. Typically, two sorts of Jewish burial practices were used in the first century A.D. The less common, but better known, involved a burial cave or tomb cut out of the rock that surrounded the city of Jerusalem. Each such tomb included one or more chambers surrounded by rows of loculi, which were burial compartments about the length of a body, also cut into the rock.
First century loculi at Midras. Photo:HolyLandPhotos.org
Each tomb belonged to an extended family and the dead were buried there over several generations. Upon the death of a family member, the dead body was washed, annointed with oil, and then wrapped in a burial shroud. It was then placed in a loculus, with the opening being sealed with a stone slab. Another stone was placed over the outside entrance to the tomb.4
First century example of a rolling tombstone from Midras, southwest of Jerusalem. Photo:HolyLandPhotos.org
The body would lie in the tomb for a year or so, during which time the flesh decayed. When only the person's bones remained in the tomb, they were gathered and placed in a stone ossuary (or bone box) and reburied. In a minority of circumstances—about one quarter of the time—names were then carved on the side of the box. Often more than one person was buried in these bone boxes, seriously complicating the matter of later identifying the remains. These ossuaries were only used for 100 years or so.5
BURIAL PROCESS
Cut stone tombs were very expensive, so the more common way to bury the dead was used chiefly by poorer members of Jewish society. In this case, the majority of the population buried their loved ones in “simple, individual trench graves dug into the ground, similar to the way we bury our dead today.” The dirt was then moved back into the trench and a “crude headstone” was usually placed at one end of the burial site to mark the spot. This was not at all dishonorable, but was the most common means of burial. In these cases, nothing would remain to rebury after a year.6
Of the two sorts of Jewish burial, the use of the rock tomb is better known today, probably due to the case of Jesus' death and burial. Magness notes that the Gospels are not only our earliest sources, but that they accurately describe the burial by Joseph of Arimathea in a loculus of his family's own tomb. The body had to be buried before the Sabbath began that same day at sundown. Otherwise they would have to wait until Saturday night, after the Sabbath ended. However, that would have exceeded the requirement for burying a dead body within 24 hours. Joseph had to act very quickly.
First century loculi at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem. Photo:HolyLandPhotos.org
So Joseph procured Jesus' dead body, wrapped it in linen, included spices, and made sure that it was buried hastily late Friday afternoon in his own family tomb. In this, the Gospels show familiarity with Jewish Law.7
The Gospels explain that the women returned to see the tomb on Sunday morning. Mark (16:1) and Luke (24:1) specify that they brought spices that they had prepared, apparently to finish Friday afternoon's hasty burial. But all four Gospels teach that when the women arrived, they found the tomb empty. Afterward, the women and others saw the risen Jesus.
The traditional understanding of these events has been challenged by the ossuaries from the Talpiot Tomb. The news dominated the religious world for weeks, beginning days prior to the extended New York press conference on February 27, 2007, followed by the airing of the Discovery Channel documentary on March 4. The latter was followed by a scholarly discussion. In this book we will investigate many challenges, both pro and con, as to whether the claims of the Talpiot Hypothesis can be upheld, over against the New Testament view.
The 2007 press conference promoting the documentary. The Jesus ossuary is on the left, the “Mary Magdalene” ossuary is on the right. Photo: Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images.