| THE CRUCIFIXION |
Mary Magdelene was one of the women who stood near the cross as Jesus died. She is best remembered for rubbing costly oil on Jesus' feet during one visit and then wiping his feet with her long, flowing hair. Judas criticized her for the extravagance, but Jesus told his would-be betrayer, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial" (John 12:7). Mary Magdelene helped prepare Jesus' body for burial, washing it, covering it with spices, and wrapping it with strips of cloth. |
| Buring the dead was a solemn responsibility. Failure to bury a relative immediately showed disrespect for the dead. |
| The Israelites carefully observed ritual of mourning. They washed a dead body with oil, anointed it with spices and fragrant perfumes, wrapped it in strips of cloth, and placed a linen cloth over the face. When Jesus was buried, Nicodemus, a Pharisee who admired Jesus, brought an aloe-and-myrrh mixture to spread over Jesus' body (Jn 19:39). |
| Once a body was fully bound and ready for burial, the mourners carried it to the family tomb in a funeral procession. They hired musicians to play sorrowful tunes on flutes and paid women to wail for the deceased. It was the custom that any stranger who passed a funeral had to join the procession and add his sorrowful voice to the wailing. |
| In early times the tomb was simply a cave reserved for family burials, such as the tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Later, tombs were carved out of rock and sealed with a hinged door or heavy stone. |
| The mourners placed the wrapped corpse on a shelf that had been carved out of the rock wall of the tomb. Sometime later, as a sign of the very deep affection the Jews had for their families, the mourners returned to the tomb and gathered up the bones. Then they placed the bones in another part of the tomb with the bones of ancestors who had died long ago. |
| Did you know? Unlike the Egyptians, the Jews did not embalm the bodies of the dead, nor did they use wooden coffins. |
| On the following Sunday morning, Mary Magdelene discovered that Jesus' tomb was empty. Later that morning she saw Jesus resurrected, walking outside the tomb. At first she thought he was the gardener but recognized him when he called her by name. Afterward, she eagerly reported to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord" (Jn 20:18). |
| Copyright: Grolier Inc. MCMXCVI Grolier Family Bible Cards TM Location: http://www.geocities.com/gacbloomington/crucifixion.html Updated: 10/25/2001 Background by: Wendysbackgrounds |
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