**Death And Burial At The Time Of Jesus** #Unfinished Herndon [X] <audio controls src = > </ audio> "In the Mediterranean world of late antiquity proper burial of the dead was regarded as sacred duty, especially so in the culture and religion of the Jewish people. The first reason for providing proper burial was for the sake of the dead themselves. The importance of care for the dead and their proper burial is well attested in Scripture, from the amount of attention given to the story of Abraham™s purchase of a cave for the burial of Sarah (Gen. 23.4-19), to the burial accounts of the patriarchs and monarchs of Israel. Of special interest is the story of Jacob™s body taken to the land of Canaan, to be buried in a tomb that he had hewn (Gen. 50.4-14). So also Joseph; though buried in Egypt, his bones are exhumed, taken with the Israelites at the time of the exodus and are eventually buried in Canaan (Gen. 50.22-26; Josh. 24.32). The bones of the slain Saul and sons are buried in Jabesh (1 Sam. 31.12-13). David later commends the men who did this (2 Sam. 2.4-5: ˜May you be blessed by the Lord, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord, and buried him!™). Saul™s bones are later taken to the land of Benjamin (2 Sam. 21.12-14). Even the wicked and divinely judged are buried, too, such as those in the wilderness who were greedy for meat (Num. 11.33-34), or individual criminals who are executed (Deut. 21.22-1. J.D. Crossan, Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995), pp. 160-88. The position that Crossan takes is restated, with a little more archaeological and historical nuance, in J.D. Crossan and J.L. Reed, Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2001), pp. 230-70. Evans Jewish Burial Traditions and the Resurrection of Jesus 189 23). Israel™s enemies, slain in battle, are buried (1 Kgs 11.15), including the eschatological enemy hosts of Gog (Ezek. 39.11-16). The great importance of proper burial provides the backdrop for the passages that speak of those who will not be buried, usually because of sin and divine judgment. Moses warns the Israelites that if they disobey the covenant, their enemies will slay them and their unburied bodies will be food for birds and animals (Deut. 28.25-26). Generations later this judgment befell the families of the wicked kings Jeroboam (1 Kgs 14.11) and Ahab (1 Kgs 21.24). According to the prophetic warning, one from these families ˜who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and any one who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat™. Jezebel herself is eaten by dogs and becomes ˜dung upon the fields™ (1 Kgs 21.23; 2 Kgs 9.33-37); that is, she has been eaten and then defecated. There will be no marker that says, ˜This is Jezebel™.2 Jeremiah warns his own generation with the same disturbing imagery: ˜And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth; and none will frighten them away¦and they shall not be gathered or buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground™ (Jer. 7.33; 8.2; cf. 14.16; 16.4; 20.6; 22.19; 18 25.33; cf. Ps. 79.2-3; Ezek. 29.5; Josephus, War 1.30.5.594<check cf. style later on using §>: ˜he would have her body torn to pieces by torments, and leave no part of it to be buried™). The ghastly image of Jews in exile, murdered and then left unburied beside the road or flung outside the city walls is reflected in the book of Tobit. The book™s namesake is a righteous man, who keeps kashruth, shares food and clothing with the poor, and buries the dead, even at great personal risk. The theme of Tobit burying the dead may well reflect Jeremiah™s earlier warning. Of all Tobit™s virtues, it is his burying the dead that is his greatest (1.18-20; 2.3-8; 4.3-4; 6.15; 14.10-13).3 Some of the persons whose bodies Tobit buries evidently had been executed by state authority, and not simply murdered: ˜And if Sennacherib the king put to death any who came fleeing from Judea, I buried [e1qaya] them secretly¦ When the bodies were sought by the king, they were not found™ (1.18).4 The dead man mentioned in 2.3, whom Tobit also buries, was also executed, either strangled (so the RSV) or ˜exposed™, in the sense of 2. J.S. Kennard Jr. (˜The Burial of Jesus™, JBL 74 [1955], pp. 227-38 [237]) is wrong to say ˜none would bury her™. In fact, Jehu ordered his men to bury her, only to find that she had been devoured by dogs (2 Kgs 9.34-35). 3. C.A. Moore, Tobit (AB, 40a; New York: Doubleday, 1996), p. 120. ˜To bury someone is the most important œcharitable act in Tobit.™ 4. F. Zimmermann, The Book of Tobit: An English Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Dropsie College Edition: Jewish Apocryphal Literature; New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), p. 51. ˜In other words, the bodies were known to be of marked men executed, not nameless war casualties.™ The king sought the bodies, in order to hang them up (see the following note). 190 Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus being publicly hanged (as Moore argues). 5 This Jewish sense of obligation that Jews executed by Gentile authorities must be buried, even at personal risk, is very significant for the present study. Josephus™s perspective is consistent with that expressed in Tobit. Explaining Jewish ethical obligations, Josephus states: ˜We must furnish fire, water, food to all who ask for them, point out the road, not leave a corpse unburied [a1tafon], show consideration even to declared enemies™ (Apion 2.29 §211; cf. 2.26 §205). Perhaps Philo gives the most eloquent expression to Jewish sensitivities on this question, in his imaginative recounting of Jacob™s grief over the report that his son Joseph had been killed and devoured by wild animals. The patriarch laments: Child, it is not your death that grieves me, but the manner of it. If you had been buried [e0ta/fhj] in your own land, I should have been comforted and watched and nursed your sick-bed, exchanged the last farewells as you died, closed your eyes, wept over your body as it lay there, given it a costly funeral and left none of the customary rites undone (De Iosepho 5 §§22-23). The imaginative dirge goes on to speak of the importance of proper burial: And, indeed, if you had to die by violence or through premeditation, it would have been a lighter ill to me, slain as you would have been by human beings, who would have pitied their dead victim, gathered some dust and covered the corpse. And then if they had been the cruelest of men, what more could they have done but cast it out unburied and go their way, and then perhaps some passer-by would have stayed his steps, and, as he looked, felt pity for our common nature and deemed the custom of burial to be its due (§25). Jacob concludes his lament by saying that he has experienced no greater tragedy, in that nothing of Joseph remains and that there is no possibility of burial (§§26-27). Concern with proper burial continues beyond the first century. For the Rabbis burial of the dead, according to George Foot Moore, ˜was regarded as a duty of the highest obligation™.6 He cites b. Meg. 3b, where this duty (hwcm tm) takes precedence in the study of the law, the circumcision of one™s son, or in the offering of the Passover lamb, and Sipre Num. §26 (on Num. 6.6-8), where even a high priest or a Nazirite has the obligation to bury a ˜neglected corpse™, since 5. Moore, Tobit, p. 128. The Greek is e0straggalwme/noj. Moore appeals to Est. 9.13 (hlt / krema&nnumi), ˜where the ten sons of Haman, killed the day before (9.6-7), are then œhanged, i.e., exposed to public view™. Moore may be correct here. The verb used in 4QTobaar<??> (4Q196 frag. 3, line 1) is qnx, which means ˜strangle™ and which appears also in the pesher on Nahum 2.12-13, in what is probably reference to Alexander Janneus™s crucifixion of political opponents (cf. 4QpNah 3-4.i.4-7). In this case, however, the victims were hanged while still living. 6. G.F. Moore, Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era: The Age of the Tannaim (3 vols.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927“30), I, p. 71. Evans Jewish Burial Traditions and the Resurrection of Jesus 191 there is no one else to do it. A second reason for burying the dead is to avoid defilement of the land of Israel. This requirement is grounded in the Mosaic law: ˜And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is accursed by God; you shall not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance™ (Deut. 21.22-23). It is also expressed in Ezekiel: ˜They will set apart men to pass through the land continually and bury those remaining upon the face of the land, so as to cleanse it¦Thus shall they cleanse the land™ (Ezek. 39.14, 16). This tradition remained current at the turn of the era, as seen in its elaboration in the Temple Scroll, where we read: If a man is a traitor against his people and gives them up to a foreign nation, so doing evil to his people, you are to hang him on a tree until dead. On the testimony of two or three witnesses he will be put to death, and they themselves shall hang him on the tree. If a man is convicted of a capital crime and flees to the nations, cursing his people and the children of Israel, you are to hang him, also, upon a tree until dead. But you must not let their bodies remain on the tree overnight; you shall most certainly bury them that very day. Indeed, anyone hung on a tree is accursed of God and men, but you are not to defile the land that I am about to give you as an inheritance [Deut. 21.22-23] (11QT 64.7-13a = 4Q524 frag. 14, lines 2-4; with emphasis added). Whereas Deut. 21.22-23 speaks of one put to death and then hanged, 11QTemple speaks of one hanged ˜until dead™. Most think crucifixion is in view (as also in 4QpNah 3-4.i.6-8). It is also important to note that this form of execution is linked to treason.7We should observe too that the requirement to bury the executed person <on?>the day of his death is emphasized. In Deuteronomy it simply says, ˜you shall bury him the same day™; but the Temple Scroll adds ˜you must not let their bodies remain on the tree overnight™. The reason given for taking the bodies down and burying them the day (or evening) of death is to avoid defiling the land, for the executed person is ˜cursed of God™. This is probably the rationale 7. Y. Yadin, The Temple Scroll (3 vols.; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1977, 1983), I, pp. 373-79; J. Maier, The Temple Scroll: An Introduction, Translation and Commentary (JSOTSup, 34; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1985), pp. 132-34; G.J. Brooke, ˜The Temple Scroll and the New Testament™, in idem (ed.), Temple Scroll Studies: Papers Presented at the International Symposium on the Temple Scroll, Manchester, December 1987(JSPSup, 7; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1989), pp. 181-99, esp. 181-83. See also the dated but still helpful studies by J. M. Baumgarten, ˜Does tlh in the Temple Scroll Refer to Crucifixion?™ JBL91 (1972), pp. 472-81; and J.A. Fitzmyer, ˜Crucifixion in Ancient Palestine, Qumran Literature, and the New Testament™, CBQ 40 (1978), pp. 493-513; D.J. Halperin, ˜Crucifixion, the Nahum Pesher, and the Rabbinic Penalty of Strangulation™, JJS 32 (1981), pp. 32-46. 192 Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesusthat lies behind the concern regarding slain enemy soldiers. In the fragmentary conclusion of the War Scroll we have reference to the fallen Kittim (i.e., Romans) and their allies. Their corpses lie on the field of battle, unburied. Priests, including the high priest, stand over the corpses and praise God. What is said is not preserved (1QM 19.9-14 = 4Q492 frag. 1, lines 8-13), but it is probable that the priests oversee the burial of the corpses and cleansing of the land. The related 4Q285, which is also fragmentary, supports this interpretation. It seems to say that while Israel celebrates victory over the Kittim (with women beating timbrels and dancing, as in the great victories recounted in Scripture; cf. Exod. 15.20; Judg. 11.34; perhaps also 4QpIsac25.iii.1-3), the high priest shall give orders for the disposal of the corpses, evidently to avoid corpse impurity (4Q285 frag. 7, lines 1-6, esp. lines 5-6; cf. frag. 10, lines 4-6: ˜and you shall eat [the spoil of your enemy¦and they shall dig] graves for them [¦and you shall cleanse yourselves from al]l their corpses™). This then explains the meaning in 1QM 7.2-3, which refers to the men who ˜strip the slain, plunder the spoil, cleanse the land™. Cleansing the land would include burying the corpses of the enemy. In a section concerned with holiness, the Temple Scroll enjoins Israel: ˜œfor you are a people holy to the Lord your God [Deut. 14.2]. œThus you shall not defile your land [Num. 35.34]. You are not to do as the nations do: they bury their dead everywhere, even inside their homes. Rather, you must set apart places in your land where you will bury your dead. For every four cities you must designate one burial ground™ (11QT 48.10-14).8Related material is found in 4Q251 frag. 18 (or frag. 13), which apparently expands legislation concerned with the discovery of the corpse of one slain out in the field (Deut. 21.1-9). In Deuteronomy nothing is said of burial, but evidently that is a detail added by 4Q251: ˜[if] a corpse [is found] lying in [a field¦and they shall break the heifer™s neck there in the wad]i in return for the life [of the slain¦] it is a substitution which is put to death for [the slain¦] everyone who has no soul within him is dead, [he must be buried] in a g[rave]™ (lines 3-6). The last part is not found in Deuteronomy (or elsewhere in Hebrew Scripture). The tradition is attested in the Mishnah, where in the discussion of the rules pertaining to execution, the sages teach that one hanged must not be left overnight, lest the command in Deut. 21.22-23 be violated (m. Sanh. 6.4). The discussion continues, noting that the executed person was not buried in the ˜burying-place of his fathers™, but in one of the places reserved for the burial of criminals (m. Sanh. 6.5). And finally, the discussion concludes by recalling that after the flesh of the executed criminal had decomposed, his bones could then be 8. See the discussion in Yadin, Temple Scroll, I, pp. 322-24. Evans Jewish Burial Traditions and the Resurrection of Jesus 193 gathered and taken to the family burial place, but no public lamentation was permitted (m. Sanh. 6.6). What is important here is that even in the case of the executed criminal, proper burial was anticipated. Various restrictions may have applied, such as being forbidden burial in one™s family tomb”at least until the flesh had decomposed”or not being allowed to mourn publicly, but burial was to take place, in keeping with the scriptural command of Deut. 21.22-23 and the Jewish customs that had grown up alongside it. The commands of Scripture, taken with traditions regarding piety (as especially exemplified in Tobit), corpse impurity, and the avoidance of the defilement of the land, strongly suggest that under normal circumstances (i.e., peacetime) no corpse would remain unburied”neither Jew nor Gentile, neither innocent nor guilty. All were to be buried. What is especially interesting is that some of the tradition reviewed may have been specifically linked to, even produced by, priests (as in the materials from Qumran). If this is the case, then the relevance of these laws and traditions for the execution of Jesus of Nazareth and its aftermath becomes more evident. " a-j4pLTphTY-G0msHYtdGvQ