The Time of the Tomb

188:1.1When Joseph and Nicode­mus ar­rived at Gol­go­tha, they found the sol­diers tak­ing Je­sus down from the cross and the rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the San­hedrin stand­ing by to see that none of Je­sus’ fol­low­ers pre­vented his body from go­ing to the crim­i­nal burial pits. When Joseph pre­sented Pi­late’s or­der for the Mas­ter’s body to the cen­tu­rion, the Jews raised a tu­mult and clam­ored for its pos­ses­sion. In their rav­ing they sought vi­o­lently to take pos­ses­sion of the body, and when they did this, the cen­tu­rion or­dered four of his sol­diers to his side, and with drawn swords they stood astride the Mas­ter’s body as it lay there on the ground. The cen­tu­rion or­dered the other sol­diers to leave the two thieves while they drove back this an­gry mob of in­fu­ri­ated Jews. When or­der had been re­stored, the cen­tu­rion read the per­mit from Pi­late to the Jews and, step­ping aside, said to Joseph: “This body is yours to do with as you see fit. I and my sol­diers will stand by to see that no man in­ter­feres.”

188:1.2A cru­ci­fied per­son could not be buried in a Jew­ish ceme­tery; there was a strict law against such a pro­ce­dure. Joseph and Nicode­mus knew this law, and on the way out to Gol­go­tha they had de­cided to bury Je­sus in Joseph’s new fam­ily tomb, hewn out of solid rock, lo­cated a short dis­tance north of Gol­go­tha and across the road lead­ing to Samaria. No one had ever lain in this tomb, and they thought it ap­pro­pri­ate that the Mas­ter should rest there. Joseph re­ally be­lieved that Je­sus would rise from the dead, but Nicode­mus was very doubt­ful. These for­mer mem­bers of the San­hedrin had kept their faith in Je­sus more or less of a se­cret, al­though their fel­low San­hedrists had long sus­pected them, even be­fore they with­drew from the coun­cil. From now on they were the most out­spo­ken dis­ci­ples of Je­sus in all Je­ru­sa­lem.

188:1.3At about half past four o’clock the burial pro­ces­sion of Je­sus of Naz­a­reth started from Gol­go­tha for Joseph’s tomb across the way. The body was wrapped in a linen sheet as the four men car­ried it, fol­lowed by the faith­ful women watch­ers from Gal­i­lee. The mor­tals who bore the ma­te­rial body of Je­sus to the tomb were: Joseph, Nicode­mus, John, and the Ro­man cen­tu­rion.

188:1.4They car­ried the body into the tomb, a cham­ber about ten feet square, where they hur­riedly pre­pared it for burial. The Jews did not re­ally bury their dead; they ac­tu­ally em­balmed them. Joseph and Nicode­mus had brought with them large quan­ti­ties of myrrh and aloes, and they now wrapped the body with ban­dages sat­u­rated with these so­lu­tions. When the em­balm­ing was com­pleted, they tied a nap­kin about the face, wrapped the body in a linen sheet, and rev­er­ently placed it on a shelf in the tomb.

188:1.5Af­ter plac­ing the body in the tomb, the cen­tu­rion sig­naled for his sol­diers to help roll the door­stone up be­fore the en­trance to the tomb. The sol­diers then de­parted for Gehenna with the bod­ies of the thieves while the oth­ers re­turned to Je­ru­sa­lem, in sor­row, to ob­serve the Pass­over feast ac­cord­ing to the laws of Moses.

188:1.6There was con­sid­er­able hurry and haste about the burial of Je­sus be­cause this was prepa­ra­tion day and the Sab­bath was draw­ing on apace. The men hur­ried back to the city, but the women lin­gered near the tomb un­til it was very dark.

188:1.7While all this was go­ing on, the women were hid­ing near at hand so that they saw it all and ob­served where the Mas­ter had been laid. They thus se­creted them­selves be­cause it was not per­mis­si­ble for women to as­so­ciate with men at such a time. These women did not think Je­sus had been prop­erly pre­pared for burial, and they agreed among them­selves to go back to the home of Joseph, rest over the Sab­bath, make ready spices and oint­ments, and re­turn on Sun­day morn­ing prop­erly to pre­pare the Mas­ter’s body for the death rest. The women who thus tar­ried by the tomb on this Fri­day evening were: Mary Mag­da­lene, Mary the wife of Clopas, Martha an­other sis­ter of Je­sus’ mother, and Re­becca of Sep­pho­ris.

188:1.8Aside from David Zeb­e­dee and Joseph of Ari­mathea, very few of Je­sus’ dis­ci­ples re­ally be­lieved or un­der­stood that he was due to arise from the tomb on the third day.