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Topic

Embalming

13 passages cited, from 5 classic reference works.

These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.

The verses

The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.

Genesis 50:2Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave · Torrey Of Jacob
And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
Genesis 50:26Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave · Torrey Of Joseph
So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Genesis 50:3Easton · Nave · Torrey Of Jacob
And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
2 Chronicles 16:14Easton · Nave · Torrey Of Asa
And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art: and they made a very great burning for him.
Luke 23:56Easton · Torrey How performed by the Jews
And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
John 19:40Easton · Torrey How performed by the Jews
Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
Genesis 3:19Torrey An attempt to defeat God's purpose
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Genesis 23:4Torrey Unknown to early patriarchs
I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.
Mark 15:46Nave Of Jesus
And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.
Mark 16:1Nave Of Jesus
And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
Luke 24:1Easton
Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
John 11:39Torrey Not always practised by the Jews
Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

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John 19:39 Easton

In the reference works

Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 8 references

The process of preserving a body by means of aromatics (Gen. 50:2, 3, 26). This art was practised by the Egyptians from the earliest times, and there brought to great perfection. This custom probably originated in the belief in the future reunion of the soul with the body. The process became more and more complicated, and to such perfection was it carried that bodies embalmed thousands of years ago are preserved to the present day in the numberless mummies that have been discovered in Egypt.

The embalming of Jacob and Joseph was according to the Egyptian custom, which was partially followed by the Jews (2 Chr. 16:14), as in the case of king Asa, and of our Lord (John 19:39, 40; Luke 23:56; 24:1). (See PHARAOH.)

Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 2 references

the process by which dead bodies are preserved from putrefaction and decay. It was most general among the Egyptians, and it is in connection with this people that the two instances which we meet with in the Old Testament are mentioned. (Genesis 50:2,26) The embalmers first removed part of the brain through the nostrils, by means of a crooked iron, and destroyed the rest by injecting caustic drugs. An incision was then made along the flank with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and the whole of the intestines removed. The cavity was rinsed out with palm wine, and afterwards scoured with pounded perfumes. It was then filled with pure myrrh pounded, cassia and other aromatics, except frankincense. This done, the body was sewn up and steeped in natron (salf-petre) for seventy days. When the seventy days were accomplished, the embalmers washed the corpse and swathed it in bandages of linen, cut in strips and smeared with gum. They then gave it up to the relatives of the deceased, who provided for it a wooden case, made in the shape of a man, in which the dead was placed,a nd deposited in an erect position against the wall of the sepulchral chamber. Sometimes no incision was made in the body, nor were the intestines removed, but cedar-oil was injected into the stomach by the rectum. At others the oil was prevented from escaping until the end of the steeping process, when it was withdrawn, and carried off with it the stomach and intestines in a state of solution, while the flesh was consumed by the natron, and nothing was left but the skin and bones. The body in this state was returned to the relatives of the deceased. The third mode, which was adopted by the poorer classes, and cost but little, consisted in rinsing out the intestines with syrmaea, an infusion of senna and cassia, and steeping the body for several days in natron. It does not appear that embalming was practiced by the Hebrews. The cost of embalming was sometimes nearly , varying from this amount down to or .

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 2 references

em-bam'-ing (chanaT, "to spice"):

Embalming. is mentioned in Scripture only in the cases of Jacob and Joseph (Ge 50:2 f,26). It was a distinctly Egyptian invention and method of preserving the bodies of men and animals. Examples of it reach back to over 3,000 years ago.

It prevailed to some extent among the peoples of Asia, and at a later period among the Greeks and Romans, but was in origin and use distinctly non-Israelitish.

See BURIAL.

In the topical indexes

Nave's Topical Bible (1896) · 6 references, grouped by sub-topic

→ Of Jacob Ge 50:2,3
→ Of Joseph Ge 50:26
→ Of Asa 2Ch 16:14
→ Of Jesus Mr 15:46; 16:1

Torrey's New Topical Textbook (1897) · 9 references, grouped by sub-topic

Unknown to early patriarchs Ge 23:4
Learned by the Jews in Egypt Ge 50:2,26
Time required for Ge 50:3
How performed by the Jews 2Ch 16:14; Lu 23:56; Joh 19:40
Not always practised by the Jews Joh 11:39
An attempt to defeat God's purpose Ge 3:19

Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896); Torrey's New Topical Textbook (1897), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.

Embalming

The verses

In the reference works

In the topical indexes

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