Jesus is laid the sepulchre. St John Chapter xix. 38-42

St John Chapter xix : Verses 38-42

Contents

• St John Chapter xix.38-42 : Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide.

St John Chapter xix. 38-42

The body of Jesus is taken to the sepulchre.
J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

38  And after these things, Joseph of Arimathea (because he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews) besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.  

39 And Nicodemus also came, (he who at the first came to Jesus by night,) bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.  

40 They took therefore the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths, with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

41 Now there was in the place where he was crucified, a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein no man yet had been laid.  

42 There, therefore, because of the parasceve of the Jews, they laid Jesus, because the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

38 Μετὰ ⸀δὲ ταῦτα ἠρώτησεν τὸν Πιλᾶτον Ἰωσὴφ ⸀ἀπὸ Ἁριμαθαίας, ὢν μαθητὴς τοῦ Ἰησοῦ κεκρυμμένος δὲ διὰ τὸν φόβον τῶν Ἰουδαίων, ἵνα ἄρῃ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ· καὶ ἐπέτρεψεν ὁ Πιλᾶτος. ἦλθεν οὖν καὶ ἦρεν τὸ σῶμα ⸀αὐτοῦ.

38 Post haec autem rogavit Pilatum Joseph ab Arimathaea (eo quod esset discipulus Jesu, occultus autem propter metum Judaeorum), ut tolleret corpus Jesu. Et permisit Pilatus. Venit ergo, et tulit corpus Jesu.  

39 ἦλθεν δὲ καὶ Νικόδημος, ὁ ἐλθὼν πρὸς ⸀αὐτὸν νυκτὸς τὸ πρῶτον, φέρων ⸀μίγμα σμύρνης καὶ ἀλόης ὡς λίτρας ἑκατόν.

39 Venit autem et Nicodemus, qui venerat ad Jesum nocte primum, ferens mixturam myrrhae et aloes, quasi libras centum.  

40 ἔλαβον οὖν τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ καὶ ἔδησαν ⸀αὐτὸ ὀθονίοις μετὰ τῶν ἀρωμάτων, καθὼς ἔθος ἐστὶν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ἐνταφιάζειν.

40 Acceperunt ergo corpus Jesu, et ligaverunt illud linteis cum aromatibus, sicut mos est Judaeis sepelire. 

41 ἦν δὲ ἐν τῷ τόπῳ ὅπου ἐσταυρώθη κῆπος, καὶ ἐν τῷ κήπῳ μνημεῖον καινόν, ἐν ᾧ οὐδέπω οὐδεὶς ⸂ἦν τεθειμένος⸃·

41 Erat autem in loco, ubi crucifixus est, hortus : et in horto monumentum novum, in quo nondum quisquam positus erat.  

42 ἐκεῖ οὖν διὰ τὴν παρασκευὴν τῶν Ἰουδαίων, ὅτι ἐγγὺς ἦν τὸ μνημεῖον, ἔθηκαν τὸν Ἰησοῦν.

42 Ibi ergo propter parasceven Judaeorum, quia juxta erat monumentum, posuerunt Jesum.

Annotations

    38. And after these things, Joseph of Arimathea (because he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews) besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. See notes on Matt. xxvii. 58. He took away the Body of Jesus to be buried (says S. Chrysostom), “not as that of a criminal, but of a great and wonderful prophet. For he did not believe that He was God, and that He would rise again on the third day. He had faith in Jesus, but yet an imperfect faith.” But see here, how God exalts the humble. For the more ignominious was His Passion and death, the more glorious was His sepulchre. See Is. xi. 10. “His sepulchre will be glorious.” (See Vulg.)

    39. And Nicodemus also came, (he who at the first came to Jesus by night,) bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. He came first by night, but afterwards to hear Him, and become His disciple. (See S. Augustine in loc.)

    bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. To embalm and bury nobly so great a prophet. He wished not only to pour the ointment over the whole body, but to embalm, and cover it over with it. He probably did not use the whole of it, but only what was necessary. Nicodemus obtained an ample reward for this kind office to Christ, for by His grace he became not only a Christian, but a Confessor.

    Lucian, in his epistle De Invent. Corp. S. Stephen [in the appendix to the 7th volume of S. Augustine], thus tells the story. “The Jews, learning that he was a Christian, removed him from his office, excommunicated and banished him. Then I, Gamaliel, brought him into my own place, fed and clothed him, and buried him honourably near to S. Stephen” [see also S. Augustine, Serm. 316–324]. In the martyrology he is enrolled with S. Stephen among the saints.

    40. They took therefore the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths, with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it with linen cloths (now preserved at Turin), as the manner of the Jews is to bury. See notes on Matt. xxvi. 59.

    This mode of burial the early Christians imitated, who incurred lavish expense in their burial and embalming. See Tertullian in Apolog.; Prudentius in Hymno de Exequiis; Nyssen, Orat. in fun. Meletii; Nazianzen, Epist. 18.

    The Christians adopted this practice from the Jews, the Jews from the Egyptians. See S. Augustine, Serm. cxx. de diversis [nunc. ccclxi. § 12].

    41. Now there was in the place where he was crucified, a garden (for where could Jesus, the Author of all verdure and vigour, be buried, except in a garden?) See notes on Matt. xvii. 60. and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein no man yet had been laid; as S. Augustine says, “As no one before or after Him was conceived in a virgin’s womb, so no one either before or after Him was buried in that tomb.”

    42. There, therefore, because of the parasceve of the Jews, they laid Jesus, because the sepulchre was nigh at hand. There laid they Jesus therefore, because of the Jews’ preparation day, for the coming sabbath, in which it was not lawful to work, or to bury any one (so S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius), for the sepulchre was nigh at hand. “They wished,” said Euthymius, “to lay Jesus in another and more fitting tomb, at a greater distance from the city.” But God wished Him to be buried near Golgotha and Jerusalem. S. Chrysostom gives the reason: 

“That the disciples might the more readily betake themselves thither, and observe what was going on thereabouts, and also that not only they, but their enemies also, might be witnesses of His burial. The seal also, and the guards who were placed over the sepulchre, were witnesses to the same. Christ wished that His death should be witnessed no less than His Resurrection, for if His death had been a matter of doubt, the proof of His Resurrection would not hold good. And not only did He wish, for these reasons, to be buried nigh at hand, but also that no one might falsely allege that His Body had been stolen away.”

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.