Christians have historically believed that Jesus’ burial was temporary – but that is not what this post is about. A historical/archaeological question is whether Jesus’ burial was supposed to be temporary – the tomb in which he was placed being a burial place for criminals, in which bodies would be placed, allowed to decompose, and then after a year the bones would be transferred to an ossuary and moved to a family tomb.
In a follow-up to his other recent article on this topic, Eldad Kenyan continues to look at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in light of ancient Jewish burial practices.
I have blogged here before (as well as expressed in conference papers and other venues) my own conclusion, shared by Raymond E. Brown, Byron R. McCane and others, that Jesus was indeed buried in such a tomb for criminals, and that the Gospel of Mark provides evidence for this.
HT to John Byron and Jim West for drawing my attention to this article.
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