WHAT DID JOHN SEE THAT WE MISSED?
As this week began with Resurrection Day, let’s say, (or sing) with Job, ‘For I know that my Redeemer liveth’ and echo the statement in 2Timothy 2:12 ‘For I know whom I have believed.’
Turn up the volume and take a moment to immerse your soul in His presence….
The 16th Nisan was the 2nd day of the week of Passover/ Pesach/Unleavened Bread Chag HaMazot and continues for 7 days (vs.18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.)
16 Nisan was also 1st day of the Omer: (click link https://www.minimannamoments.com/counting-our-blessings-with-omer/or see the very bottom of the Homepage for more).
Here is the extra study as mentioned in the post ‘In His Deaths’, as this whole Passover week we are celebrating the fact that He is Risen;
He is Alive forevermore and…
An important note concerning the content of this post.
Readers who have been following mmm over the previous 15 months are aware that we are concerned not to pass on information just for the wow effect alone. This site is for scriptural informational subject matter and not sensational and because of this MMM takes extra time to ensure the accuracy of the material shared plus the reliability of each source.
For some years a very meaningful and poignant story has been ‘doing the rounds’ with some slight variations at each retelling; and the intention was to add it as a paragraph at the end of last weeks post. Even though initially some stories may sound wonderful, in the long term they do not aid in the maturing of our faith. It is the truth that will make us free. MMM heart is to share those truths and not to mislead or misdirect in anyway and it is not our intention to perpetuate any inaccuracies if at all possible. MMM decided to do due diligence before publishing.
Interestingly in the process of confirming the material included, some surprising information was revealed. The findings are presented below in a post of its own for your consideration and all readers are encouraged to be like Bereans recorded in Acts 17:11 check it out for yourselves.
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
While many today might say they were being critical or judgmental, Luke commended the Bereans for wanting to make sure that what they were being taught was biblical. Many of the details in focus are not critical to our salvation but rather enhance our understanding of scripture content.
As Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun, it is only new to us because we haven’t heard it before.
…because He is alive.. we live.
This week highlights that this is, THE message, of hope, freedom and eternal life. If we live as He taught us, ‘His deaths’, have made us resurrection recipients. He completed the work He came to do. We live because He is Risen and the cross and the tomb were and are empty…except for what did John see that we missed….it may not be what we thought!
The tomb… the shroud…. A folded cloth.. Was it Jesus’s Prayer Shawl/Yeshua’s tallit?
First we need to set the scene:
The preparation for the burial was initiated by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.
It was risky to ask for the body as a crucified criminal was denied a proper burial and unceremoniously tossed into a mass grave which was little more than a trench or ditch.
Joseph of Arimathea already had a brand new tomb cut in preparation for himself as he was a wealthy man.
He was a secret disciple who did not consent to the Sanhedrin condemning Yeshua. Nicodemus was a Pharisee a member of the ruling council and also a secret follower of Yeshua.
He offered his tomb and they brought a burial shroud 
and linens
Linen strips
and about 75lbs (100 lbs in KJV) of myrrh and aloes in which to wrap Messiahs body.
This was a huge amount this much was usually only used for burying Royalty.
To understand where we are headed… first some pictures are included of the wrapping of a body according to Jewish custom old and modern.
This will aid in visualizing what John saw. Before the Diaspora they did not use coffins so the body shape is very obvious.
There are some pictures showing the way we thought it was. The way we assumed it was, and the way it more than likely was.
ציצת
Prayer Shawl and Bible Manners and Customs
The Prayer Shawl, (aka. tallis, tallit, talis) is a religious symbol, a garment, shroud, canopy, cloak which envelops the Jew both physically and spiritually, in prayer and celebration, in joy and sorrow.
While some other Jewish garments or objects might be treated more casually, the tallit is a special personal effect, generally used for many years or a lifetime and never discarded. Most Jewish men (and some women) own very few tallitot in their lifetimes.
Knotted Tachrichim
A threadbare tallit is treated with great respect, as if it had a mantle of holiness, acquired from years of use. Although there is no mandatory tradition, in Conservative, reform, and otherwise non- religious families a tallit, as well as tefillin, is likely to be given as a special gift, from father to son, from father-in-law to son-in-law, or from teacher to student. It might be purchased to mark a special occasion, such as a wedding, a bar/bat mitzvah, or a trip to Israel. When a man dies, it is traditional that he be buried dressed only in his kittel, with his tallit is draped over him.
Anyone attending an orthodox synagogue today will see that the men are all wearing prayer shawls. It is a very important part of Jewish life and would have been in the life of Jesus /Yeshua too..
It is used at all major Jewish occasions: circumcisions, bar mitsvahs, weddings and burials. It protects the scrolls of the Torah when they are moved.
They are wrapped in it when they are buried.
After a ritual washing of the body, called taharah it is dressed in a kittel (shroud) tachrichim and then a tallit. 
Before the tallit is placed on a body for burial, one of the sets of fringes, the tzitzit, is cut off to demonstrate that the person is no longer bound by the religious obligations of the living.
In the Land of Israel, burial is without a casket, and the kittel and tallith are the only coverings for the corpse. In addition to tahrihim, the shroud, some Jews are wrapped in the prayer shawl (tallit) in which they prayed.
Every tallit is tied with four sets of knotted fringes (tzizit), which symbolize the commandment (mitzvot) incumbent upon Jews.
Meaning of the knots and zitzit.
Back to Jesus’s/Yeshua’s burial.
He was laid in Josephs tomb
The stone was rolled in front of the entrance
often needing 4 or more men to move it
The tomb was sealed
close up of wax seals
and Roman soldiers guarded the entrance until there was an earthquake and
the soldiers were in fear for what they saw.
John 20:1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.
Matthew 28:1 Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.
Matthew 28:2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.
John 20:1 and Mark 16:3 They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” think they should’ve remembered the words of our Lord and simply trusted Him.
Meanwhile, the women who stayed at the Tomb, went into the Tomb to investigate it, and they met the angel sitting inside the Tomb!
Matthew 28:5-8: But the angel answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
HE IS NOT HERE; for HE IS RISEN, as He said. Come, SEE the PLACE WHERE the LORD LAY.
And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you. So they WENT OUT quickly FROM the TOMB with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word
Mark 16:5-8 records the same event: ENTERING the TOMB, they SAW a young man clothed in a long white robe SITTING ON THE RIGHT SIDE; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. HE is RISEN! He is NOT HERE. SEE the PLACE WHERE they LAID Him. But go, tell His disciples, and Peter, that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you. So they WENT OUT quickly and fled FROM the TOMB, for they trembled and were amazed. And they (initially) said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.
These passages give us some very specific information about the Tomb, which shows that it was not entirely typical for its time. Mark 16:5 says that as they entered they saw the angel (who looked like a young man) SITTING ON THE RIGHT SIDE. This is a very significant statement, for it reveals the layout of the Tomb, a layout that is unusual for a First Century Tomb. 
Normally, you would walk through the entrance into the Weeping Chamber,
and then you would go down further into the Grave area, which would straight ahead, just as with Lazarus’s tomb in Bethany, 
but in this case, the angel, who was sitting by the Place where Jesus was laid, was on the right hand side, as they entered through the Doorway into the Weeping Chamber. It was only because of this arrangement that later on from the door, John could see the grave-clothes where He lay. 
The Arrival of the Second Group of women led by Joanna: 
It is Luke, (who tells the story from Joanna’s viewpoint), who describes the arrival of the 2nd Group of women at the Tomb. They had come from Herod’s Palace, and arrived just after the others had left in a hurry, after their encounter with the angel.
Luke 24:1,2: Now on the 1st day of the week (Sunday), very early in the morning, they (the women described in Luke 23:55,56), and certain other women with them (under Joanna).
Looking at the Garden Tomb above, (and also next picture), there’s a small window in the upper right-hand face of the Tomb, above the modern block-stone. It was cut into the Rock-Face as an original feature of the Tomb, when it was first built. It is too narrow to be another entrance.
This was a nephesh (lit. “soul” hole), through which, by Jewish tradition, the spirit of the dead departed after 3 days in the Tomb. The morning sunlight shining through this window illuminated the Tomb, so that Peter and John could see into what otherwise would have been a dark Tomb interior.
So, because of the light shining through the window, as they stood at the door and looked to the right, they would have clearly seen where Christ had been laid. They saw His grave cloths lying by themselves where His body had been, but there was no body. They could see the Tomb was empty.
When Peter and John (who, most scholars agree, was “the other disciple”) heard the excited report of Mary Magdalene, they rushed to the tomb. John “outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in” (John 20:4-5).
John looked into the tomb, but did not enter. The Greek word used here for “look” is blepo, “which denotes simple sight” [Dr. Alvah Hovey, An American Commentary on the NT, p. 396], as distinguished from a deeper perception of that which is seen by the eyes.
In other words, John’s eyes saw what was before him, but he didn’t yet fully grasp “how to interpret the phenomenon” [The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 9, p. 189].
Peter, on the other hand, when he got to the scene, went immediately into the tomb, and “he saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen” (John 20:6-7, NIV).
Peter “saw” — this is the Greek word theoreo, meaning “to gaze upon, contemplate, consider; to view with interest and attention; to come to a knowledge of” [The Analytical Greek Lexicon of the NT, p. 194].
It was a “closer and more careful, vivid, and instructive gaze” than that of John [The Pulpit Commentary, vol. 17, pt. 2, p. 465].
John glanced at the scene; Peter gazed at it.
“The bolder Peter is rewarded with bright evidence of what had happened” [Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Practical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, p. 1076].
“The change of word seems to have been intentional. Peter’s survey of the tomb was more searching and exact than that of John” [Dr. Hovey, p. 396].
The Tomb and its contents could have been for the disciples to believe because we are told in John 20:9
“Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise from the dead.
Then the disciples went back to their homes” (John 20:8-10). Like Peter, John now “saw” — which resulted in belief. This is yet a third Greek word employed in this passage: eidov (a form of horao), meaning “to perceive; to observe with understanding.”
We see a powerful progression here from seeing to scrutinizing and contemplating to understanding, which then results in belief. Peter and John were still struggling with the events of the past few days, and their faith was not yet firm, as they still had questions and doubts, but they could not deny the reality of what was before their eyes: Jesus was not just away, He was arisen!
There was something in the scene before them that convicted them of this truth: not just an empty tomb, but something to do with the burial garments, proclaimed a powerful, convincing message of resurrection.
What exactly was the message of the garments they found within the tomb of our Lord that morning of the first day of the week?
With regard to the ‘burial clothes’ of our Lord, there were two different parts.
First, we find the “strips of linen” (NIV) that were used to wrap the body of Jesus. The practice at that time was to take a number of strips of cloth and wrap the body with these strips, binding it up much like a mummy.
“Aromatic spices were strewn between the layers of linen, and these layers, one wound over the other, were numerous, so that all those spices could be held between them” [R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel, p. 1342].
This would have greatly limited the movement of the body (although few expected a dead body to actually move)!
We see this in the coming forth from the tomb of Lazarus. When he came out, “his hands and feet were wrapped with strips of linen, and he had a cloth around his face.” Therefore, Jesus said, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go” (John 11:44).
Secondly, as noted in the account of the resurrection of Lazarus, there was, in addition to the body wrappings, a covering for the face/head. The Greek word used for this item is soudarion, and it is used in both John 11:44 and 20:7. It denoted “a headcovering for the dead” [The New Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words, p. 1372].
It was a “piece of cloth, a yard or so square” [Dr. James Hastings, Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, vol. 2, p. 226], that was used to wrap around the head of the deceased: a head shroud. A picture of just such a head cloth can be seen in the accompanying picture.
When Peter, and then later John, entered the tomb they found something intriguing about these burial garments: something so utterly astounding that it erased their doubts and established their faith in our Lord’s resurrection from the dead.
They did not see the body of Jesus; but they did see the grave clothes…. And they saw the clothes in a certain order.
John covers the exact arrangement of the clothes. It is the sole purpose of nine verses of the Gospel history. Why so great a detailed account? 
It was the linen strips that caused him to believe. Scripture clearly tells us that when John “saw the arrangement of the grave clothes, he believed, beyond all doubt, that Jesus was risen.”
These grave garments were arranged in a unique way. When John saw “the linen clothes lying,” he believed. The word “lying” does not merely refer to the fact that they were “remaining on the floor of the sepulcher,” but rather, the word used, means that they were
“lying precisely as the body had lain in them.”
The grave clothes were in exactly the position the body had occupied.
They “saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen” (John 20:7, NIV). 
In reading this statement, we may not find much to astound us; but, most translations have not really captured, in their English rendering of the text, what Peter and John were beholding and perceiving in that tomb. Indeed, in some translations, the wording is even misleading.
For example, there are a few versions where the face/head wrap is referred to as a “napkin”, the sort used to wipe the mouth while eating a meal. (King James Version, American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, Young’s Literal Translation, New English Bible).
These are major translations that have greatly influenced our religious language. Another unfortunate rendering of the Greek term is “handkerchief” (New King James Version, Darby Translation, the modern translation by J. B. Phillips, and even the version by Hugo McCord).
Most versions, however, simply render the Greek term as “the wrapping” or “the cloth.” The words “napkin” and “handkerchief” leave the wrong impression in our minds, and can lead to some strange interpretations (such as the alternate story/account/eRumor, making the rounds on the Internet in which a “folded napkin at the dinner table” is supposed to convey to a servant that the master is coming back –
As mmm heart is for truth and no evidence was found to coroborate the reference to the napkin at the dinner table; only that (“2000 yrs ago as there was no such Jewish custom in that day; such “dinner napkins” were not even used by rough fishermen, and a number of Orthodox Jewish rabbis and scholars in Jerusalem, when questioned about this, stated they had never even heard of such a thing”). It may have been a custom of the Roman Elites and of Royals. The way of life, lack of internal plumbing and European/western etiquette are things we take for granted but it was not as we are today; and many countries are still struggling for the basic necessities of life. Our Greek mind set and mistranslations may have helped to paint a not so accurate picture.
Presented below are some referenced studies from original texts, which reveal a truly amazing possibility!
This was not a napkin or handkerchief, but as already stated it was probably either rather a large linen cloth that was wrapped around the head of the deceased and/or His tallit.
Some translators also did not serve their readers well by translating the Greek word entulisso as “folded” (New International Version, Darby Translation, English Standard Version, Holman Christian Standard Bible, New Century Version, New King James Version, New Living Translation, and a few others).
Most translations have “wrapped up” or “rolled up.” The Greek word entulisso only appears three times in the NT (Matt. 27:59; Luke 23:53; John 20:7). The word itself means “to roll up; to wrap together” [Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the NT, p. 219].
The picture above may not be exactly what they saw… the one below maybe nearer the reality..
So it was Not This…
But this is what they saw!!!!
“It implies that the cloth had been wound around the head into the shape of a sphere and not folded flat like a table napkin. In the NT this word is used only in the description of Jesus’ entombment” [The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 9, p. 189].
Thus, the text is actually suggesting that what Peter and John saw was NOT a “folded napkin,” but rather the head shroud still in its “wrapped up” condition, only with no head in it.
The same was the case with the burial linens.
They were there, still “lying in place” as they had been, with the head wrap separate from the body wrap, but the body was gone.
“Unfortunately, neither the Authorized Version nor the Revised Version gives the exact translation of the Greek text. The literal rendering of the passage makes it clear that the cloth which had been placed about Christ’s head before burial was discovered by the two disciples lying where His head had been, in the undisturbed form of a coiled or twisted head-wrapper …
just as if His head had somehow slipped out of it.
This rendering of the passage is confirmed by the impression made upon the two disciples by what they witnessed on entering the tomb. It is said that they ‘saw and believed’ — saw something, that is, which persuaded them so completely that their Master was risen from the dead that their doubts were immediately resolved” [Dr. James Hastings, Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, vol. 2, p. 227].
Dr. H. A. Ironside concurs: “They saw the linen cloths just as they had been wrapped around the body, like the shell of the chrysalis after the butterfly has emerged. The cloths were there, but the body had gone!” [Addresses on the Gospel of John, p. 861].
“This means the headcloth still retained the shape that the contour of Jesus’ head had given it, and that it was still separated from the other wrappings by a space that suggested the distance between the neck of the deceased and the upper chest, where the wrappings of the body would have begun” [The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 9, p. 188].
Esteemed Jewish scholar Simon Greenleaf, founder of Harvard Law School, meant to use his “laws of evidence” to challenge the theory of the resurrection, and became a believer.
LINEN THAT COULDN’T LIE
Linen clothes, refer to the manner in which they prepared the body for burial in that day. They would wrap the body with a wide long cloth, somewhat like a bandage is applied to an injured leg or arm; the wrappings continued until they reached the neck. 
This was the method they used to prepare the body of Jesus for burial. Like a giant bondage, these wrappings were wound around the body of our Lord, beginning at the feet, and ending at the head. John saw these ‘linen clothes lying’ undisturbed, just as they had been when the body of Jesus lay within them, but now there was no body, the linen clothes were empty!
John 19:39-40 tells us that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea brought about a 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes spices and wound the body of Jesus in the cloth wrappings with the spices. As they wrapped the cloth strip around and around Jesus’ body, they poured in 100 pounds of spices into the wrappings and upon the body.
LIQUID SPICES SETTLED AND SOLIDIFIED AROUND THE BODY SHAPE!
All these liquid spices would soon harden and would cause the cloth wrappings to become an encrusted cocoon around the body of Jesus.
All the wrappings followed the contours of the body; it would be a tight solid covering that would protect the body, and from which the body could not be pulled by any human means.
The only way, humanly speaking, a body could be removed from such encrusted wrappings, would be by cutting the cloth from end to end and laying back each side so the body could be pulled from its wrappings.
PROOF – THE BODY COULD NOT HAVE BEEN STOLEN
It is inconceivable that the body had been stolen, and that enemies would have spent the time to abstract the body from the clothes and so arrange them as to look like a body was still there. Who would do that and why?
When the disciples saw the “linen clothes lying” –- uncut, undisturbed, lying just as they had been, yet they were empty –- it convinced them that the body had been miraculously, supernaturally removed. Had some human hand stolen the body, he would have been forced to slit open the bindings in order to remove the body.
Likewise, Greenleaf concluded, HAD JESUS REVIVED AND EXITED THE TOMB HE COULD NOT HAVE LEFT THE WRAPPING UNDISTURBED.
The Greek words translated, “wrapped together” in John 20:7, actually mean, “twisted together” or “rolled up” –- it speaks of a fixed position – much like a cocoon. The linen cloths were “wrapped” or “rolled together,” however the body was missing.
The “linen clothes” had not been unfolded, loosed or disturbed in any way!
They just lay there!
An empty shell of the linen clothes that had been wrapped around and around the body of Jesus. 
The primary point of this physical testimony was to thwart the lie that was going to be spread abroad that the body of Jesus had been stolen (either by His disciples or unnamed others). Because guards were posted at the tomb, and the entrance was sealed, even if robbers managed to distract the guards, they would still have to snatch the body in haste and make off with it, which would not allow them time to leave the burial wrappings in such a condition.
Indeed, they would most likely steal the body fully wrapped, rather than carefully unwrap it, remove the body, then rewrap the linen pieces to its previous shape, making off with a corpse. It wouldn’t make any sense, nor would they have the time. If they did choose to remove the burial wrappings, it would have been done in haste, and the cloths would be strewn about the tomb.
This was not the case. Clearly the hand of God was involved for the body to be gone and the wrappings to be preserved in this condition, and given the fact that the tomb was sealed and guarded. Peter and John took in the whole scene … and believed! He was risen!
“The grave clothes were left as if Jesus had passed right through them. The headpiece was still rolled up in the shape of a head, and it was at about the right distance from the wrappings that had enveloped Jesus’ body.
A grave robber couldn’t possibly have made off with Jesus’ body and left the linens as if they were still shaped around it” [footnote in the Life Application Bible, p. 1926]. As Dr. W. Robertson Nicoll rightly observes, in The Expositor’s Greek Testament, “Had the authorities or anyone else taken the body, they would have taken it as it was” [vol. 1, p. 862]. Matthew Henry’s point is well-taken: “Anyone would rather choose to carry a dead body in its clothes than naked” [Commentary on the Whole Bible, e-Sword].
(Naked in the Hebrew means except for a loincloth.)
Thus, the condition of burial garments “became the fullest proofs against the lie of the chief priests: that the body had been stolen away by the disciples. If the body had been stolen away, those who took it would not have stopped to strip the clothes from it, and to wrap them up” again [Adam Clarke, Clarke’s Commentary, vol. 5, p. 656].
“Peter must have been wondering why the grave clothes were left in this position if the body had been stolen. A robber would not have left them in good order. He would have stripped the body completely, leaving the clothing in a disorderly heap; or he would have taken the body, grave clothes and all” [The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 9, p. 188].
These linen wrappings, and the condition in which they found them, convinced Peter and John “that this was no violent grave robbery or the grave clothes would have been tossed in a heap or carried off with the body. The careful arrangement impressed the sensitive apostles with the marvelous truth that their Lord had risen from the dead” [The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, vol. 4, p. 373].
THE ‘COCOON’ WAS EMPTY…
The tomb was empty…
What do you think? A Mmmm moment!
(Makes the analogy of the butterfly’s lifecycle even more interesting as ‘the worm’ exits the cocoon in a brand new body and flies away.) 
Dr. Lenski sums up what we find in this passage, and the marvelous truth it proclaimed to Peter and John … and us: “They lay just as they had been wound about the limbs and the body, only the body was no longer in them. … No human being wrapped round and round with bands like this could possibly slip out of them without greatly disturbing them.”
“They would have to be unwound, or cut through, or cut and stripped off. They would thus, if removed, lie strewn around in disorder or heaped in a pile. … If the body had been desecrated in the tomb by hostile hands, this kind of evidence would appear. But hostile hands would have carried off the body as it was, wrappings and all, to get it away as soon as possible and to abuse it later and elsewhere.”
“But here the linen bands were. Both their presence and their undisturbed condition spoke volumes. Here, indeed, was a sign to behold. It corroborated what the women had told Peter and John on the way out to the tomb: Jesus was risen from the dead!” [The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel, p. 1342].
Final thoughts…
Is this Proof of Resurrection that Jesus folded his Tallit when he arose from the dead?
Yeshua, the Messiah, also was put in the tomb with His prayer shawl about His head/covering His Body as was the custom of burial. The TALLIT, (which the KJV calls the napkin), is one of the many great infallible proofs, as Jesus showed Himself ALIVE after his death on the cross.
In a recent post Aviv was referenced as the Hebrew season of spring.
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