Embalming

(Gen. 50:2, 26). The art of embalming was known from the most ancient times. The Hebrews borrowed the practice of embalming from the Egyptians. Since the annual flooding of the Nile kept the surface of the ground under water for two months, the Egyptians devised the best methods for preserving the bodies of the dead from decay. Others thought that embalming was practiced according to Egyptian beliefs with the purpose of preserving the body of the deceased, as the last dwelling of the soul, after it had completed its various migrations from one animal into another.

Those who performed embalming, or physicians, were regarded as sacred persons. The deceased was usually opened up in the following manner: the brain was extracted from the head through the nostrils, and the internal organs of the abdomen were extracted through an opening in the left side; then the cleaned interior was washed with palm wine, filled with fragrant substances such as myrrh, cassia, and others, and the whole body was then placed in natron for seventy days. After the said time had passed, the body (otherwise called a mummy) was wrapped in the finest linen cloths, or in bandages of fine linen covered usually with Arabian gum; finally the body was placed in a wooden form and set upright in the burial place (Gen. 50:26).

According to Herodotus, this was the most expensive method of embalming, costing about a talent of silver. In another method, costing about twenty minas, the internal organs were not removed from the body, but a considerable quantity of cedar oil was introduced into the stomach, and the body was placed in natron for a fixed time. The cheapest method of embalming, used exclusively by the poor, consisted of washing out the intestines with an infusion of Alexandrian senna and cassia, after which the body was placed for some time in natron.

The internal organs of persons of rank were placed in a separate vessel and thrown into the river, or were kept in a special vessel placed beside the corpse. Sometimes the process of embalming continued for up to 70 days, but according to the testimony of Holy Scripture, physicians used 40 days for embalming. The embalmed body was usually laid in a coffin of sycamore wood or of stone, on which the features of the deceased’s face were very often depicted; the coffin was set upright against the wall of the house, and remained in that position for many years.

Only afterward were the mummies transferred to underground vaults or rocky caves, where they are often found after the passage of 2,000–3,000 years in a state of complete preservation. Apart from the embalming of the bodies of the two patriarchs Jacob and Joseph, it does not appear from Holy Scripture that embalming was ever used among the Hebrews in the manner practiced by the Egyptians; and even these two instances took place, it seems, precisely for the purpose of preserving the remains of these patriarchs until the time of their removal to the Promised Land. The Hebrews, in preparing the dead for burial, used spices and prepared ointments (2 Chron. 16:14), and wound the body itself in linen cloths and anointed it with aromatic spices (John 19:40).