Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

EMBALMING

The process of preserving the body of the deceased (from Latin words meaning “to put into aromatic resins,” referring to the use of unguents, resins, and oils to preserve the body). “Mummify” is derived from Arab. mummiya, “pitch” or “bitumen,” a word used because some believed that the blackened corpses of Egyptian mummies had been covered with pitch. While a number of ancient peoples devised ways to preserve deceased members of their societies, the ancient Egyptians must be regarded as leading specialists in this activity. Many details of their culture are reflected in the OT, especially in Genesis and Exodus, and it is their practice of mummification — or embalming — that is directly related to biblical study. The Gospels discuss some of the preparations made for the burial of Jesus’ body, but this was not embalming in the true sense, especially when compared to the elaborate processes developed by the Egyptians.

Some ancient civilizations made efforts to preserve the corpses of the dead out of respect for the individual, especially if this deceased person held a high status. The Egyptians expended great effort to preserve corpses because they believed that the survival of a physical body in recognizable form was needed for survival of the human being’s immortal components, the ka, ba, and akh — the life-force, personality, and “ghost.”

Through the use of various physical/surgical and chemical processes, the Egyptians devised artificial means to preserve corpses. The process of mummification was introduced very early in Egypt’s dynastic history, in the first half of the 3rd millennium b.c. Even before then, the Egyptians must have noticed that the hot, dry sand of the desert often desiccated and preserved bodies without any artificial processes. A variety of techniques evolved over many centuries to conserve the bodies of Egypt’s nobility; these included removing the internal organs, soaking the body in natron, and wrapping it tightly in linen. When Herodotus visited Egypt in the 5th century he documented the mummification methods that were still known, even though the art and science of embalming was not as important as it had been earlier.

According to Genesis, Joseph had become so acculturated to Egyptian life that he ordered his “physicians” to embalm the body of his father Jacob/Israel (Gen. 50:2-3). In agreement with other ancient texts, Genesis reports that the mummification process took 40 days and that the time of mourning lasted 70 days. When Joseph died, he was also mummified and placed in a coffin (Gen. 50:26); Heb. ʾărôn corresponds to a “chest” or “box” but is an appropriate term for mummy case.

Bibliography. C. Andrews, Egyptian Mummies (Cambridge, Mass., 1984); C. Hobson, The World of the Pharaohs (New York, 1987); S. Quirke and J. Spencer, eds., The British Museum Book of Ancient Egypt (New York, 1992).

Gerald L. Mattingly

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

EMBALMING

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)