And when Joseph had taken the body [of Jesus], he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.
//In all accounts of Jesus’ burial, he is laid in a tomb, not buried in the ground. During the short period between 20 BC and 70 AD (when Jerusalem was destroyed), Judean Jews observed a strange burial practice of laying the body out on a slab in a tomb to let it decompose for one year, and then gathering the bones so that the tomb could be re-used. The bones were then placed in a box called an ossuary and properly buried.
Imagine what might have happened had Jesus chosen a different time in history to appear! He could have been trapped in the ground instead of laid restfully on a stone slab! Would he have still been able to resurrect?
So, here’s the question: Did God recognize and seize the opportunity during that short century, or did God poke around inside the heads of Jews during this time suggesting that they start leaving bodies unburied for a while? Or was Jesus just lucky?
If we are to believe in G-d, then we have to believe that He has always had His hand in history. Throughout the scriptures we read that things were done since “the foundations of the world”. I do not think that jesus was lucky or that G-d poked around in the Jews head to find the appropriate time when burial would be the custom of leaving a body unburied. It was the right time in history for the Savior to be born. All the elements that had been prophesied since the Old Testament had manifested. Like I had mentioned, G-d’s hand is always in history. If we are too believe in an all powerful G-d, and the resurrection then even the promise of resurrection of the dead as Paul states both the good and evil will be resurrected for the judgement, includes both body and spirit. Even the bodies of those who have had their bodies destroyed by diverse means, then regardless of the time that Jesus was born, the Resurrection would have taken place. It just needed to be when it was.
🙂 I would say yours is a vote for “just lucky.” Or, if you don’t feel this burial practice made a practical resurrection easier, then not lucky but coincidental and unimportant. Thanks for contributing!