Passion Week: Day 5

 Recap: Day 1, Triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Day 2, A Day of rest or Jesus cleanses the temple.

Day 3, Jesus cleanses the temple or a day of preparation.

Day 4, Nighttime disciples share a meal and Lord's Supper afterwards. In garden of Gethsemane Jesus prays, is arrested then taken to the Sanhedrin, tried and condemned. 

Daytime brought before Pilate and crucified. Jesus is dead by the coming of sundown and the thieves crucified with him have their legs broken to hasten death. Jesus is taken down and laid in a tomb. The temple posts guards to keep the disciples from stealing the body. His body is hastily prepared by wrapping it in strips of linen with a cloth wrapped around his head.

His tomb is a cave that is covered by a large round stone that is rolled over the entrance. The practice at this time is that the body is left to return to dust for a year. At the end of the year, the tomb is unsealed, and the bones are gathered together and placed into a clay pot. The tomb is then reused. Archeologists have uncovered a number of these clay pots dating from this time period.  

The practice of covering a dead body with a shroud isn't in use until the Middle Ages. The Shroud of Turin is a fake.

Day 5. Sundown begins the Passover Sabbath Jesus is in the tomb. There are two Sabboths this week.

Under Talmudic law the day before the Sabbath is when all work must be done for two days as the Sabbath is a day of rest. 

Women are to clean clothes, bed linens and the house, prepare meals for two days, the fireplace is not allowed to go out as you can't start a fire on the day of rest. 

Men are to do two days of work, watering and feeding animals, working in the fields, or any other employment. They prepare the house by putting blood above the lintel of the house. It is required of men before sundown to do their duty to their wives and must satisfy them. 

At sundown the start of Sabbath is when the Passover meal is eaten. They sleep, upon daylight they eat their previously prepared meals and rest. There is a list of exceptions to this condition. In wartime they can fight. If one of their animals is delivering a baby, they can assist. They are limited to the number of steps they can take that day, but it allows for keeping an eye on the flock or fields.

Because of the Sabbath, the body of Jesus is hastily prepared. The women will come to finish preparation later.