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LET THE DEAD BURY THEIR OWN
DEAD
(MATTHEW 8:22; Luke
9:60)
Gordon Franz
There are two incidents recorded in
the Gospels when a disciple requested a leave of absence in order to bury
his father (Matt. 8:21-22; Luke 9:59-60).
Although the requests appear reasonable, Jesus gave a seemingly harsh
reply in each case: Follow Me, let the dead bury their own
dead.
This statement is often considered a
hard saying of Jesus (Bruce 1983: 161-163).
Some critical scholars suggest that Jesus was encouraging His disciples
to break the fifth commandment (honor your father and mother) by not giving
their fathers a proper burial (Sanders 1985: 252-255). Is He really demanding this? Most commentaries suggest Jesus meant, Leave
the (spiritual) dead to bury the (physical) dead (Fitzmyer 1981: 836; Liefeld
1984: 935). This interpretation, though
common (Fitzmyer calls it the majority interpretation), is not consistent with
the text and with Jewish burial practices of the first century
AD.
Problems with the
Majority Interpretation
Byron McCane, of Duke University,
points out three problems with the majority interpretation (hereafter MI;
1990:38-39). First, it does not give an
adequate explanation of the disciples request, Let me first go and bury my
father. The MI sees the request as a
conflict of loyalties between the disciples responsibilities to their dead
fathers and their commitment to follow Jesus.
This minimizes the importance of the adverb first. In each case, a disciple was requesting time
to fulfill his family obligation regarding the burial of his father. Once this was discharged, the disciple would
return and follow Jesus. Thus the MI
does not explain the disciples request for time.
Secondly, those who follow the MI
generally omit the words their own dead, because they want to distinguish
between two meanings of the word dead.
Let the spiritually deal
bury the physically dead. However, the text says, their own dead,
indicating that both occurrences of dead are connected in a reflexive
possessive relation. There is no need to
spiritualize the text regarding the dead; both are physically
dead!
Finally, the MI goes against
first-century Jewish burial customs. In
the first century, when a person died, they normally were taken and buried
immediately in the family burial cave that had been hewn out of bedrock. [For
the archaeology of Jewish tombs during the New Testament period, see Rahmani
1958, 1961, 1982a]. This custom is based
on the injunction found in the Mosaic Law, not to leave the corpse on an
executed person on the tree overnight (Deut. 21:22-23). Two examples of immediate burials are found
in the New Testament: Jesus (John 19:31) and Ananias and Sapphira (Acts
5:6-10).
Immediately after the burial, the
family would separate itself and mourn for seven days. This mourning period was called
shiv�ah. It would have been impossible for the
disciples to make their request if their father had just died. If they were the eldest sons, they were
obligated by custom to immediately bury their fathers. If the MI is correct, the disciples would
have been acting contrary to normal first-century Jewish burial
practices.
An Interpretation Based
on First-Century Jewish Burial Practices
McCane suggests an interpretation
that is consistent with first-century Jewish burial practices (1990:40-41). After a body was placed in a burial cave, it
was left to decompose. The family
mourned for seven days. This initial
mourning period was followed by a less intense 30-day period of mourning, called
shloshim. However, the entire mourning period was not
fully over until the flesh of the deceased had decomposed, usually about a year
later. The Jerusalem Talmud states: When
the flesh had wasted away, the bones were collected and placed in chests
(ossuaries). On that day (the son)
mourned, but the following day he was glad, because his forebears rested from
judgment (Moed Qatan
1:5).
The final act of mourning, the
gathering of the bones into a bone box called an ossuary, was called
ossilegium, or secondary burial. It
is this act, I believe, that is in view in our Lord's response. [For a good discussion of secondary burials,
see Meyers 1971; Rahmani 1981. On
ossuaries, see Rahmani 1982b]. The
disciples request and Jesus response makes good sense in light of the Jewish
custom of secondary burial. When the
disciples requested time to bury their fathers they were actually asking for
time to finish the rite of secondary burial.
Their father had died, been placed in the family burial cave, and the
sons had sat shiv'ah and most
likely shloshim. They had requested anywhere from a few weeks
to up to 11 months to finish the ritual of ossilegium before they returned to
Jesus.
Jesus' sharp answer also fits well
with secondary burial. The fathers had
been buried in the family burial caves and their bodies were slowly
decomposing. In the tombs, along with
the fathers, were other family members who had died, some awaiting secondary
burial, others already placed in ossuaries.
When Jesus stated: Let the dead bury their own dead, He was referring
to two different kinds of dead in the tomb: the bones of the deceased which had
already been neatly placed in ossuaries and the fathers who had yet to be
reburied. The phrase own dead
indicates that the fathers were included among the dead.
The Setting of This
Saying
The Gospels record two incidents
where disciples approached the Lord to request a leave of absence from
following Him. The first request is
recorded in Matthew 8. Jesus was about
to take the Twelve across the Sea of Galilee to the Decapolis city of
Gadara. Chronologically, this trip is
the first recorded journey of Jesus to minister in Gentile territory. One of His disciples hesitated, probably
because he did not want to go to those unclean, non-kosher pagan
Gentiles.
So he made an excuse, Let me first
go and bury my father. He most likely
appealed to the Jewish burial practice of ossilegium, or secondary burial, which
would remove him from following the Lord for up to eleven months. Jesus saw this as an excuse not to minister
to the Gentiles. As a result He rebuked
him with a statement of irony and challenged the disciple to follow Him. Quite possibly this was Peter because he is
known to have had a problem associating with Gentiles (Acts 10:9-22; Gal.
2:11-12).
The second incident is recorded in
Luke 9:59-60. Another disciple, possibly
one of the 70 (Luke 10:1, 17) was going to Jerusalem for the Feast of Succoth
(Tabernacles) during the fall of AD 29.
He asked to be excused for the same reason. It may be that this disciple was taking
advantage of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to rebury the bones of his
father in the Holy City (cf. Meyers 1971-72: 98, 99; Avigad 1962). If so, Jesus felt it was more pressing for
him to go with the 70 to Perea than to rebury the bones of his father in
Jerusalem.
In each case, the father had died more than a month
prior and the Lord rebuked the disciples with the same stern
statement.
The Reason for Jesus'
Response
Why would Jesus respond in a
seemingly harsh manner? The purpose of
His response may have been twofold. The
first purpose was to encourage the disciples to faithfully follow Him. The second purpose and perhaps more
importantly, was to teach correct theology.
The concept of gathering the bones
of one's ancestors is deeply embedded in the Hebrew Scriptures and reflected in
Israelite burial practices (Gen. 49:29; Judges 2:10; 16:31; I Kings 11:21, 43,
etc.). However, by New Testament times,
the concept had taken on a new meaning.
According to the Rabbinic sources, the decomposition of the flesh atoned
for the sins of the dead person (a kind of purgatory) and the final stage of
this process was gathering the bones and placing them in an ossuary (Meyers
1971: 80-85). Jesus confronts this
contrary theology. Only faith in
Christ's redemptive work on the cross can atone for sin, not rotting flesh or
any other work or merit of our own (Heb. 9:22, 26; Acts 4:12; Eph. 2:8, 9). Jesus may have rebuked these two disciples
rather harshly because they were following the corrupted practice of secondary
burial.
Conclusion
An amplified (interpretive)
rendering of this statement might be: Look, you have already honored your
father by giving him a proper burial in the family sepulcher. Now, instead of waiting for the flesh to
decompose, this can never atone for sin, go and preach the Kingdom of God and
tell of the only true means of atonement, faith alone in Christ. Let the bones of you dead father's ancestors
gather his bones and place them in an ossuary.
You follow me! This interpretation allows for Jesus to have
upheld the fifth commandment, takes the text at face value, and does justice to
the Jewish burial practices of the first century. The interpretation is therefore consistent
theologically, Biblically, and historically, and answers the critics
accurately.
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