The precise meanings of
othonia and
sindon in their gospel context have been hotly debated. Some have contended that
othonia (which is a plural form) means ‘linen bands’ or ‘linen strips’ and that Joseph must have torn up the sindon into strips to wind Jesus mummy-style.
Quite neutral exegetes such as archaeologist
Fr. Pierre Benoit, O.P. (1906-1987) have pointed out that it would surely have been easier for Joseph to purchase ready-made bandages rather than tearing up a large sheet for this purpose, especially because of time constraints. Besides, mummy burial was an Egyptian, not a Jewish, custom, and we have no evidence for this ancient Egyptian custom among 1st-century Jews living in Roman Palestine.
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1980/givathamivtarhz1.png
Corpse
in situ (from Givat ha-Mivtar, Jerusalem) wrapped in woolen shroud
Moreover, if we look at mummies dating from the Hellenistic and Roman periods, the Egyptians themselves seem to have abandoned the custom of wrapping a body in strips of cloth. Instead, extraordinary lengths of coarse linen were wrapped around a small coffin encasing the body in an intricate rhomboid pattern.
www.omacl.co.uk
As pointed out, according to the Synoptics (Matthew 27:59 ff.) Joseph wrapped the body of Jesus in a
sindon, while John 19:40 says it was bound with
othonia, and there is a later mention of a
soudarion (from Latin
sudarium, ‘sweat-rag’) placed over the head (20:7). As for Lazarus, his feet and hands were bound with
keiriai, and his face was covered with a
soudarion (John 11:43). The question naturally arises: is the
sindon of the Synoptics the same as the
othonia of John, and are both these the same as the
keiriai of Lazarus?
To this
Fr. Alberto Vaccari, S.J. (1875-1965) of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome gave his answer thus. In the early fourth century, a lawyer and public figure from the Nile valley city of Hermopolis named Theophanes
made a six-month journey from upper Egypt to Antioch of Syria. The day to day details of his journey are preserved on papyrus documents and offer a remarkable record, covering everything from distances traveled to daily food purchases, from medicinal supplies to fees paid for services. In a large papyrus containing 349 lines he has kept an account of the places where he stopped, the distances travelled, the expenses, and the garments which apparently he carried on his journey.
Under
othonia are listed seventeen species of linen garments. Among them are four
sindonia and one
phakarion, a synonym for
soudarion. On the other hand,
fasciai, a synonym for
keiriai, are placed under another heading,
sc.,
stromata. Therefore
othonia is a generic term and can mean or include a
sindon. Vaccari thus concludes that
keiriai and
othonia are different terms.
But what of the
soudarion? Some have thought of this as simply a sort of headcloth or chin band tied around the face of the deceased, which is apparently what the
soudarion mentioned in the story of Lazarus was. Others have argued that it may have been our Shroud, on the grounds that the description of it as having been “
over his head” (Jn. 20:7). In support of this argument we may note that in the Lazarus account John uses the word
peri (“round” or “about”), in contrast to the
epi (“over”) used in the case of Jesus, leaving open the possibility that a different arrangement (and different size of cloth) is being described. St. John makes special mention of Jesus’
soudarion being “not with the
othonia but rolled up in a place by itself,” which certainly might suggest a cloth larger and more important than a mere chin-band; but as many maintain that a
soudarion could not be anything larger than a handkerchief-sized piece of cloth, it seems unwise to be dogmatic.
Still others point to another relic as being the
soudarion of John: the
Sudarium of Oviedo, a bloodstained cloth, measuring c. 84 x 53 cm, kept in the
Cámara Santa of the Cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo, Spain. It has a more firm, documented history than the Shroud: the small chapel housing it was built specifically for the cloth by King Alfonso II of Asturias (759/60-842) in the year 840 - who, for the record, moved the capital of Asturias from Pravia, where Silo had located it, to Oviedo, the city of his father’s founding and his birth!
http://www.skepticalspectacle.com/images/sudariumrev.jpg
