embalm Summary and Overview

EMBALM' . Gen 50:2. The practice of embalming prevailed at a very early period. The Hebrews learned it from the Egyptians, by whom it was understood very perfectly, for embalming entered into their religious life, inasmuch as they maintained it preserved the body for the dwelling-place of the soul after it had completed its various transmigrations. The embalmers or physicians were regarded as sacred officers. "The process of embalming was carried on in various ways. In the most expensive method the brain and viscera were removed, their place being filled with bitumen and aromatic substances; the body was washed in oil or the tar Bandaging Mummies and making the Cases. (After Wilkinson.) Fig. 1, sawing wood; a, timber fastened to a stand. 2. cutting the leg of a chair, on a stand, h, indicating the trade of a carpenter. 3, a man fallen asleep, c, c, wood ready for cutting, d, onions and other provisions, which occur again at g, with vases, f.f. 4, 5, and 7, binding mummies. 6, brings the bandages. 9, using the drill. 8, 10, and 11, painting and polishing the cases, e, h, i, mummy-cases. of cedar, bound up in linen smeared with spices, asphalt, and various gums; and the whole was placed in a solution of natron (saltpetre) for 70 days. The cheap method dispensed with the evisceration, but all methods contained the steeping in natron. It appears also that salt was freely used; and some authors believe that heat was employed."-Johnson's Encyclopaedia. After this process the body was swathed in linen bandages, with a profusion of aromatics. The price of embalming a single body was sometimes upward of $1500, and from that down to $200 or $300. The process lasted in earlier times 40, Gen 50:3, but in later times 70, days, and afterward the body was placed in a coffin of sycamore-wood or of stone, and then placed upright against the walls of the house, where it often remained for years, if the family did not wish to go to the expense of burial. Finally, the bodies were placed in subterraneous vaults in the ground or in the rock, where they were often found, after the lapse of 2000 or 3000 years, in a state of perfect preservation. Different Forms of Mummy-Cases.(After Wilkinson.) 1, 2, 4, 9. Of wood. 3, 5, 6, 7, 8. Of stone. 10. Of burnt earthenware. We have no evidence that embalming was practised by the Hebrews, except in the cases of Jacob and Joseph, and then it was for the purpose of preserving their remains till they could be carried into the Land of Promise, It is true Asa was laid in a "bed which was filled with Stone Mummy-Case. (After Wilkinson.) sweet odors and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries' art," 2 Chr 16:14, and that mention is made of spices in the preparation for our Lord's formal burial, John 19:39-40, but we cannot interpret these sentences as indicating any proper species of embalming. See Bury.

"Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father (Jacob). And 40 days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days." Joseph himself also at death was embalmed, "and was put in a coffin in Egypt" (Genesis 50:2-3; Genesis 50:25-26). The rest of Jacob's twelve sons were probably also embalmed, for their bodies "were carried over into Sychem and laid in the sepulchre" there (Acts 7:16). Herodotus (3:1,129) records that "every distinct distemper in Egypt had its own physician who confined himself to the study of it alone, so that all Egypt was crowded with physicians." This accounts for Joseph having in his retinue a number of physicians. Embalmers were usually a distinct class; but Jacob not being an Egyptian, his body was not embalmed by the ordinary embalmers. Diodorus long subsequently mentions 30 days as the time of embalming, and the mourning for a king 72 days. This nearly agrees with the 40 and 70 of Genesis; but of course the processes would vary between the early age of Genesis and the later ages of Herodotus and Diodorus. Herodotus mentions the custom of "covering the body in natron (salt) 70 days." The dearest process (that used in Jacob's and Joseph's case) cost a silver talent (250 British pounds). The brain and the intestines, with a probe and a sharp Etiopian black flint or agate to make an incision in the side, were extracted, and spices, myrrh, and cassia introduced; the body, washed and wrapped in fine linen was plastered in side with gum, was then laid in a mummy case shaped as a man, generally of sycamore, as is that of king Mycerinus found in the third pyramid of Memphis. A second process with oil of cedar, costing 60 pounds, and a third cheaper process with syrmoea, were used for the less wealthy. The dearest process was said by the Egyptian priests to belong to Osiris, the judge of the dead, who however was not to be named. The mummy was placed erect against the sepulchral wall. Chemical analysis has detected three modes. 1. With asphaltum, funeral gum. 2. With asphaltum and liquor from cedar. 3. With this mixture and resinous aromatics. Asa was "laid in the bed filled with sweet odorous and divers spices prepared by the apothecaries' art" (2 Chronicles 16:14). The Lord's body was by Nicodemus wrapped in "a mixture of myrrh and aloes an hundred pounds weight, ... as the manner of the Jews is to bury" (John 19:39-40). But this is quite distinct from embalming. The Egyptian belief in the transmigration of souls tended to perpetuate the practice, the body being embalmed so as to be ready to receive the soul again when the appointed cycle of thousands of years should elapse. Their burying in the sand impregnated with salts and natron, which preserved the body, first suggested the process. Drugs and bitumen were not generally used before the 18th dynasty.