Assuming, as our context, that Jesus existed, and that no intentional deception is in the gospels-
Jesus was crucified and the Roman soldiers divided up His clothes. He dies, is wrapped in burial linens, and is put in the tomb. Sunday morning the Marys find the stone rolled away, and somebody sitting above the tomb says, “He’s risen!” And the burial linens are on the floor of the tomb.
So…
Did Joseph of Arimathea dress Him for burial? Was it customary then to only be buried in burial linens, and otherwise be naked? Or was He miraculously given supernatural clothes? Or did He walk off au naturale?
But seriously (and I do take this seriously-- I hope we don’t get the usual “Maybe he was wearing a tooth fairy outfit because he was just a figment of your imagination! Ha, got ya there, churchboy!”):
I’d have to check, but I know the gospels have different takes-- one (Matthew?) focuses on Jesus making breakfast (and not being recognized til then), one has him mistaken for the gardener, another mentions he was in bright white.
I’ve never been clear on whether it’s a Gandalf (the “FORMERLY GREY BUT NOW LESS SO”) sort of transformation, or just a a case of “Well, we weren’t expecting to ever see him, so it didn’t register at first”.
I know some denominations make a big deal out of him having a whole new body (in which case, a whole new outfit probably comes with), and being able to walk through walls. --yes, I was in a little fundie church that preached that we’d all have new bodies someday, just because in the Bible, Jesus is suddenly there among the disciples when they’re hiding in a room. But I think it’s more likely they were depressed and just weren’t paying attention to anything when he slipped in.
That is one version. Other Gospels have other versions in which it was only Mary Magdelene or up to 5 other women. In some accounts they find the stone has not been rolled away or in which the angel is standing in the tomb. Sometimes it is one angel, sometimes several and sometimes it’s not an angel at all. The Gospels are every bit as contradictory in their accounts of the death and resurrection as they are on the birth
No. That is the one point that is fairly clear. Jesus died late on the Friday before the Sabbath, and it was forbidden to handle bodies on the Sabbath. So the corpse was laid out on the slab, presumably in the loin cloth he was wearing when crucified. The women returned the following Sunday to embalm the body and warp it in the shroud that Joseph purchased. The shroud cloth would likely have been laid over the body like a mortuary sheet, but`there was not enough time to prepare the body for burial so the cloth would not have been wrapped around him. The one point of conflict is that one of the Gospels said the body had already been embalmed when the women arrived, though when and by whom is not made clear. It’s kind of hard to see who could have embalmed the body in the hour or so between Jesus being taken off the cross and the Sabbath sunset, and if it had been embalmed what exactly were the women doing at the tomb?
Yes.
When he was finally seen again he was not recognised by his closest friends, so he apparently had a new face. Since he had a new face I think we can assume he had new clothes.
I guess I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this as a non-supernatural event, but in the context of the gospels recording, best they can, what happened (but not with the bible as the inerrant word of God).
It seems like there would be two very obvious explanations-
Somebody stole the body Saturday night. The cemetery guards were asleep (fits with the end of Matthew where the guards are told to spread that story).
Jesus never really died - 3 hours was a quick crucifixion death, and Pilate, not being so gung ho on having him killed, didn’t look into it when his soldiers said, “yeah, he’s dead already, and buried.” He would have been close to death, and maybe even everybody thought in earnest He was, but they were wrong.
If (1) is the case, though, the linens being laid aside seem like an odd detail. Certainly people stealing dead bodies aren’t squeamish, but wouldn’t you keep him wrapped up anyway? Wouldn’t walking around with a naked dead guy be more suspicious than carrying a big load in a sheet?
OTOH, maybe the people stealing his body brought clothes for a “Weekend at Bernie’s” type removal of the body (if anyone sees us, we’ll say he passed out drunk!")
So that’s why this question occurred to me. And even taking the later sightings (noticeably absent from Mark) as writing-in-good-faith testimony, it stresses He was corporeal - He eats fish! He lets you touch His wounds! So, again, the clothing question seemed relevant.
Well, if you believe in the big miracle of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, then the lesser miracle of a set of clothes coming along with the new body should not be hard to accept.
Where do you get the linens being on the floor of the tomb - the only mention would seem to be Mark 16:5, of a “young man in a long white robe” (leukos stole) who tells them he isn’t there.
Every gospel reports Joseph as wrapping him in a linen cloth (sindon). John describes Nicodemus and Joseph wrapping him in the cloth with embalming spices (“myrrh and aloes”).
There is an interesting thing about that cloth. The other use of sindon in the gospels is the curious mention of the young man in Mark 14:51-52. He is described as wearing nothing but such a cloth. This is at Jesus’s arrest, and it is said that when they tried to seize the young man, they got only the garment and he ran away stark naked.
Speculation as to who this is abounds. Some say it is the traditionally accepted author of the gospel (John Mark). Or an unknown disciple. Others think it could be Lazarus (based on the passages from the Secret Gospel of Mark). Nevertheless, there is some precedent for people wandering around with just a cloth on - but it’s unusual enough that mention is made of such a thing.
So it would seem that either Jesus was wearing normal clothes, or exited the tomb with just the linen and got clothes later. If he had been naked, it almost certainly would have been commented on - such a thing was fairly shameful for the Jews. Even if Jesus had, by appearing naked and transformed, transcended the shame of nakedness, I think someone might have mentioned it. The chronology of what happend on the day is too muddled to really know when any of the recordings of people meeting him occurred, but probably they all saw him clothed as anyone.
As noted, one of the Gospels reports that Jesus was initially mistaken for the gardener. If I had to craft a theologically acceptable explanation, my thinking would be that the Holy Spirit had moved the gardener to leave behind a set of his clothes before leaving for the Sabbath. I’m just guessing, though.
My priest has wondered this aloud while preaching about the resurrection. The Gospels are pretty clear that the burial cloths were laid aside; and then he is seen by Mary Magdalene who mistakes him for the gardner. Assuming the gardner was not usually naked, it does raise the question of where his cothes came from.
Digs mentions in post 2 that “I know some denominations make a big deal out of him having a whole new body.” That’s not accurate, though, Christianity is pretty clear that it was the same body, but raised. He had some apparently supernatural powers (walking through walls, etc) but He was not a spirit or spiritual body.
I thought the old was transformed into the new. He didn’t seem to be immediately recognizable - He was mistaken for the gardener, the disciples He ran into on the road to Emmaus thought He was someone else until He blessed the bread. The disciples were scared at His first appearance to them - He had to say “Don’t be afraid - it’s me.”
Since the gospels are silent on the matter of how Jesus may have acquired his Easter outfit, other than that he had discarded his burial linens, answers must be speculative. Moving from GQ to GD.
