John 19:40

As the manner of the Jews is to bury.

The Jews did not embalm as did the Egyptians, though in the case of King Asa there seems to be. hint of it, but it was the custom to wash the body, anoint it, and then wrap it in fine linen with spices and ointments enveloped in the folds. It is probable that the approach of the Sabbath hurried the preparation of the body, and it seems from the return of the women after the Sabbath that they did not consider the burial rites fully completed. Comparing the four accounts we learn that the body was wrapped in fine linen clothes with spices, and laid in. new rock-hewn sepulcher in. garden near the place of crucifixion, and that the sepulcher had never before been used. It was common in Palestine to cut vaults for the burial of the dead in the sides of the rocky cliffs and to close them with stones. It is probable that Joseph had built this for the sepulcher for himself and family. Thus is fulfilled the prediction of Isaiah (chap. 53), that though Christ was "numbered with the transgressors," "he was with the rich in his death."