Matthew 27:59

ἐντυλίσσειν, an Aristophanic word, meaning, ‘to wrap or envelope closely,’ so to swathe the dead body with bandages. Cp. Acts 5:6, where συστέλλειν is used in a similar sense, and John 11:44, δεδεμένος τοὺς πόδας καὶ τὰς χεῖρας κειρίαις, καὶ ἧ ὄψις αὐτοῦ σουδαρίῳ περιδέδετο.

σινδόνι καθαρᾷ, ‘fine linen.’ σινδών, as Professor Rawlinson shews (Hdt. II. 86, note 6), was in itself a general term, meaning any stuff of a very fine texture; Josephus even speaks of a σινδὼν of goats’ hair (Ant. III. 5. 4). Here, however, σινδὼν is certainly the βυσσίνη σινδών, in strips (τελαμῶσι) of which the mummy was wrapped (Hdt. II. 86); and that the mummy cloths are of linen has been proved by microscopic examination. The derivation of σινδὼν is uncertain, possibly from Ἴνδος, or Egyptian shevit or Hebr. sâdin.