Why Did Jesus Fold the Napkin?

[I Ceymore Ratz]

Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection? Have you ever noticed this?

The Gospel of John (20:7) tells us that the napkin, which was placed over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes. The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded, and was placed at the head of that stony coffin.

Early Sunday morning, while it was still Mark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.

She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, 'They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and I don't know where they have put him!'

Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. The other disciple out ran Peter and got there first. He stopped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but he didn't go in.

Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying to the side.

Was that important? Absolutely! Is it really significant? Yes!

In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day.


The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition.

When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished.

Now if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table. The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, “I'm finished.”

But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because the folded napkin meant, "I'm coming back!"  

[Divash]

I'm Jewish, so the relevance or irrelevance to Jesus is immaterial to me, but I do have a fondness for ancient Hebrew customs, and I've never encountered this before. I'd be interested to see your documentation for this custom. "Documentation," that is, meaning "something from that time period which indicates that this is the custom 'now' (2000 years ago)," rather than a document written by a modern pastor who says it.

I'd also be interested to know when you (or whoever) made the leap from "this napkin was used at dinner" to "this napkin, which was used at dinner, also covered the head of the corpse." One of the laws of Jewish burial is that the linens used must be utterly clean; a dirty dinner napkin certainly wouldn't be appropriate.

And finally, I'm curious as to how an unemployed son of a carpenter, who begs for alms rather than making his own living as, say, a carpenter... becomes a master with a servant. As I understand Christian theology and scripture, which I admit is quite little, the elevation to 'master' didn't happen until after the death of the man, while in his life he was quite poor and without social standing.  

[I Ceymore Ratz]

It was sent to me by e-mail, after I read her comment I looked on the net and found where the part about the folded napkin was put there by a Catholic and has no backing. Sorry
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Ha ha, typical Jew. They don't want to accept Jesus was the son of God because they don't want to be known as the ones who killed the son of God

They still belittle Christ and deny he's the son of God. Such arrogance is unbelievable.

To say something so blatantly stupid though amazes me... that "an unemployed son of a carpenter, who begs for alms rather than making his own living"

Where in the Bible does it say Christ begged for alms? That is fiction and innuendo by the Jews who had him murdered so they could continue using their churches and their form of religion to cheat people out of their money.

The closest Christ came to begging was pleading with his father (GOD) for mercy and forgiveness for US. (Man)  

[Pink Fregia]

Jesus never asked or begged man for anything. He went straight to the father to supply his needs. Not that he needed to,since he was God/Man the fathers representative on earth, he did so as an example for us. The father supplies all my needs.  

[bandaidd]

Divash

the elevation to 'master' didn't happen until after the death of the man,

exactly, which is why it would be especially appropriate for the christian theology for one who conquered death to proclaim masterhood by folding the burial napkin prior to leaving the tomb.

I Ceymore Ratz

Ha ha, typical Jew. They don't want to accept Jesus was the son of God because they don't want to be known as the ones who killed the son of God

They still belittle Christ and deny he's the son of God. Such arrogance is unbelievable.

This is too close to religion-bashing for me.

Pink Fregia

Jesus never asked or begged man for anything. He went straight to the father to supply his needs.

Interesting belief. Perhaps you are right. I don't know that this is well documented. But Are you saying the Father changed his swaddling clothes and fed him? During his ministry, how did he earn his living?

/end critical mode.  

[archbaker]

Let's all be fair, here.

I doubt there is any information whatsoever stored about how first-century-bC Jews related to their servants because that is not the kind of information that gets written down in the first place, especially in a pre-industrial society.

But then again, if you are a Christian you do have other canonical sources that state that Jesus will return, so there is no harm in the napkin story. It is just a Readers-Digest style inspirational tale.

But calling Divash ignorant and arrogant for politely suggesting there may be discrepancies in the story is really kind of rude.

As for whether Jesus ever begged, do you need me to quote chapter and verse showing that he and his disciples depended on the kindness of others?

Whether he could have relied on God to provide for him is irrelevant because a) he didn't, b) we are talking about the historical Jesus and you cannot assume his divinity a priori when not everybody in the conversation is a Christian (and even then it is better not to rely on that fact in your arguments) and c) many Christians believe that it is exactly through the kindness of other that God provides for "these, the smallest" as described in the Sermon on the Mount.  

[ThisEmptySoul]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe Jesus said while he was on the cross, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."... which some take to mean man in general, but it could also go for those that had him crucified. If he forgave those that crucified him and asked that God did as well, I see no reason for Christians to hold any sort of grudge. On top of that, Jesus' teachings in general were about kindness and forgiveness, were they not?  

[archbaker]

There are a bunch of good theological reasons for assuming that Jesus did not have to plead with God in any way for humanity to be saved. Like John 3:16.  

[ThisEmptySoul]

Well, my point was that if one wants to claim to be a follower of Christ, to regard others with malice is not in his teachings.  

[archbaker]

That's probably true.

But I'm beginning to suspect this was all a ruse to begin with. A trolling, if you will.  

[VodkaLeona]

I actually liked that story weather it was true or not or had backing. I believe in Jesus as the son of God and resurrected. Belief in something and faith don't require full and complete facts. That's why it is called Faith and not Fact. Also, the story of Jesus and the story of the master/ servent were two different stories. The latter is just used to explain that Jesus folded his napkin because he was coming back. The first person to post after you told the tale seems to be a little confused about the separation of the two tales.  

[VodkaLeona]

Oh I accidentally erased a bit of my post anyway. I'm not meaning to also bash the Jewish faith in what I said. I also don't see any reason in turning around and beginning to start fights with people posting after this story. I was feeling good after reading the opening post and now I feel the tension and feelings of hate in this thread. Please don't attack each other. Jesus for one was tolerant of others that did not understand him, and there are Jews that believe Jesus was the son of god also, and some that don't. And we don't need to be stereotypical in calling Jewish people money horders etc, or name calling the whole way through. That means both sides, and various religions and views.  

[Damonette]

I only hope 2000 years from now people will find one of our graves inspired by our current lifestyle and ask the same questions. I would love to find out how they try to explain the gravestones shaped like laptops with" brb" encrypted on them for etermity. No matter what ways you keep recordings of hystorical events, what facts are kept in our documents, someone always wakes up and asks things that are irrelevant smile ))  

[Lord Redtail Rathan]

I Ceymore Ratz

It was sent to me by e-mail, after I read her comment I looked on the net and found where the part about the folded napkin was put there by a Catholic and has no backing. Sorry
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Ha ha, typical Jew. They don't want to accept Jesus was the son of God because they don't want to be known as the ones who killed the son of God

They still belittle Christ and deny he's the son of God. Such arrogance is unbelievable.

To say something so blatantly stupid though amazes me... that "an unemployed son of a carpenter, who begs for alms rather than making his own living"

Where in the Bible does it say Christ begged for alms? That is fiction and innuendo by the Jews who had him murdered so they could continue using their churches and their form of religion to cheat people out of their money.

The closest Christ came to begging was pleading with his father (GOD) for mercy and forgiveness for US. (Man)

You sir, give us Christians a bad name. Get off my internet and go sit in a corner.