Bible Question: My wife and I were discussing this verse and she stated that she couldn't understand why Jesus said let the dead bury the dead.I tried to explain but couldn't to her satisfaction :) could you help me please...the fact that it would be respectfull to bury your father has her feeling as though it would be disrespectfull not to bury your father. |
Bible Answer: Shalom Christian7; This passage really bothered me for a long time until I found the cultural significance of it. We must always remember that they lived in a different time and in a different culture and they knew things that we do not. Traditional burials were different than our own. When someone died, they were taken into the crypt and layed on a shelf. This was the first burial. The second burial is a practice adopted from the pagans. It was believed that the god "Mot" (a Canaanite god, which is a Hebrew and Canaanite word meaning "death") ate the flesh off the body leaving the bones. On the one year aniversary of the death of the deceased, in a type of pagan ceremony, the bones were gathered together and placed in the osturary, this is the second burial. Yeshua (Jesus) is most likely talking about the second burial and saying that it would be better to follow him than to take part in this pagan ceremony. I hope this helps. Shalom Simchat Torah |