John 19:40 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Then To prepare for his interment; they took the body of Jesus Without regarding the reproach to which it might expose them; and wound it in linen clothes Wrapped it in a great many folds of linen; with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury Or rather, to embalm, for the proper meaning of the verb ενταφιαζειν, here used, is not to bury, but to embalm, as Dr. Campbell proves in a note on the words; showing that the verb ενταφιαζειν, and the noun ενταφιασμος, are used in the New Testament only in relation to the embalming of the body of our Lord; the word used for to bury, being invariably θαπτειν, which accords perfectly with the use made of the same words by the LXX. See Genesis 50:2; Genesis 50:5, where the import of both words, and the distinction between them, is exemplified. It seems Joseph and Nicodemus intended to embalm our Lord's body in a more exact manner as soon as the sabbath was over; hoping that, in the mean time, the spices lying near the body might preserve it from all taint of corruption. “Those who have written upon the manners and customs of the Jews tell us, that they sometimes embalmed their dead with an aromatic mixture of myrrh, aloes, and other gums or spices, which they rubbed on the body, more or less profusely, according to their circumstances and their regard for the dead. After anointing the body, they covered it with a shroud, or winding-sheet, then wrapped a napkin round its head and face, others say, round the forehead only; because the Egyptian mummies are observed to have it so; last of all, they swathed the shroud round the body as tightly as possible, with proper bandages made of linen. At other times, they covered the whole body in a heap of spices, as is said of Asa, 2 Chronicles 16:14. From the quantity of myrrh and aloes made use of by Joseph and Nicodemus, it would appear that the office performed by them to their Master was of this latter kind; for they had not time to embalm him properly.” They seem, however, to have done all that was usual in such circumstances to persons of wealth and distinction, which, as well as the sepulchre itself, agreed to Isaiah's prophecy, Isaiah 53:9.