Dem bones, dem bones, dem holy relics bones

OK, It is time for Father Orthoduck to answer the questions from the day before yesterday. Tomorrow, he will make a point with the final answer.

What is an ossuary? “An ossuary is a chest, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. . . . A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years the skeletal remains are removed and placed in an ossuary.” It should be mentioned that a temporary grave many times was not a hole in the ground, but could be a mausoleum, or a cave like space blocked by a removable seal over the entrance.

It was the common Jewish practice in Palestine of the first century to use ossuary boxes, not much bigger than a thigh bone in length, to store your bones, after you had suitably decayed. We tend to assume that Joseph of Arimathea intended to seal Jesus’ body in the tomb, in the way in which we would have. But, he was a rich man. It was much more probable that his intention was to let Jesus’ body decay, over a several year period, until it had been reduced to bones, and then gather them into the decorated ossuary box typical of a rich man of that time. His name would have been carved on the side, and the box is what would have been “buried.”

How old is the practice of using an ossuary in Judeo-Christian circles? It is one of the oldest practices found in the Bible. Let Father Orthoduck couple this question with another of the questions he asked. Can you point to a Biblical phrase that assumes the use of an ossuary? The Bible talks about someone being gathered to their fathers, which is considered a positive death. This means that after their body decays, their bones will be placed in the common burial pit with the rest of their family or clan. See the photograph at the right, which comes from the Church of Bones in the Czech Republic. But, this means that the practice of a common burial of the bones of your ancestors (in an ossuary pit or cave) was so taken for granted that it became the phrase used to allude to death. There is an interesting passage in 2 Samuel that speaks of just how important this type of burial was in that culture:

Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds touch them by day or the wild animals by night. When David was told what Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done, he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. (They had stolen their bodies from the public square at Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them after they struck Saul down on Gilboa.) David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from there, and the bones of those who had been killed and exposed were gathered up.

They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish, at Zela in Benjamin, and did everything the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.

Are ossuaries still used? “

The use of ossuaries is a longstanding tradition in the Orthodox Church. The remains of an Orthodox Christian are treated with special reverence, in conformity with the biblical teaching that the body of a believer is a “temple of the Holy Spirit” (I Corinthians 6:19 , etc.), having been sanctified and transfigured by Baptism, Holy Communion and the participation in the mystical life of the Church. In Orthodox monasteries, when one of the brethren dies, his remains are buried for one to three years, and then disinterred, cleaned and gathered into the monastery’s charnel house. If there is reason to believe that the departed is a saint, the remains may be placed in a reliquary; otherwise the bones are usually mingled together (skulls together in one place, long bones in another, etc.). The remains of an abbot may be placed in a separate ossuary made out of wood or metal.

The use of ossuaries is also found among the laity in the Greek Orthodox Church. The departed will be buried for one to three years and then, often on the anniversary of death, the family will gather with the parish priest and celebrate a parastas (memorial service), after which the remains are disinterred, washed with wine, perfumed, and placed in a small ossuary of wood or metal, inscribed with the name of the departed, and placed in a room, often in or near the church, which is dedicated to this purpose.

Finally, the 1,000 point question. Can you point to the Scripture which relates the tale that what was contained in an ossuary brought someone back to life?

Father Orthoduck says, “Tune in tomorrow for the answer to this question!”