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tomb
(Heb. gadish, "heaped" up, a "tumulus"; Gk. mnemeion, a "remembrance"). A
natural cave enlarged and adapted by excavation, or an artificial imitation of one,
was the standard type of sepulcher.
"The caves, or rock-hewn sepulchers, consisted of an antechamber in which the
bier was deposited, and an inner or rather lower cave in which the bodies were
deposited, in a recumbent position, in niches.
According to the Talmud these abodes of the dead were usually six feet long,
nine feet wide, and ten feet high. Here there were niches for eight bodies--
three on each side of the entrance and two opposite. Larger sepulchers held
thirteen bodies.
The entrance to the sepulcher was guarded by a large stone or by a door (Mt
27:65; Mk 15:46; Jn 11:38-39). This structure of the tombs will explain some of
the particulars connected with the burial of our Lord, how the women coming
early to the grave had been astonished in finding the 'very great stone' 'rolled
away from the door of the sepulcher,' and then, when they entered the outer cave,
were affrighted to see what seemed 'a young man sitting on the right side,
clothed in a long white garment' (Mk 16:4-5)" (Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish
Social Life, p. 171).