How sad that someone would actually make up this bunk. That really doesn't sit well. And the way it's written, it seems like the author is completely sincere. It does make you wonder if there is some unscrupulous tour guide out there.

Gingie | April 13, 2009 4:02 AM

Not just unscrupulous tourist guides. There are plenty of preachers on our own airwaves who use bits and pieces of questionable "Jewish Roots" info to wow their audiences into giving "offerings". One particularly odious example urges people to give a "Passover offering" to receive the "7 blessings of the Passover". Sad thing is, these preachers use bits and pieces of Torah as fund raising gimicks. They might even host a "seder" though they just can't bring themselves to host it on the actual night they are supposed to. It usually comes off as "Passover Sunday" or some such nonsense. I cringe every time I see one of these guys when I imagine a non-Messianic Jew stumbling across one of these programs.

MJ

MJ Belko | April 13, 2009 7:53 AM

This is one of those urban legends that are hard to combat since it is so "beautiful" in people's eyes. Some of the questions I have asked people are: Why would Yeshua return to the grave? Wouldn't it have been more appropriate at the Last Supper? Why do we need a "napkin" when we have his WORD that he will return? Did they really use napkins in the 1st Century the same way we do today?

I think it is important to address issues like this. It reminds us of the need for good teaching. Thanks, Daniel.

Bill Beyer | April 13, 2009 8:47 AM

Thanks for writing this blog Daniel! So many of us who are only recently coming into the fullness of a new found love for Torah and the Jewish Roots of our Faith come from backgrounds where we're often taught these kinds of so-called "Hebrew Tradition". So often the source is quoted as "I was once told by so-n-so preacher - as if that's sufficient. Unfortunately we are so often very trusting that the preacher must be right - after all he's my Pastor. I am sure most of the time it's passed along innocently enough. It's good to know that those associated with FFOZ are so learned and that I can trust the research that is done. Thanks again for opening my eyes.

David V | April 13, 2009 11:29 AM

Not only do we need good teaching...but good teaching with research and sources to back it up. I've noticed this problem even in the Messianic Movement itself.

Jonathan Lane | April 13, 2009 11:31 AM

Shalom, This fable has come across my desk a number of times! The first time it appeared I checked all of my Jewish reference books and Googled it and not a thing appeared. The strange thing is, that some of the folks that asked me if this tale was for real, got extremely upset when I told them no. They implied that I didn't love the Lord or were wanting His return?!?!? Huh? Like Brother Bill Beyer wrote above, it's a beautiful urban legend that just won't quit, just like that bunny for the battery ad! It keeps going and going..... Thank you Brother Daniel for bringing this forth!

James Bauers | April 13, 2009 1:47 PM

Thanks Daniel! I thought of this story in passing while studying the resurrection in John, but had never taken the time to check and see if it was so. I had never heard the application of the master returning to eat, only the carpenter's cloth. Kinda sounds like bells on the high priest's garment as he ministers on Yom Kippur......Not!

Jim Denman | April 13, 2009 5:32 PM

I'm new in the Messanic way (9 months only) I swallowed it hook, line and sinker when I read it and the sad part is I liked it so much I forwarded to everyone AND told people at work.

Can't believe everything you read on the internet!

Bonnie Marcenkowski | April 14, 2009 9:02 AM

Daniel,
I have always been impressed with your perspective and insight in reading your articles and particularly your sections of the Torah Club, Volumes One and Two. However, I have a slight difference of opinion regarding this post. Yes, I agree with you that the supposed custom of the dinner napkin is quite suspect, but, I, too, read the test to say ἐντυλίσσω - a verb meaning rolled up or even twisted up. The Text seems to indicate that this was a specific intentional act and the tense is perfect passive participle - a specific act done to the head cloth. Perhaps our Lord did not want us to see the outline of His face until we see Him face to face as would be the case of a chrysalis. Perhaps He did not want us to "idolize" this "Holy Schroud". Perhaps the body portion was still intact, as a chrysalis, but the head wrap was not. Or perhaps, you are correct.

Dr. Rick Peace | April 14, 2009 9:03 AM

Or maybe there was a custom (much as today) that a tallit (probably not as those today) was placed around the head at burial? A tallit probably would have been folded and not allowed to lay in a heap like the linen strips did. Who cared about the linen strips. It says when John finally entered the tomb he saw and believed. If someone had stolen the body they would not have folded this cloth (if it was a tallit, or garment which had the tzit zit). Yeshua knew that these men would wee the linen strips (possibly thinking that the body had been stolen) but when they saw the folded cloth they knew that Yeshua had arisen.

DTL REPLY: My understanding is that the ritual "tallit" did not exist. As I read the literature, "tallit" is simply the common word for "cloak."

Buzz Johnson | April 14, 2009 10:10 AM

I have heard a slightly different version of the head cloth explanation - that Jewish carpenters after dusting off their completed work/product would fold the cloth, signifying the job was finished. I was thrilled with this explanation....having learned of it from a friend who heard it from her pastor.....passed along innocently enough, I'm sure.

Sharon | April 14, 2009 10:23 AM

I like the attitude in Dr. Rick Peace's comment. I wonder what the Aramaic Peshitta says. It is sad that these things get going around like this, making a mockery of Messianics. From a similar thing in the realm of science vs Bible, I have learned to take these things with a grain of salt until further study/research confirms or denies. Thanks Daniel! Grace and Shalom, and Chag Sameach, what's left of it, and Happy Omer counting!

Kenny Cartwright | April 14, 2009 10:46 AM

I have to laugh at this. My mother sent me this email the other week. The following is my response to her and other members of my family on the distro list. The email also included references to early Sunday morning.
"You are kidding me right?
First....in none of the many translations I have does it say napkin....it is a cloth....
and second....the correct wording of the day of the week and time of day....is...
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark. Dont forget the 1st day of the week begins at sundown on the Sabbath. So using the Gregorian Calendar names....that would probably mean anytime Saturday night. Dont forget that they were very much wanting to get there and finish annointing his body since they had to rush to get it done what they could since passover was beginning and then the weekly sabbath was being...so they haven't seen his body since Wed before sundown.
Just had to add my 2 sheckles worth."
No one responded back.

CAROLINE IN VA | April 14, 2009 3:22 PM

Wow, .....sadly I heard this used at church just last Sunday.

bret | April 14, 2009 3:43 PM

John 20 is a particularly fascinating chapter, I read some profound exposition of Torah embedded within it’s verses. I am always puzzled by commentaries that state that the face cloth was folded just to prove that Yeshua’s body had not been stolen. I do not claim to understand Greek so I stand to be corrected, but from the English translation there is nothing to say how the linen wrappings were left in the tomb, it simply states they were “lying there.” (NASB) The NASB describes the face-cloth as being “rolled up in a place by itself.” Surely what happened in the tomb was a fulfillment of the role of High Priest described in Leviticus 16; the tomb being the holy place, the linen wrappings and face-cloth being the “holy garments” which the high priest removed before leaving the holy place, after making atonement. As holy garments they would doubtless not be tossed aside but treated with dignity. These verses in John 20 are surely necessary evidence of the completed work of Yeshua ?

Peter in UK | April 16, 2009 7:23 PM

Shalom Daniel,

I would like to add that the head cloth is still a tradition we use after performing tarahra (ritual cleansing) of the met (the deceased). Today, it is a talit that is used for covering the face and head of the dead. If it were a talit covering Yeshua's head, it would not be a holy garment after being used for the deceased due to the custom of removing a tzitz from it, but it would treated with much respect due to its prior use. I don't know the halacha of what to do with the tachrichim (burial clothes) of a resurrected person, but I would guess that the clothing would be treated as an object of holiness due to its purpose, especially if it was a talit or something of the sort. That being said, the cover would have been folded out of respect of its use to cover the face of a the dead. I would see that as a reason much more than a made up custom of "coming back".

Shabbat Shalom

Roger | April 17, 2009 5:38 PM

Sadly a similar story has done the rounds here in NZ (for at least 5ys+!), but with a twist. The version I've heard proposes that the 'napkin' was left folded as this was a way to say that the treatment that Yeshua recieved here on earth was less than satisfactory - in the same way as not leaving a tip after having a restaurant meal! If it had been left scrunched up it would have been an indication of the Masters approval of his reception on earth. Every continent probably has its own version of this urban myth - people seem obsessed with this red herring. The napkin will probably turn up on ebay (it may be already there!)

Rebecca Marchand | April 18, 2009 6:36 AM

I was always taught in my Lutheran background that the folded cloth indicated he was not stolen, he was in no hurry.

Carrie M | April 19, 2009 11:47 AM

Shalom, Daniel.

You are absolutely right for debunking the folded napkin story, however . . .

Please, please take this in a spirit of love. It pains me to have to correct you, but Yeshua's body had not been completely prepared. It had been simply placed in a folded over linen and quickly placed in the rich man's tomb because there was not enough time before sunset on that High Sabbath. Remember the women were on their way to the tomb after Shabbat with the preparatory stuff. And yes, based on the scientific, thorough study, I believe the Shroud of Turin is that cloth.

Moshe ben David | April 19, 2009 4:05 PM

Interesting....... I have never heard this story in my life. Thanks for the post!

Michael M | April 19, 2009 4:43 PM

The Shroud of Turin is a completely different kettle of fish. Personally, I don't buy it because it would violate the commandment against making an image. Also, the person on the shroud has coins placed over his eyes that were put there (by pagans, at least) to pay the deceased one's way across the river Styx. Even if one rejects the findings of those who say the image is man made, just because something is supernatural does not mean it is from G-d. I have often wondered if the anti-Christ, when he arrives, will bear a resemblance to the man on the shroud.

As for the folded napkin, I think it simpy signifies that this was not the hasty theft of a body, nor did the body just go "puff". There was an intelligence behind it. Someone alive had to be there to fold it up. It's the sort of out-of-place detail that would immediately strike anyone looking into the tomb.

MJ

MJ Belko | April 20, 2009 8:44 AM

I wonder if the writer's intent in mentioning the "head cloth" left in the tomb was to show why Peter and John were so quick to believe...if the body had been moved by the Pharisees or Roman authority (as logic and rationale would suggest), they surely wouldn't have taken the time to unwrap it, and they wouldn't have left anything behind to hint at a resurrection...? I mean from Peter's perspective wouldn't the first thing that would have come to mind been "they've taken his body somewhere else"?

Kevin Atwell | April 20, 2009 11:13 AM

Thank you so much for speaking the truth on this issue. Your explanation makes much more sense, I hope that ADONAI contnues to aid us in the true and beautiful restoration of our wonderful faith.

Ronald | April 20, 2009 1:42 PM

LOL! This is so funny! When i got that in my email, i got it from a well meaning friend. I thought it was sort of hokey, but I thought, "well, so long as a major doctrine doesn't emerge from it."
Thanks for informing us!

Ginny @ | April 22, 2009 12:37 AM

I think it may have surfaced in a booklet by Barbara Richmond called "Jewish Insights into the New Testament" based on her supposed conversation with an orthodox rabbi in 1995 who was a secret believing Jew. I showed this booklet to a synoptic gospel scholar and Israeli resident who was not convinced! The booklet is not so much 'insights" as recycled hype.

The benefit of these 'myths' is that they provide another opportunity for people to wake up to the need to be like the Bereans and "check it out".

Well done FFOZ for helping that to happen.

Margie UK

Margaret Bosanquet | April 30, 2009 8:44 AM

Whoa! I was looking very meditatively at the decorative edge of this napkin and suddenly I saw the outline of Virgin Mary! It's the same outline of her that I saw in a tortilla as I was warming them up yesterday afternoon. I've contacted all the major media networks to come and see what I've witnessed!

Naomi | May 11, 2009 9:03 AM

Chag Semeach (Shavuot)

Whoa people..The folding of the Shroud or Napkin or however you describe the "Linen" is certainly a "Sign" and and taught to do in Torah each Peseach...Our Messiah folded the Linen so as to fulfill the Akikomen Prophsey and certainly He is our Master as well. Regardless of it represents Master/Slave does not matter for our Torah Instruction certainly tells us the relationship is necessary and good. This Not Bolderdash but has Truth

So lets understand that yes we may get things rather skewed but there reason for the msg when tries to use his words instead of the LIVING WORD of Torah. Also the Master/Slave relationship is very much Instructed in the Instruction and keep in mind it is commanded that the Master treats the Slave as any child in the Master's house. So typical think of the word slave is not what is intended. The loss of this is indicated by how we have so many homeless in the "Fallen" world not to mention people in temporary adversity.

In Y'shu

DTL REPLIES: I'm sorry. I didn't understand anything you wrote there.

Yahconan | May 31, 2009 1:21 PM

I was somewhat confused at the statements that the "folded napkin" has been equated to Jesus returning again. Yes Jesus is going to return as some know to retrieve his bride, His Church! I understood as told by a Rabbi many years ago, in studying this, that a folded napkin indicated that the hospitality (food) wasn't good indicating they wouldn’t return. So when a napkin was wadded, that the food and hospitality was good and the individual would return. How does this fit my point, Hebrew 9:16 states, "For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator." And Hebrews 9:17 states, "For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth." The testament that Jesus has left behind with the folded napkin, at he tomb is this, that He was not returning to the grave (Hades=Greek, Sheols=Hebrew) see I Cor.15:50-58, Heb.2:14, Rev. 1:18 which kills the Mormon book. NO MORE GRAVE-HE DIED ONLY ONCE!

DTL REPLIES: Perhaps you are confused about the point of the original blog post. The "rabbi" who told you this was wrong. There is no such tradition in Jewish practice or antiquity. A folded or wadded napkin does not indicate anything of the sort. The burial head cloth was not a napkin. I hope you find this helpful.

Michael "The Saint" Mosely. | July 7, 2009 11:38 AM

Thank you for your help with this. The dinner napkin myth is a pure e-rumour. However, the Carpenter's cloth comes from a book of the same by Sigmund Brouwer and was even posted in Christianity Today's online Easter devotionals. Just FYI. Thanks again.

Tobey Montgomery | March 30, 2010 12:54 PM