Ossuaries in Denver

   As I stood Monday looking intently at a parchment or possibly papyrus fragment containing writing from the book of Isaiah, which is part of the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition in Denver, a young lady around twelve years old made a keen observation to me: “The writing is so small.”
   I had just met the intelligent young lady a few minutes earlier since we were next to each other in the line circling the structure where ten Dead Sea Scrolls fragments can be viewed from only a few inches away.  Her astute observation caused us to discuss a possible reason why they wrote in such small letters.  We considered that since writing material was so rare there in Judea thousands of years ago that tiny writing may have been a way of conserving parchment or papyri.  (According to the exhibition guide: "Most are on parchment, with some on papyrus.")  We both liked this hypothesis.  I was impressed with the interest and thought given by the girl.
   This all took place at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science here in Colorado, where there is the visiting display of the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition, an extraordinary museum exhibit.  Though I think a few facts presented were wrong, overall the exhibit is extremely professional, it contains artifacts which have never been seen before, and it contains other artifacts which I have never viewed in my life, several of which I was honored to see.  The total is over 600.
   To see fragments over 2,000 years old with the writings of Old Testament Scripture from the books of Isaiah and Palms is something I will always cherish.  Yet there was a surprise highlight for me.  Among the many ancient artifacts included, they have about six ossuaries from two thousand years ago!  Incredible.
   Ossuaries, which have the slang term “bone boxes,” are containers in which Jewish people put the bones of people who were deceased, the final stage of a process called “secondary burial.”  First learning of this subject from an article by Steven Fine from the September/October 2001 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, I learned the practice took place in Judea from around 20 B.C. to 70 A.D.
   The body of a deceased person was placed in a cave or a tomb cut into a limestone cliff, and stones were put in front of the openings so wild animals would not get in.  Bodies in those tombs would decompose.  Around a year later someone would return to get the bones.  Many bones were piled up with a bunch of other bones in a cavern or tomb.  But for wealthy families, the bones were put in an ossuary.  An ossuary was made out of limestone, and sometimes that limestone box was plain, sometimes it had a design on it, and sometimes it had a name carved into it.  Then the ossuaries were often put in a cavern or a hole.  Over one thousand ossuaries have been discovered.
   In a sermon I gave years ago, I proposed secondary burial resulted from the view by Jewish people that bones were crucial for resurrection based on the vision of resurrected bones in Ezekiel 37.  This vision is a metaphor from God that the people of Israel would be “resurrected” from their doom of being conquered by Babylon.  Yet I think people started advocating bones were key in resurrection, thus the practice of secondary burial developed.
   I have wanted to see an ossuary in person for seventeen years!  In the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit, in the same room as the ten fragments, the ossuaries are quite hidden from view from most places in the large room unless you are near the spot, with the exception of one petite ossuary which is in clear view.  Thrilled even to see that, I still did not know of the treasure sitting to my right.  Upon finally seeing the collection of ossuaries, I was in awe.  I wanted to tell everyone in the room ossuaries were there.  I had seen pictures, and I had told others about them in two sermons, yet now I was seeing them with my own eyes in person.  Incredible.
   Secondary burial history gives great insight into context surrounding the burial and resurrection of Jesus.  The practice of secondary burial is the reason Jesus was put in a tomb in which there normally would have been access.  But when Christ was dead, there was not easy access to His tomb since it was “sealed” and Roman guards were posted as stated in Matthew 27:65-66.  Yet Roman fortification did not stop Jesus from leaving, and it did not stop the angel from rolling away the stone as revealed in Matthew 28:2-4, thus there was once again easy access to the tomb.
   And secondary burial is why the women were going to the tomb to put spices on the body early in the morning of the first day of the week.  Yet they did not find the deceased body of Jesus.  In fact, shortly thereafter they saw Jesus alive!  I think Mary Magdalene separated from the other women who saw Jesus as recorded in Matthew 28:8-10, yet of course Mary Magdalene saw Jesus as recorded in John 20:10-18.  He is risen!
Hunter Irvine