John 19:41

41 Now there was a garden near the cross, and in the garden a new place for the dead in which no man had ever been put.

John 19:41 Meaning and Commentary

John 19:41

Now in the place where he was crucified
Which takes in all that spot of ground that lay on that side of the city where he was crucified; or near to the place of his crucifixion, for it was not a garden in which he was crucified:

there was a garden;
all gardens, except rose gardens, were without the city, as has been observed, (See Gill on John 18:1). This, it seems, belonged to Joseph: rich men used to have their gardens without the city for their convenience and pleasure:

and in the garden a new sepulchre;
they might not bury within the city. Some chose to make their sepulchres in their gardens, to put them in mind of their mortality, when they took their walks there; so R. Dustai, R. Janhal, and R. Nehurai, were buried, (odrpb) , "in a garden", or orchard ^F6; and so were Manasseh and Amon, kings of Judah, ( 2 Kings 21:18 2 Kings 21:26 ) . Here Joseph had one, hewn out in a rock, for himself and family, and was newly made. The Jews distinguish between an old, and a new sepulchre; they say ^F7,

``(vdx rbq) , "a new sepulchre" may be measured and sold, and divided, but an old one might not be measured, nor sold, nor divided.''

Wherein was never man yet laid;
this is not improperly, nor impertinently added, though the evangelist had before said, that it was a new sepulchre; for that it might be, and yet bodies have been lain in it; for according to the Jewish canons ^F8,

``there is as a new sepulchre, which is an old one; and there is an old one, which is as a new one; an old sepulchre, in which lie ten dead bodies, which are not in the power of the owners, (vdx rbqk hzyrh) , "lo, this is as a new sepulchre".''

Now Christ was laid in such an one, where no man had been laid, that it might appear certainly that it was he, and not another, that was risen from the dead.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 Jechus haabot, p. 43. Ed. Hottinger.
F7 Massech. Sernacot, c. 24. fol. 16. 3.
F8 Ib.

John 19:41 In-Context

39 And Nicodemus came (he who had first come to Jesus by night) with a roll of myrrh and aloes mixed, about a hundred pounds.

40 Then they took the body of Jesus, folding linen about it with the spices, as is the way of the Jews when they put the dead to rest.

41 Now there was a garden near the cross, and in the garden a new place for the dead in which no man had ever been put.

42 So they put Jesus there, because it was the Jews' day of getting ready for the Passover, and the place was near.