Uh, no, it doesn’t. Not in the original Greek. The original Greek uses the word “ ὀθονίοις” (Othonois) which does not translate to “strips of linen”, but to a “large piece of fine Linen cloth,” a sheet. John, also in the Greek uses with the Grave Clothes description, the word, in Greek, “ ἔδησαν” which means to “bind,” “tie,” “bound.” This comports to the following sentence in John: “As was the custom of the Jews.” According to the Mishnah, the codified writtings of the Oral traditions, wrapping a body with strips was NOT part of the customs. Binding the ankles, wrists, tying the jaw closed, were. . . all of which can be accomplished with small ad hoc pieces of cloth or rope. Covering the body or face with a cloth was an either/or choice depending on the means of the family. If they had a large shroud handy, a separate face cloth would be superfluous and wasteful.
The synoptic Gospels report that Joseph of Arimathea bought a “σινδόνι“ a “sindon”, a large fine linen sheet. Sindon’s Greek base root comes from “sail” implying the size. Matthew’s Gospel uses the Greek word “καθαρᾷ” which means the sindon was “clean, unsullied, pure” before Jesus was covered or wrapped in it. It could not have been were they to have torn it into strips with hands that had carried an unclean bloodied body.
Cloth was a very expensive product in that time, representing a huge expense of human labor and time, and cloth remained so until the industrial revolution and the invention of the power loom. Linens often represented a large amount of the value of an estate. One of my prized possessions is an antique 18th Century Linen chest with a locking side bar to keep the linens from being stolen. Large cloths were especially expensive. When a shroud was used for burial, it was often a used sail.
| John | ||
| Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000) | English: Douay-Rheims | |
| John 20 |
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| 5. | και παρακυψας βλεπει κειμενα τα οθονια ου μεντοι εισηλθεν | And when he stooped down, he saw the linen cloths lying; but yet he went not in. |
| 6. | ερχεται ουν σιμων πετρος ακολουθων αυτω και εισηλθεν εις το μνημειον και θεωρει τα οθονια κειμενα | Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre, and saw the linen cloths lying, |
| 7. | και το σουδαριον ο ην επι της κεφαλης αυτου ου μετα των οθονιων κειμενον αλλα χωρις εντετυλιγμενον εις ενα τοπον | And the napkin that had been about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but apart, wrapped up into one place. |
UnboundBible, emphasis mine
ὀθόν-ιον , τό, Dim. of ὀθόνη, A.linen cloth, Hp. Acut.7, Ar.Fr.104, Thphr.HP7.3.5, PSI6.599 (iii B. C.), Plb.6.23.3, Ev.Jo.19.40, etc. : pl., linen cloths, “βύσσινα ὀ.” OGI90.18 (Rosetta, ii B. C.), cf. LXXJd.14.13, Luc.Philops.34, etc. ; towels, Jul.Or.6.203b ; linen bandages or lint, for wounds, Hp.Off.8, al., Ar.Ach.1176. 2. sail-cloth, D.47.20, Plb.5.89.2 ; so perh. in PPetr.1p.79 (iii B. C., pl.). Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940. The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.