I found this post in a Facebook group called “Facebook Missionaries”

Did you know this about the Hebrew translation?

The Gospel of John (20: 7) tells us that the napkin, which was placed over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes.  The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded, and was placed at the head of that stony coffin. Is that important? You’d better believe it! Is that significant? Absolutely! Is it really significant? Yes!

In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition. When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished.

Now if the master was done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table. The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, “I’m done”. But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because the servant knew that the folded napkin meant, “I’m not finished yet.” The folded napkin meant, “I’m coming back!”

Something a friend sent me, I found to be pretty interesting and decided to pass it on!

I can only imagine that over the years all the good passages have been examined for meaning, and since some people desperately believe the Bible to truly be the inspired word of the living creator then there just must be multiple levels of meaning in every word, sentence, paragraph and passage. So, having found the bottom of the barrel they just keep digging, resulting in this pathetic attempt.

Let’s firstly have a look at the original passage referenced in this internet spam:

“And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.” – John 20:7

To be sure it does say that the head cloth was not lying with the other linen, but it really makes no mention of it being “folded neatly” or “being placed at the head of the stony coffin”. Of course I do not speak or read ancient Hebrew, so I cannot be certain what the original text might say, but I am certain that such an important passage might have been corrected in some version of the Bible. Geez, even other books do not mention this incredible detail – you would have thought they might jot down such important deep messages for later generations, but no.

The writer then goes on the stamp authority all over this piece by stating that this is a really important passage and we risk eternal hellfire if we ignore it. Yeah right, whatever.

What bugs me most about this trash is that I cannot find any reference to the significance of leaving a folded napkin on the table outside this brilliant piece of detective work, or obvious derivatives of it. Placing a neatly folded napkin on a rock certainly does not mean you will be returning from the dead in 3 days then flying off into heaven.

That leads me to my second major problem with this crap – the author takes it for granted that Jesus actually did rise from the dead, take time out to wrap is napkin properly and carefully place it on his stony bed as a subtle reminder to his followers that he would be returning. Seems a little far fetched that the all powerful creator of the universe would bother – surely walking around town might have done the trick?

Also, did Jesus leave the napkins there are a message that he would be returning to the grave? How could you really know what it meant, if anything? It seems clear to me that some idiot just made up this storey to fit with their own personal beliefs. It has no basis in scripture, let alone evidence based facts. Then again, what the fuck was I expecting – this is religion we are talking about.

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