Читать книгу Anatomy and Embalming - Charles Otto Dhonau - Страница 23

—For a time the early Christians embalmed the bodies of their dead, using these forms with which they were familiar in Palestine. After a time, however, they gave up the practice. It has been said that they feared by the continuation of the process to cast discredit upon the power of God to call together the scattered dust of the body which had returned to its native element, and present it, like unto Christ's own glorious body, on the morning of the resurrection. No word spoken by Jesus, would indicate that he disapproved of methods, with which he as a Jew was familiar, to preserve the body from decay. During the first four centuries of the Christian era, the catacombs at Rome were used for burial. These catacombs consist of subterranean excavations, long horizontal passages with recesses on either side, arrayed in tiers for the reception of bodies, closed in by slabs bearing inscriptions and emblems of the faith.