How “Let the Dead Bury Their Dead” Was Misconstrued
There is a passage in Matthew 8 that always perplexes a sensitive reader who tends to read the Scripture carefully. Moreover, it is extremely confusing, when we look only at what has been revealed to us in the narration. We need to resort to the Torah to make better sense of this short episode in the Apostolic Writings. It is the object of this work, therefore, to explain what is not satisfactorily explained by the commentators and expose certain misconceptions that still exist. We read from King James’ version of the Bible thus,
And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. (Mat 8:21-22 KJV)
The Greek word above for “another” is ἕτερος heteros. It corresponds to the Hebrew word אַחֵר acher with the same meaning. Acher differs from another Hebrew word אֶחָד echad, meaning “one”, by one letter at the end of the words: resh in acher versus dalet in echad. These Hebrew letters look very similar. This seems to be a classic example of misreading of the letters resh and dalet, which is not uncommon in translation especially when reading handwritings. The Hebrew manuscript of Matthew reads אֶחָד echad: “And one of His disciples”. Another example of confusion between resh and dalet is found in Revelation 19, but this will be in a separate teaching. So, this disciple might have been one of the twelve, or a disciple of Yeshua’s larger circle.
Now, let us project the scene from the first century Judea onto the screen of the modern culture to see the big misunderstanding of the passage.
Ossuary. Israel Antiquities Authority.
A disciple has just lost his father who is not buried yet, and he is asking Yeshua for permission to lay him in the grave. As a surprise to the reader, however, he receives a refusal instead and not only that, but he is told to leave his family (his widowed mother and possibly siblings) and follow Yeshua on his journey. In other words, what the man wants is to bury his father as a last respect to him. Torah requires the dead to be buried on the same day, before the end of the day. He wants to bury his father according to the law, but Yeshua tells him to break the law by not doing the last obeisance to his father according to the Fifth Commandment: “Respect your father and mother”. Honoring the parents has been likened by the Sages to honoring the Eternal Himself. For the Eternal says, “Every man shall fear his mother and his father and guard My Sabbaths. I am YHVH your Elohim” (Lev 19:3), thus placing the Fifth just after the Fourth Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath Day to set it apart”. Because he who fears and honors YHVH Elohim also fears and honors his father and mother, for they are all equal co-creators of life.
This is what we can get from the story when reading a text with preconceived ideas. Can we rethink this?
At first glance, these two verses portrait Yeshua as either senseless and heartless, and/or it appears that he forces his disciple to violate the Torah by not letting him bury his diseased father. Another difficulty in this verse is that the text suddenly says, “Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead”. This should immediately awaken the thought, because it is very difficult to imagine what was in the disciple’s mind. Is Yeshua senseless and heartless? Or perhaps we are missing something very important when reading ancient texts, namely, its historical and cultural background. Without understanding the historical background, and Hebraic culture and traditions at that time, there is no way to grasp the meaning of Yeshua’s words. Let us demonstrate.
So, what is the case we are referring to? At this point in the discussion, it is necessary to understand Torah. We need to realize that the Torah requires a dead body to be buried on the same day of the death. We read from the Torah thus,
Let his body not remain overnight on the tree, for you shall certainly bury him the same day, for he who is hanged is accursed of Elohim, so that you do not defile the land which the Eternal your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance. (Deu 21:23)
Cruel treatment of the body of the dead person to decay and left to stench and even worse be eaten by the birds is cruel and serves no purpose. Thus, looking at the body is painful to its Creator, and it must be buried quickly after death, “for in His image did God make man” (Gen 9:6). Even the worst offenders deserve a quick and decent burial, because cruelty or disgrace to another human being after death is against the values of the Torah. We can see this law in fulfillment in the story of what Yehoshua did to the five Kana’anite kings whom he killed but also showed respect to the bodies by performing a proper burial before sunset, all according to the Torah Mosheh gave him. We read,
And afterward Yehoshua struck them and killed them and hanged them on five trees. And they were hanging on the trees until evening. And it came to be, at the time of the going down of the sun, that Yehoshua commanded, and they took them down from the trees, and cast them into the cave where they had been hidden, and laid large stones against the cave’s mouth, to this day. (Jos 10:26-27)
The Creator of man suffers when a human being is disgraced. Here in particular, Torah is primarily concerned about not showing respect for a human being—even for the worst offenders (see Deu 21:22). Besides, leaving the body of the executed person hanging on a tree does not cause others to refrain from sinning. It only leads to feelings of compassion and pity for the executed criminal. So, how do we interpret Yeshua’s words?
The burial of a dead person in the ground is called “the first burial”, which is done after the family has observed seven days of mourning. After the decomposition in one year, when the body is completely decayed, the bones of diseased are transferred in a chest (ossuary) and taken to Yerushalyim or laid to rest in the family tomb. This is “the secondary burial”. The second burial is not in an explicit law in the Torah, but a tradition that comes from the time when Yoseph’s bones were taken from Egypt and reburied in the land of Israel after the Exodus. By tradition the secondary burial is done by the oldest son of the diseased.
So, what we read in Matthew is the following. The disciple is asking Yeshua to give him time to take the bones of his father from the grave and rebury them in the family tomb. The first burial must have taken place a year earlier (according to Torah) and now the disciple is asking Yeshua for time to do the secondary burial in the family tomb before he joins Yeshua on the journey. This explains the first part of the verse, namely, the plea of the disciple. But it does not explain the second part, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead”. We already presupposed that the disciple had left his widowed mother and possibly siblings. In such a case the widow and/or the other children of the diseased could do the second burial. But if the disciple was the only one alive to bury him, then he was left with no choice but to do the second burial by himself. So what sense is there in their saying, “let the dead bury the dead”? Nothing in the text of Matthew 8 suggests that a literal context was intended, at least in the present author’s opinion, because the choice of these words poses a difficulty. We will do well to pay especial attention to what the text is not saying. The author of the gospel has not recorded, “Do not bury your father. Follow me, etc.” It is inconceivable that Yeshua would have denied his disciple’s request for burial of his father. If so, how could we understand these words? The correct interpretation appears to us to be that Yeshua told him: “Go and bury your father, but do not be concerned with earthly matters for this indeed must be done. But focus on the heavier matters of heaven”. The reason why we are forced to give this interpretation is quite clear.
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