Sindon

SINDON. This Word properly signifies a Shroud, and the Evangelists make use of it, to denote the Linen Cloth, in which Luke xxiii. 53.Joseph of Arimathea wrapp’d up the Body of Jesus Christ, after he had embalmed it, had winded Bandages about it, and had put the Napkin upon his Head. For St. John Joh. xx. 7.supplies those Circumstances that St. Matthew had omitted. The holy Napkins, or Sudaria, which are shewn in several Places, cannot be all the true Sindon in which Christ’s Body was involved, but are made in Imitation of it.

Pro. xxxi. 24.Sindon is also mention’d in the History of Samson.¹ He promises the young Men that were at his Wedding; Triginta Sindones & totidem tunicas, if they could explain the Riddle that he proposed to them. The Hebrew says thirty Sedinim, and thirty Changes of Raiment. By Sedinim or Sindonem, some understand the Tunica which was put next the Skin; and by Changes of Raiment, compleat Suits of Cloaths, a Tunique and a Coat, for that was a compleat Suit; or only thirty Coats, which, with the thirty Tuniques, made up thirty Changes of Raiment.

Isa. iii. 23. Mart. l. 4 Ep. 19.The virtuous Woman mention’d by Solomon, made Sindons and Girdles, which she sold to the Phenicians. The young Women of Jerusalem wore their Sindons, as appears from Isaiah. This was a Fashion peculiar to the Sidonians and the Phenicians, and perhaps the Name was derived from the City of Sidon. Martial says, that the Sindon of Tyre or Phenicia, covers a Man all over, and puts him in a Condition to despise the Rain and the Wind.

The young Man that follow’d Jesus Christ the Night of his Passion, Amictus sindone super nudo, was probably by this defended against the Cold, as with a Night -Gown. Mark xiv. 51.

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