Genesis 50:2-3. Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel. And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
1. Among the ancient Egyptians there were numerous classes of physicians, divided according to the various diseases which were their special subjects of ‘study. They were not general practitioners, but specialists; hence their number was large. Joseph had them among his retainers. The Taricheuta, who superintended the process of embalming, were included among physicians as a special but subordinate class. They, in common with the higher class of physicians, belonged to the sacerdotal order.
2. There were different processes of embalming, varying according to the means at the disposal of the family of the deceased. The most expensive (and doubtless the mode by which Jacob and Joseph were embalmed) is estimated to have cost what would be equivalent to about twelve hundred and fifty dollars of our money. Preparatory to this process, the brain was removed by means of a crooked wire inserted through the nose. An incision was then made in the left side of the abdomen with a stone knife, the use of metal not being permitted. (Three of these ancient stone knives are now in the Abbott collection, and a saucer containing a gray embalming powder.)
Through this incision the viscera were drawn with the exception of the heart and kidneys. They were sometimes replaced after being prepared for preservation, and in other instances were put into vases. Some authorities assert that they were thrown into the river Nile; but this is denied by others.
After the removal of the viscera the body was carefully washed externally with water, and internally with palm—wine, oil of cedar, and other antiseptic preparations. The cavities of the head and abdomen were filled with myrrh, cassia, cinnamon, and other aromatic substances, and the incision in the abdomen was sewed up. The body was then steeped in a strong infusion of niter. The time occupied by this steeping process is variously stated at thirty, forty, and seventy days. It may have varied at different periods of Egyptian history, or in different parts of the land at the same time. Some have supposed that forty days were allowed for the embalming proper, and thirty for the steeping in niter.
When this process was completed the body and limbs were carefully wrapped in bandages of fine linen, plastered on the underside with gum. These bandages were seven or eight inches in width, and were sometimes six or seven hundred feet long. At this stage of the process the body seems to have been in some way subjected to extreme heat, precisely how is not known. Some have conjectured that it was soaked in pitch, boiling hot; others that it was put into a stove or oven. That extreme heat was applied in some way is evident from the charred bandages and from the appearance of the bones.
Layers of cloth, plastered with lime on the inside, were next placed on the body in a damped condition, fitting exactly to its shape. These layers were put on in sufficient numbers to make a thick case, which, when it was finished, was taken off until it became hardened, when it was replaced, and sewed up at the back. It was painted and ornamented with various figures, and in many instances was gilded. The part immediately over the face was made to resemble, as near as possible, the features of the deceased. The whole was then put into another case made of sycamore or cedar, and sometimes there was in addition an outside case made of the same material, or a sarcophagus of stone.
It is not positively known why the Egyptians embalmed the bodies of their dead. Some think that they believed the existence of the soul depended on that of the body, and hence desired to preserve the body as long as possible. Others suppose that they expected the soul at some distant future day to return to the body, and for that reason wished to preserve the body for its reception.
The oldest mummy known to the civilized world is now in the British Museum. “It is supposed to be that of Pharaoh Mycerinus, (Menkare,) of the fourth dynasty, the builder of the third great Pyramid at Gizeh, with whose coffin it was found by Colonel Vyse, in 1837. What is left of the coffin lies close by; it is unquestionably a very early piece of Egyptian work; wooden pegs instead of nails kept it together. Hieroglyphics are still seen on a portion of the lid and on the foot-piece; these, and especially the oval containing the name of Mycerinus, have been preserved with a freshness which is only to be accounted for by the extreme dryness of the climate of Egypt” (Handy Book of the British Museum, by T. Nichols, p. 145).
3. There is a special significance in the seventy days’ mourning for Jacob if the custom at that time were the same as in the days of Diodorus Siculus, who was in Egypt about forty years before the time of Christ. He says that on the death of a king the Egyptians put on mourning apparel and closed all their temples for seventy-two days, during which time the embalming proceeded. It would seem, therefore, that Pharaoh ordered royal honors on the occasion of the death of his prime minister’s father.