Endnote 13 – Did a Rolling Stone Close Jesus’ Tomb?

Zlotnik, Tractate “Mourning”, pp. 11, 57; M. Higger, Tractate Semahot (New York, 1931), p. 148 (in Hebrew). In the modern translation of Tractate Semahot 8.1, the 30th day is named as the day to visit the tomb, but this reading is found in only one manuscript. The other manuscripts read “three days” (for manuscripts and printed editions of the tractate Mourning, see Zlotnick, Tractate “Mourning”, pp. 27–28). This reading is confirmed by various Tannaitic sources; see J.N. Epstein, Introduction to the Text of the Mishnah (Jerusalem, 1948), pp. 469–471 (in Hebrew); Shmuel Safrai, “Home and Family,” in The Jewish People in the First Century, vol. 2, ed. Safrai and M. Stern (Assen/Amsterdam, 1976), pp. 784–785.