Page "Empty tomb" Paragraph 23

John additionally describes the presence of a soudarion, for the head, that was set apart.

A soudarion is literally a sweat rag ; more specifically it was a piece of cloth used to wipe away sweat, but in the context of dead bodies, most scholars believe it was used to keep the jaw closed.

Tradition holds that the Sudarion was a turban, and that it later found its way to Oviedo in Spain, becoming the Sudarium of Oviedo.

Although it may initially seem insignificant, the fact that the item for the head was set apart fundamentally affects Christology.

If the head cloth remained in the same location as the remainder of the clothes, and if these remained where the body had been, it implies that Jesus ' body was lifted through the clothing, or that Jesus ' body de-materialised and re-materialised elsewhere, hence supporting more docetic interpretations.

Conversely, it being set apart implies the opposite-that someone took the clothes off in an ordinary manner ; furthermore, the Greek text uses the word, entetuligmenon, " having been folded up ", seeming to imply some intentional action had been taken on the soudarion.

Some see this as a direct attack by the author of John on docetism, and the gnosticism that used the synoptic accounts to advocate it.