What Are Swaddling Clothes

If a manger were a feeding trough for stable animals it wouldn t be any different.

What are swaddling clothes.

If swaddling clothes were a common practice after the birth of a child how would this be a sign. And they went quickly and indeed found the babe lying in a manger luke 2 16 but here the swaddling clothes are not mentioned. The phrase swaddling clothes is a translation of the root greek word sparganoo. The custom of the east was to wrap the new born in these strips of cloth after washing the body and anointing it in powdered salt.

The swaddling clothes could prefigure jesus burial the magis gift of myrrh in matthew 2 11 is a clearer bit of foreshadowing but the link can t be proved linguistically. In the gospel of luke many small details are given about the birth of jesus. These strips kept the newborn child warm and also ensured that the child s limbs would grow. Swaddling clothes were bands of cloth probably cotton not really clothes as in a garment.

When the son of god came into our world he was entrusted to responsible loving parents who sought to meet his every need. On the night that jesus was born the angel told the shepherds that if they would go looking in bethlehem they would find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger luke 2 12. This detail can easily be passe. They would have to go around and ask everyone if they knew where the baby was born.

Meaning of the greek word swaddling clothes. Swaddling clothes according to every commentator i have read were bands of cloth probably cotton not really clothes as in a garment. The word appears in only two verses in the new testament and both times they appear in luke 2. For example we read how mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes luke 2 7.

The custom of the east was to wrap the new born in these strips of cloth after washing the body and protecting the baby with the healing properties of powdered salt. Swaddling clothes described in the bible consisted of a cloth tied together by bandage like strips.