What Are Swaddling Clothes

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.

What are swaddling clothes. These strips kept the newborn child warm and also ensured that the child s limbs would grow. The first appearance of sparganoo occurs in verse 7 and the second is in verse 12. 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. For example we read how mary wrapped him in swaddling clothes luke 2 7.

This detail can easily be passe. If swaddling clothes were a common practice after the birth of a child how would this be a sign. Swaddling clothes were bands of cloth probably cotton not really clothes as in a garment. The phrase swaddling clothes is a translation of the root greek word sparganoo.

In the gospel of luke many small details are given about the birth of jesus. Meaning of the greek word swaddling clothes. 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. Swaddling clothes described in the bible consisted of a cloth tied together by bandage like strips.

When the son of god came into our world he was entrusted to responsible loving parents who sought to meet his every need. After an infant was born the umbilical cord was cut and tied and then the baby was washed rubbed with salt and oil and wrapped with strips of cloth. If a manger were a feeding trough for stable animals it wouldn t be any different. 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. They would have to go around and ask everyone if they knew where the baby was born.