The disposal of the dead among the Israelites was always by burial. While spices were sometimes sprinkled among the grave-clothes, there was no religious motive for the embalming of the dead as in Egypt. 1. The common grave must have been the usual opening in the ground with protective stones laid on the surface; or one prepared slab of stone either quite fiat, or with the ridge of a sarcophagus lid, might be used. To judge by the custom of to-day, the grave would often be cut partly or altogether in rock, not because that was preferred, but because the village elders usually marked off for the cemetery a section of ground that was too rocky for purposes of cultivation. 2. Tombs of a more important kind were made by excavating in the face of a rock to form a chamber about 8 or 9 feet on each side. At the opposite end and on the two sides were three narrow recesses, Heb. kokim, 6 or 7 feet long and about 2 feet wide, cut into the rock at right angles to each wall. Into one of these the dead body was inserted with the feet towards the entrance, which was then covered with a slab sealed around the edges with plaster. 3. During the two centuries of Greek influence before the Christian era, a somewhat larger form of tomb came into use. The common chamber had on each of its three sides two, and occasionally three, shallow arched recesses, and in each recess a sarcophagus was laid along the line of the wall. From the fact that the two angels could be seen, one at the head and the other at the foot of the receptacle for Christ's body (Joh 20:12), it is evident that the tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimath