What Did Swaddling Clothes Look Like

Swaddling clothes described in the bible consisted of a cloth tied together by bandage like strips.

What did swaddling clothes look like. Cyril of jerusalem in the 4th century made this connection while commentating on the book of daniel. Meaning of the greek word swaddling clothes. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in. Many cultures still practice swaddling today.

The phrase swaddling clothes is a translation of the root greek word sparganoo. Swaddling clothes according to every commentator i have read were bands of cloth probably cotton not really clothes as in a garment. 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. In ancient times like today a swaddled infant was safe if wrapped and watched properly.

These strips kept the newborn child warm and also ensured that the child s limbs would grow. Thus being wrapped in swaddling clothes even as an eternal heir apparent symbolizes and perhaps does so more than any other accoutrement of life one s entrance into full humanity. Other saints saw the swaddling clothes connected to jesus second coming at the end of time. Indeed that the lord jehovah would become flesh as a helpless child and was swaddled like any other infant is an exquisite manifestation of his unfathomable.

The word appears in only two verses in the new testament and both times they appear in luke 2.