The word sarcophagus is a gruesome name and comes to us from Latin and Greek, having been derived in Greek from sarx (flesh) and phagein (to eat). The Greek word sarkophagos meant “eating flesh,” and in the phrase “lithos (stone) sarcophagos” denoted a limestone that was thought to decompose the flesh of corpses that were put in it. The Greek word sarkophagos used by itself as a noun then came to mean “coffin.” The term was carried over into Latin, where sarcophagus was used in the phrase “lapis (stone) sarcophagus,” referring also to the same limestone. Sarcophagus used as a noun in Latin meant “coffin of any material.” The Latin word was then brought over into English, with the first recorded use being in 1601 to mean the flesh-consuming stone, and then in 1705 to mean any stone coffin. Considering that in Exodus 13:19 it’s written that “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him,” it’s most likely that Joseph’s coffin was made of a limestone that consumed his flesh between the time of his burial and the time when his “bones” were taken by Moses.
James M. Freeman and Harold J. Chadwick, Manners & Customs of the Bible, Rev. ed.]. (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1998). 97-98.
