When it is said
It is sung at Vespers on Holy Friday afternoon, while the priest carries the winding-sheet round the altar and lays it on a tomb in the middle of the church.
It is sung again at Matins of Holy Saturday, held that night, and it is the hymn of Holy Saturday itself.
At every Liturgy the priest says its words as he sets the bread and wine on the altar.
Where it comes from
No author known
Who Joseph was
Joseph came from Arimathea and was a respected member of the Council. He went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’s body, then took it down and wrapped it in linen (Mark 15:43-46). John adds that Nicodemus brought about 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes, and that they laid Jesus in a new tomb in a garden (John 19:39-42).
The winding-sheet
The winding-sheet is an icon painted on cloth, showing Christ lying dead. In Greek it is called the epitaphios. Before Vespers on Holy Friday a tomb decked with flowers is set up in the middle of the church, and after the service people come to it, kneel and kiss it.
The Scripture in it
Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent Council member who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God, boldly went to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead, so he summoned the centurion to ask if this was so. When Pilate had confirmed it with the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought a linen cloth, took down the body of Jesus, wrapped it in the cloth, and placed it in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.
Nicodemus, who had previously come to Jesus at night, also brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. Now there was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. And because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they placed Jesus there.
So Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut into the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Ὁ εὐσχήμων Ἰωσήφ, ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου καθελὼν τὸ ἄχραντόν Σου Σῶμα,
σινδόνι καθαρᾷ, εἱλήσας καὶ ἀρώμασιν,
ἐν μνήματι καινῷ κηδεύσας ἀπέθετο.