A couple years ago, I noticed that in the recitative "Und Joseph nahm den Leib" in Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, there's internal rhyme in the first sentence: "Und Joseph nahm den Leib und wickelte ihn in ein' rein Leinwand." In May (the 7th, to be specific), I realized that there's significance to this.
First of all, translated, this is: "And Joseph took the body [of Jesus] and wrapt it in a clean linen." My German Bible is only slightly different from the text in the Bach oratorio: "Und Josef nahm den Leib und wickelte ihn in ein reines Leinentuch" (Matthew 27:59).
The internal rhyming of "ein' rein Leinwand" or "ein reines Leinentuch" ("a clean linen cloth") illustrates the purity and cleanliness of the linen cloth.
