CHAPTER XIV.

Funeral Customs. Tombs.

1. WHEN a person died, some near relative, or friend, closed his eyes. Gen. xlvi. 4. The body was then washed previous to the preparation for embalming, or burial. Acts ix. 37. If it was embalmed, which required considerable time, the burial ceremonies were not performed for many days or weeks after death. The embalming of Jacob occupied forty days, and it was not till thirty days after this, that they proceeded to bury him. Gen. 1. 1-4.

2. The relations of the deceased expressed their grief in various ways, by rending their garments, beating their breasts, tearing their hair, putting on sackcloth, spreading ashes on the head, &c. It was common also to put away all ornaments, and neglect the personal appearance, as anointing the head, washing, &c. And sometimes they tore the face with their nails, and cut their flesh, which practice, however, was forbidden, probably because it was borrowed from the heathens. Levit. xix. 28; Deut. xiv. 1, 2; Jer. xlviii. 36, 37. These lamentations continued several days, and sometimes several months, when the person was of rank, as appears in the case of Jacob, where the

days of mourning were threescore and ten. Gen. 1. 3. For Aaron and for Moses, they mourned thirty days. Numb. xx. 29; Deut. xxxiv. 8.

3. It was the custom also to employ persons, generally women, to make lamentations, and do the business of mourning on such occasions. This practice is still continued in the East. The following is from Jowett's researches. "The governor of Nablous had died this very morning, and, on coming within sight of the gate, we perceived a numerous company of females, who uttered the most hideous plaints and shrieks. We learned, in the course of the evening, that these were only a small detachment of a very numerous body of cunning women, who were filling the whole city with their cries and wailings. For this good service, they would the next morning wait upon the government, and principal persons, to receive some trifling fee." "Even the poorest Israelite," says Brown, "had two pipers, and one woman to make lamentations."

4. These extracts give a meaning to many passages. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, and send for cunning women, and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears," &c. Jer. ix. 17 – 21; xvi. 6, 7. xlviii. 36, 37; Amos v. 16. That these wailings were often accompanied with music, may be seen from Matt. ix. 23. The children sometimes imitated these ceremonies in their games, as appears

from the comparison of the Saviour, in which they are represented as complaining of their fellows, because they would not perform their part of the play. "We have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented." Matt. xi. 16, 17.

5. We have mentioned the practice of embalming. This was sometimes done by the Jews, as appears from Gen. 1. 2, 26. "And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel" (Jacob), v. 2. "So Joseph died, and they embalmed him." v. 26. It appears also to have been the intention of Nicodemus, to have embalmed the body of the Saviour, as he had brought a preparation of "myrrh and aloes," and wound the body "in linen clothes with the spices." John xix. 38-40. And Mary, and the women with her, seem to have designed the same, when very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared." Luke xxiv. 1.

6. To be deprived of burial was regarded by the Jews, and by the ancients generally, as a very great disgrace and calamity. Eccles. vi. 3. The Psalmist counts it among the evils to which the people had been subjected. "The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven; and there was none to bury them." Ps. lxxix. 2, 3. Hence it became a religious duty, as well as an act of humanity, to bury the dead; and those were uncommonly barbarous

wars, in which the vanquished were not allowed to bury their dead. 1 Sam. xxxi. 8-13; 2 Sam. xxi. 9-14. The Romans believed that the souls of the unburied were compelled to wander a hundred years along the banks of the river Styx, before they were permitted to cross it, and enter the abodes of the dead.

7. The Jews buried in graves, and tombs or sepulchres. These sepulchres were often of great extent, hewn out of the solid rock, and divided into several distinct apartments, which were frequently, as among the Egyptians, magnificently ornamented with painting and sculpture. This was especially the case with the tombs of persons of note, either in a civil or religious respect. To this, and to similar exterior elegance the Saviour probably alluded, when he said to the Pharisees : "Ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous." Matt. xxiii. 29.

most cases is so They consist of

8. The following is from Hasselquist, in relation to the tombs, or sepulchres, of the ancient kings of Syria, near Sidon : "They are cut out of a limestone mountain, and have their aperture level with the earth, which in large, one may enter with ease. vaults or chambers, some fathoms square, worked out in the mountain, with oblong niches in the walls. A great part of them are now open, and serve as huts for shepherds." Rossellini says of the sepulchres of Thebes, "In many the pictures are perishing day by day, because, having been a

long time open, they serve for a retreat to the Arab families, which have no other cabin to cover themselves, and their miserable herds."

9. These extracts will, perhaps, throw light upon Isa. lxv. 4; "A people which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments." They also explain how the demoniac "had his dwelling among the tombs." Mark v. 2 -5.

10. Any person who stepped upon a grave, or touched a tomb, was ceremonially unclean. And as those coming to the feasts from a distance, could not be expected to be familiar with every place where there was a solitary grave or sepulchre, there was a law which required, that they should be painted white, with chalk and water, or a similar preparation, on the 15th day of the 12th month, which made them perfectly visible, until the great festivals were over. To this practice Christ alludes, in his rebuke of the Pharisees : "Ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." Matt. xxiii. 27; Luke xi. 44. Let us learn from this language, to be clean within, as well as without, to be pure of heart, that we may have the approbation of Him, who knoweth the heart, and secure that peace which passeth knowledge.