CHAPTER IX.

JEWISH MODE OF TREATING THE DEAD.-FUNERAL RITES.

1. Mosaic Law relating to the Dead.-II. Treatment of the Deceased.-III. Lamentations for them.-IV. Rites of Sepulture.V. Notice of the Tombs of the Jews.--VI. Funeral Feasts.Duration of Mourning.

I. By the law of Moses a dead body conveyed a legal pollution to every thing that touched it,—even to the very house and furniture,— which continued seven days. (Numb. xix. 14, 15, 16.) And this was the reason why the priests, because of their daily ministrations in holy things, were forbidden to assist at any funerals, but those of their nearest relatives; nay, the very dead bones, though they had lain ever so long in the grave, if digged up, conveyed a pollution to any who touched them; and this was the reason why Josiah caused the bones of the false priests to be burnt upon the altar at Bethel (2 Chron. xxxiv. 5.), to the intent that these altars being thus polluted, might be had in the greater detestation.

II. When the principle of life was extinguished, the first funeral office among the Jews was to close the eyes of the deceased. This was done by the nearest of kin. Thus, it was promised to Jacob, when he took his journey into Egypt, that Joseph should put his hands upon his eyes. (Gen. xlvi. 4.) The next office was the ablution of the corpse. Thus, when Tabitha died, it is said, that they washed her body and laid it in an upper chamber. (Acts ix. 37.) This rite was common both to the Greeks and Romans, in whose writings it is frequently mentioned. In Egypt, it is still the custom to wash the dead body several times with rain water.

III. From the earliest antiquity it was also usual with this people to make very great and public lamentations for their departed friends. What a deep general mourning did Abraham and his family make for Sarah, and with what public solemnity was her funeral conducted! What lamentations did Joseph and his brethren the children of Israel, and the land of Egypt make, upon the decease of the good old patriarch Jacob! What a procession was formed, and with what august pomp were his remains carried out of the land of Egypt, to be deposited in the sepulchre of his ancestors! All the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

1 Sophoclis Electra, verse 1143. Virgil. Æneid. lib. vi. 358

and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house, went up only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company. And they came to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a GREAT and very SORE LAMENTATION; and he made a mourning for his father SEVEN days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians! wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan. And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them. For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a burying-place of Ephron the Hittite before Mamre. And Joseph returned into Egypt, he and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father. (Gen. 1. 7-13.) On the loss of dear and near relatives, and of amiable and affectionate friends, the grief of this people was violent and frantic. Tearing their hair, rending their clothes (which was prohibited to the high priest), and uttering doleful shrieks and piercing cries, were some of the expressions of it. Suetonius remarks this distinguished vehemence of the Jews in the expressions of their grief. In that great and public mourning, at the funeral of Julius Cæsar, a multitude of foreign nations, says the historian, expressed their sorrow according to their respective customs: but the mourning and lamentation made by the Jewish people exceeded all the restthey continued about the funeral pile whole nights together.1 The assembling together of multitudes to the place where persons have lately expired, and bewailing them in a noisy manner, is still retained in the East, and seems to be considered as an honour done to the deceased.2

It appears, also, from the Scriptures, that upon the demise of their friends the Jews hired persons, whose profession it was to superintend and conduct their public and private sorrows, who, in funeral odes, mournful songs, and doleful ejaculations, deplored the instability of human condition, celebrated the virtues of the deceased, and excited the grief and lamentation of the survivors. This we learn from the following passages of the prophets: Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider ye and call for the MOURNING WOMEN, that they may come, and send for CUNNING WOMEN, that they may come; and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eye-lids gush out with waters. (Jer. ix. 17, 18.) Both the great and the small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning to comfort them for the dead, neither shall men

1 Suetonius in vit. J. Cæsaris. c. lxxxiv. p. 135. edit. variorum. Lug. Bat. 1662. 2 Harmer's Observations, vol. ii. pp. 16-18.

give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. (Jer. xvi. 6, 7.) Therefore mine heart shall SOUND for MOAB like PIPES, and mine heart shall SOUND like PIPES for the men of KIR-HERES: because the riches he hath gotten are perished; for every HEAD shall be BALD, and every BEARD CLIPPED; upon all the HANDS shall be CUTTINGS, and upon the LOINS sack-cloth. (Jer. xlviii. 36, 37.) So also the prophet Ezekiel: Son of man, behold I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Forbear to cry, make no MOURNING for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men. So I spoke unto the people in the morning, and at even my wife died. (Ezek. xxiv. 16, 17, 18.)

In the time of Christ and his apostles these mournful songs had musical accompaniments. The soft and plaintive melody of the flute was employed to heighten these doleful lamentations and dirges. Thus we read that on the death of the daughter of Jairus a company of mourners, with players on the flute, according to the Jewish custom, attended upon this sorrowful occasion. When Jesus entered the governor's house, he saw the minstrels and the people wailing greatly. (Matt. ix. 23.) So Josephus informs us, that when it was reported in the city that he was involved in the general destruction of Jotapata, the intelligence immediately filled Jerusalem with the deepest sorrow. The particular families and relations of the deceased bewailed the death of their respective friends, but the death of the general (meaning himself) caused universal mourning. Some deplored the loss of their acquaintance, some of their relations, some of their friends, some of their brethren, but all men lamented the loss of Josephus! so that for thirty days together there was a public mourning in the city, and considerable numbers of people hired musicians to regulate and conduct their lamentations. This custom still obtains among the Moors. "At all their principal entertainments," says Dr. Shaw," and to show mirth and gladness upon other occasions, the women welcome the arrival of each guest, by squalling out for several times together, Loo! Loo! Loo! a corruption, as it seems to be, of Hallelujah. Aλaλn, a word of the like sound, was used by an army, either before they gave the onset, or when they had obtained the victory. The Turks to this day call out, Allah! Allah! Allah! upon the like occasion. At their funerals also, and upon other melancholy occasions, they repeat the same noise (Loo), only they make it more deep and hollow, and end each period with some ventriloquous sighs. The aλaλalovras oλa, or wailing greatly, (as our ver sion expresses it, Mark v. 38.) upon the death of Jairus's daughter, was probably performed in this manner. For there are several women, hired to act upon these lugubrious occasions, who, like the præfice, or mourning women of old, are skilful in lamentation (Amos

1 Josephus, De Bel. Jud. lib. iii. cap. x. p. 252. Havercamp.

v. 16.), and great mistresses of these melancholy expressions: and indeed they perform their parts with such proper sounds, gestures, and commotions, that they rarely fail to work up the assembly into some extraordinary pitch of thoughtfulness and sorrow. The British factory has often been very sensibly touched with these lamentations, whenever they were made in the neighbouring houses." This custom, however, of employing music to heighten public and private grief was not in that age peculiar to the Jews. We find the flute also employed at the funeral solemnities of the Greeks and Romans, in their lamentations for the deceased, as appears from numerous testimonies of classic authors.2

IV. The Jewish rites of sepulture were not very dissimilar to those of the Egyptians, from whom they seem originally to have been derived. The Egyptian manner differed from the Jewish principally in the circumstance of their embalming their dead with spices and nitre, the various methods of performing which are minutely described by Herodotus, and Diodorus Siculus.3 The patriarch Jacob was embalmed according to the Egyptian process; which, it appears from Gen. 1. 3., required forty days to complete the embalming of the body. Afterwards it lay in natron thirty days more, making in the whole seventy days, during which the mourning was continued. So

1 Shaw's Travels, p. 305. 4to. 1738. The mourning of the Montenegrins bears a great resemblance to that of the oriental nations. On the death of any one, nothing is heard but tears, cries, and groans from the whole family the women, in particular, beat themselves in a frightful manner, pluck off their hair, and tear their faces and bosoms. The deceased person is laid out for twenty-four hours, in the house where he expires, with the face uncovered; and is perfumed with essences, and strewed with flowers and aromatic leaves, after the custom of the antients. The lamentations are renewed every moment, particularly on the arrival of a fresh person, and especially of the priest. Just before the defunct is carried out of the house, his relations whisper in his ear, and give him commissions for the other world, to their departed relatives or friends. After these singular addresses, a pall or winding-sheet is thrown over the dead person, whose face continues uncovered, and he is carried to church: while on the road thither, women, hired for the purpose, chaunt his praises, amid their tears. Previously to depositing him in the ground, the next of kin tie a piece of cake to his neck, and put a piece of money in his hand, after the manner of the antient Greeks. During this ceremony, as also while they are carrying him to the burial ground, a variety of apostrophes is addressed to the defunct, which are interrupted only by mournful sobs, asking him why he quitted them? Why he abandoned his family? He, whose poor wife loved him so tenderly, and provided every thing for him to eat! Whose children obeyed him with such respect, while his friends succoured him whenever he wanted assistance; who possessed such beautiful flocks, and all whose undertakings were blessed by heaven! When the funeral rites are performed, the curate and mourners return home, and partake of a grand entertainment, which is frequently interrupted by jovial songs, intermixed with prayers in honour of the deceased. One of the guests is commissioned to chaunt a "lament" impromptu, which usually draws tears from the whole company; the performer is accompanied by three or four monochords, whose harsh discord excites both laughter and tears at the same time. Voyage Historique et Politique à Montenegro, par M. le Colonel Vialla de Sommières, tome i. pp. 275-278. Paris, 1820. 8vo.

2 See Euripidis Phænissæ, ver. 1521. Eschyli Septem contra Thebas, ver. 1030. Dion. Cassius, lib. lvi. p. 850. and lib. lxxiv. p. 1245. (edit. Reimar.) Eusebii Hist. Eccl. p. 449. edit. Cantab. 1720.

3 Herodotus, Euterpe, pp. 141, 142. edit. Wesseling, Amst. 1763. Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. c. 91-93. edit. Bipont.

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the Egyptians mourned for Jacob threescore and ten days; that is, during the whole time in which the spices and nitre (natron) were applied to the dead body.

The funeral honours paid by the Jews to their deceased friends, particularly to persons of fortune and distinction, appear to be the following: After washing the corpse, they embalmed it, by laying all around it a large quantity of costly spices and aromatic drugs in order to imbibe and absorb the humours, and by their inherent virtues to preserve it as long as possible from putrefaction and decay. Thus we read that Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pounds weight, to perform the customary office to the dear deceased. This embalming was usually repeated for several days together, that the drugs and spices thus applied might have all their efficacy in the exsiccation of the moisture and the future conservation of the body. They then swathed the corpse in linen rollers or bandages, closely enfolding and wrapping it in that bed of aromatic drugs with which they had surrounded it. Thus we find that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus and wrapt it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. (John xix. 40.) This custom we behold also in the Egyptian mummies, round which, Thevenot informs us, the Egyptians have sometimes used above a thousand ells of filleting, beside what was wrapped about the head. Thus, when our Lord had cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth! it is said, the dead came forth, bound hand and foot in grave clothes. (John xi. 44.)3 We learn from Scripture also, that about the head and face of the corpse was folded a napkin, which was a separate thing, and did not communicate with the other bandages in which the body was swathed. Thus we read, that the face of Lazarus was bound about with a napkin (John xi. 44.); and when our Lord was risen, Peter, who went into the sepulchre, saw the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that had been folded round his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wreathed together in a place by itself lying at some distance from the rollers in which his body had been swathed, and folded up, exactly in the state it was, when first wrapped round his head. (John xx. 7.)4

1 Matt. xxvi. 12. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my funeral, пpos ro evrapiacai pe, to embalm me. The word does not properly signify to bury. The note of Beza is accurate. Ad funerandum me, TOOS TO EVтapiaσaι μe. Vulg. et Erasmus, ad me sepeliendum, malé. Nam aliud est Ja Tev quam vragiale: ut Latinis sepelire est sepulchro condere: funerare vero pollincire, cadaver sepulchro mandandum prius curare. Beza ad Matt. xxvi. 12. Erradiaga est corpus ad funus componere, et ornamentis sepulchralibus ornare. Wetstein. in loc.

2 Habebat consuetudo, ut carissima capita, et quæ plurimi fierent cadavera, non semel tantum ungerentur, sed sæpius, pluribusque continuis diebus, donec exsiccato, et absorpto vi aromatum omni reliquo humore, immo tabefacta carne arida, et quasi aeneâ redditâ, diu servari possent integra, et immunia a putrefactione. Lucas Brugensis in Marc. xvi.

3. Δεδεμενος κειρίαις. Phavorinus explains Κειρια by calling them επιταφίοι δεσμοί, sepulchral bandages. Κείρια σημαίνει τα σχοινια τα εντάφια. Etymol.

4 He went into the sepulchre, and then he plainly saw the linen clothes, prva. alone, or without the body, and keeva lying, that is, undisturbed, and at full length, as