the mountain where God proclaimed His Law. So gieat was the sacredness of the mountain, indeed, that even unconscious trespass was visited by death.
3. Mount Zion {Ziuv, He 12'").— Over against Sinai, which (juaUed at the giving of the Law, the Apostle places Zion, using it, however, in a spirit- ual sense : ' But ye are come unto mount /ion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,' etc. The contrast between the two Dis])ensations is thus emphasized : Sinai, sensible, provisional, and accompanied by the jjliysical phenomenaof the world; Zion, ideal, super-sensible, abiding, final, and pertaining to the world above. To the Apostle, Zion is here not the earthly Jeru- salem, but the heavenly world of realities, ' Jeru- salem the golden.' As there was a Zion below after the order of the world, there is also a Zion above true to the ideal ; the one here is only the symbolic abode of God, that above is His real abode ; yea, the abode also of the Lamb (Rev 14^).
1. 'i'he Holy Mount.' — The expression occurs in St. Peter's description of the transfigured glory of Christ, ' when we were with him in the holy mount ' (if t<^ 6pet ti^ aylifi, 2 P f). Doubtless the Mount of Transfiguration is meant (cf. Mt 17''"). This was very probably one of the spurs of Mount Hermon, Jebel esh-Sheikh, ' the mount of the chief.' It is the highest peak in all Palestine and Syria, rising 9,050 ft. above sea-level, and covered with snow during a great part of the year. The name ' Hermon ' signifies that it was considered sacred.
5. The other references in apostolic history to ' mountains ' are for the most part mere figures of speech. For example, St. Paul says in his match- less pajan on love (1 Co 13=), 'And if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains.' Mountains were the image of eternal stability, yet, though one had faith to remove the unmovable, without love one would be nothing. In He 11^' there is an allusion to the sacrifices which the heroes of faith endured in OT times, wandering ' in deserts and mountains' — mountains being symbols of the difficulties and dangers of life. On the other hand, the apostle John, attempting to descril^e the terrors of the Final Judgment, pictures kings as hiding themselves ' in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,' and as saying ' to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us, etc' (Rev 6'*- '^), the swift agony of being crushed to death being considered preferable, as the implica- tion is, to being left face to face with an angry God. The same Seer, when the second angel sounded, beheld a great burning mountain cast into the sea (Rev 8*). Perhaps he had seen such pheno- mena in his lonely life of exile amid the islands of the .-Egean ! The allusion in Rev 17' is likewise figurative, 'The seven heads are seven mountains.' Finally, the Apostle is ' carried in the spirit to a mountain great and high ' (Rev 21'°), from which as a vantage-ground of elevation he saw 'the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.' This was St. John's mode of describing heaven. There is a peculiar ecstasy associated with mountain tops, even to the most prosaic. George L. Robinson.
MOURNING. — Mourning is primarily the ex- pression of sorrow for the dead ; but the term is also applied to the grief over sin and to the distress over calamity.
1. A list of mourning customs among the Hebrews will be found in the art. ' Mourning ' in HDB, Among them are weeping and wailing of an intentionally demonstrative and unrestrained kind, the rending of garments, the wearing of sackcloth, the sprinkling of dust and ashes on the head, the striking of breast and head, fasting, ejaculations of woe, the recital of elegies for the
MOUTH, LIPS
MUEDEK
departed. Kefeience is made to several of these customs in the description given in Kev IS of the mourning over the destruction of I!al)ylon. Tlie worUlly kings, tlie merchants ami mariners, act as mourners : they weep and wail, cast dust upon their lieads, utter exchimations of woe, and in turn dirgefuUy declare the past glories of the fallen (v.""-). The term KotreTdf (used in Ac 8- to indicate the lamentation of the devout men over Stephen ; cf. K64'ovTai. [Rev 1' 18'] ; derivation, KOTTTciv, ' to strike') indicates the association of the beating of head and breast with mourning. In Ac y^'''' the widows gather round the body of Dorcas, weep and recount her good deeds. In J a 5' the rich are bidden to weep and howl, i.e. as wailing mourners.
2. The Pauline version of the eucharist intro- duces the words, ' Do this in remembrance of me ' (e(s T^ji* (ixT]v dfdfii'Ticni'), and the rite is regarded as a proclamation of the Lord's death till He come (1 Co 1 1-^"-''). This language suggests a comparison with tlie customs of commemorative mourning for the dead (cf. the annual lamentation for Jejihthah's daughter [Jg 11*°]; see art. ' Jahrzeit ' in </£). If the Pauline version of the eucharist has been influenced by the mysteries, the mourning customs for Attis and Adonis ('weeping for Tanimuz,' see J. G. Krazer's Adonis, Attis, Osirii^, 1914) may not be without significance for the study of this feature of the Lord's Supper.