BURIAL
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BURIAL
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Ancient Jewish Fu.cral Frocession : Costume, Modern Syrian.
ral, though foolish anxiety to retard or defy the proc- waste in lavishing such a quantity of costly perfumes oss of decomposition, and all of which may be in- on a person in the circumstances of Jesus, the liberal- eluded under the general head of embalming. No- it}' of those pious disciples in the performance of the wli -iv was this operation performed with so religious rites of their country was unquestionably dictated by car.' and in so scientific a manner as in ancient Egypt, the profound veneration which they cherished for the which could boast of a class of professional men train- memor}' of their Lord. Ncr can we be certain but ed to the business; and such adepts had these " physi- the}' intended to use the great abundance of perfumes cians" become in the art of preserving dead bodies, ! they provided, not in the common way of anointing that there are mummies still found which must have the corpse, but, as was done in the case of princes and existed for many thousand years, and are probably the very eminent personages, of preparing "a bed of remains of subjects of the early Pharaohs. The bodies spices," in which, after burning them, they might de- of Jacob and Joseph underwent this eminently Egyp- posit the body (2 Chron. xvi, 14; Jer. xxxiv, 5). For tian preparation for burial, which on both occasions unpatriotic and wicked princes, however, the people was (1 mbtless executed in a style of the greatest mag- : made no such burnings, and hence the honor was de-
niticonce (Gen. 1, 2, 26). Whether this expensive method of embalming was imitated by the earlier He- brews, we have no distinct accounts ; but we learn from their practice in later ages that they had some observance of the kind, only they substituted a simpler and more expeditious, though it must have been a less efficient process, which consisted in merely swathing the corpse round with numerous folds of linen, and sometimes a variety of stuffs, and anointing it with a
nicd to Jchoram (2 Chron xxi, 19). See Embalming.
Modern Oriental Gr.m -clothes
The corpse, after receiving the preliminary atten- tions, was enveloped in the grave-ciothes, which were mixture of aromatic, substances, of which aloes and sometimes nothing more than the ordinary dress, or myrrh were the chief ingredients. A sparing use of , folds of linen cloth wrapped round the body, and a spices on such occasions was reckoned a misplaced and napkin about the head ; though in other cases a shroud discreditable economy ; and few higher tokens of re- was used, which had long before been prepared by the spect could be paid to the remains of a departed friend individual for the purpose, and was plain or ornament- than a profuse application of costly perfumes. Thus al, according to taste or other circumstances. The we are told by the writers of the Talmud (Massecheih body, thus dressed, was deposited in an upper chamber
-— -'■ 'Mali™! m s°lenm state, open to the view of jL. '. all visitors (Acts ix, 37).
From the moment the vital spark 1 was extinguished, the members of H the family, especially the females, in the violent style of Oriental grief, burst out into shrill, loud, and dole- ful lamentations, and were scon join- ed by their friends and neighbors, who, on hearing of the event, crowded to the house in such numbers that Mark describes it by the term Bi'pr- [loc, a tumult (v, 38). By the bet- ter classes, among whom such liber- ties were not allowed, this duty of sympathizing with the bereaved fam- ily was, and still is, performed by a class of females who engaged them- selves as professional mourners, and who, seated amid the mourning circle, studied, by vehement sobs and ges- ticulations, and by singing dirges in '. viii) that not less than eighty pounds weight which they eulogized the personal qualities or virtuous wire used at the funeral of Rabbi Gamaliel, and benevolent actions of the deceased (Acts ix, 39), to an cldir: and by Josephus (Ant. xvii, 8, 3) that, in ' stir the source of tears, and give fresh impulse to the the Bplendid funeral procession of Herod, 500 of his grief of the afflicted relatives. Numbers of these sing- servanta attended as spice-bearers. Thus, too, after ing men and women lamented the death of Josiah (i the crucifixion, Sicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea, Chron. xxxv, 25). The effect of their melancholy dit, two men of wealth, testified their regard for the sacred tics was sometimes heightened by the attendance cl' body of the Saviour by " bringing a mixture of myrrh minstrels (auXj/rai, properly pipers) ; and thus in sol- ami aloes, about a hundred pounds weight" (John xix, emu silence, broken only at intervals by vocal and hu 39, 40); while, unknown to them, the two Marys, to- strumental strains suited to the mournful occasion, the gether with their associates, were prepared to render time was passed till the corpse was carried forth to the the same office of friendship on the dawn of the first grave. See MoTJBNIXG.
day of the week. Whatever cavils the Jewish doctors ^ The period between the death and the burial wis have made at their extravagance and unnecessary much shorter than custom sanctions in our country.