BURIAL.
I. Hebrew.
Preparation for Burial (§ 1).
Place (§2).
Varieties of Graves (§ 3).
I. Hebrew: In all periods interment was the customary Hebrew method of disposing of the dead. I Sam. xxxi. 12 and Amos vi. 10, in spite of the corrupt condition of the text, show that burning was exceptional; indeed, incineration implied something discreditable to the dead and in ancient custom and the priest-code was an intensification
The Medieval Church (§ 3).
The Reformation Burial Service
(§ 4). Modern Developments (§ 5).
of the death-penalty (Josh. vii. 25; Lev. xx. 14). Aversion to incineration accompanied ancient belief in the existence of a bond between soul and body even after death. The spirits of the unburied dead wandered restless on the earth, and in Sheol their lot was pitiable, driven as they were into nooks and corners (Ezek. xxii. 23). The grave con-
Burial Buridan
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
fined the soul to the body so as to give it repose and save it from injury. Consequently it was not merely an awful disgrace but a terrible misfortune not to be buried (I Kings xiv. 11; II Kings ix. 10; Isa. xxxiii. 12). Hence it was a sacred duty to inter a body found unburied. In the case of criminals stoned to death a heap of stones over the body served as a grave (Josh. vii. 26).
The climate of Palestine necessitated the quickest possible disposition of the corpse; interment, therefore, took place on the day of death (Deut. xxi. 23). In the time of Christ the body was washed, anointed with fragrant spices, and more or less completely wrapped in linen (Acts. ix. 37; Mark xvi. 1; John
xi. 44). The Old Testament makes
i. Prepara- no allusion to this custom. The
tion for belief that the dead in Sheol might
Burial. be recognized by the habit implies
that in early times the corpse was buried in the apparel of daily life. Later, royalty and officials were buried with costly spices, ornaments, gold, and silver (Josephus, Ant., XIII. viii. 4; XV- hi. 4). And if the account by Josephus of the plundering of David's tomb by Hyrcanus and Herod may be trusted, this custom reached back into antiquity. Embalming was a custom foreign to the Hebrews; cases of it are Jacob and Joseph (Gen. 1. 2, 26) and Aristobulus (Josephus, Ant., XIV. vii. 4). The use of coffins was postexilic.
The place of burial was determined by the belief that the ties of kinship lasted beyond death. The value of a family burying-place was in part due to the fact that burial therein involved union with kin in Sheol (Gen. xxv. 8, 17; II Sam. xxi. 14). Therefore, family tombs were in the earliest ages on the estate and near the house (I Sam. xxv. 1). Therein might be laid only members of the family. A public cemetery was provided for the very poor, for foreigners, and for criminals (Jer. xxvi. 23;
Isa. liii. 9; Matt, xxvii. 7). The 2. Place, kings of Judah had tombs in Jerusalem,
and Ezekiel charges them with the serious offense of laying their dead next to the precincts of the sanctuary. To miss burial with one's kin was dire misfortune or divine punishment. For practical reasons people began quite early to locate tombs outside the cities, and graves came to be regarded as ceremonially impure. In the time of Christ tombs were whitewashed in order that their character might be known at a distance and defilement avoided (Matt, xxiii. 27; Luke xi. 44).
The grave was simple in its appointments. Wherever in Jewish tombs rich ornamentation is found, foreign influence (generally Greek) is recognized. Apart from the general lack of artistic sense displayed by the Hebrews, a religious confideration comes in to explain this: the stern opposition of the Yahweh-cult to ancestor-worship discouraged adornment of burial-places, which thus differed widely from Egyptian and Phenician tombs. This and the lack of inscriptions make it difficult to determine the date of Jewish graves. For situation, rocky chambers, natural or artificial, were preferred.
Four kinds of graves are known: (1) recessgraves, oblong, rock-hewn, about six feet long by one and a half square, hewn lengthwise into the wall of the chamber, into which the body was placed from the end; (2) sunken-graves, like those used in the Occident, but covered with stone; (3) bench-graves, set bench-like in the 3. Varieties walls of the chamber, twenty-two of Graves, inches high, often arch-roofed and hewn sidewise into the chamber-wall; (4) trough-graves, a combination of (2) and (3) above. Of the chambers there are three varieties: (1) single chambers with a single sunken grave in the floor; (2) single chambers with several graves of one or more of the above-mentioned kinds; (3) larger burial-places with more than one chamber. All of the third variety so far found belong to a late date, as is proved by the architecture. The oldest and commonest are of the second type, single chambers with recess-graves, which are so typical that they may be named specifically Hebrew. Such allow the largest number of interments in a given chamber. Shaft-tombs of the Egyptian pattern have so far not been discovered in Palestine.
The Phenician custom of marking an excavated grave by a grave-stone other than the stone-heap piled on it was not adopted by the Hebrews. The tombs built above ground date from the Greek period, or later, and are of foreign origin.
(I. Benzinger.)
Bibliography: F. I. Grundt, Die Trauergebrauche der Hebraer, Leipsic, 1868; W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book, New York, 1886; F. Schwally, Das Leben nach dem Tode nach den Vorstellungen des alien Israel und des Judentums, Giessen, 1892; Benzinger, Archaologie, pp. 136-137; Nowack, Archaologie, i. 187; H. B. Tristram, Eastern Customs in Bible Lands, London, 1894; A. P. Bender, Beliefs, Rites and Customs of the Jews connected with Death, Burial and Mourning, in JQR, 1894-95; G. M. Mackie, Bible Manners and Customs, London, 1895; KL, ii. 182-189; DB, i. 331-333.
II. Christian: From the beginning the Christians regarded the final disposal of the dead as a congregational matter, and, when possible, they had burial-places, in which only those who were their members might be buried and which were called cameteria (" resting-places "), in allusion to the resurrection (see Cemeteries). In deference to the body as the organ of the spirit and in the expectation of the resurrection, they were careful that the funeral should take place in a proper manner. The corpse was carried to the grave by bearers whom the Christian congregation had appointed, and the fact that the
1. Early funeral took place, if possible, in
Practise day-time, was designed to express and Cere- joy and hope that the departed had
monies, been set free and had entered into eternal life. The pagan lamentation for the dead, as well as the crowning of the corpse, was not approved, but torches were carried in front, as befitting the victorious combatant, and hymns and psalms were sung, in praise of God. A memorial address was doubtless made on special occasions, but a funeral sermon in the modern sense .seems to have been unknown. Pravers were