RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Motet
Mourning Customs
franchises of his ministerial brethren to a high degree. He was elected into the Legal Hundred in 1872, which was a singular honor for so comparatively young a man, and in 1890 he was elected president of the Wesleyan Conference. His scholarly labors were incessant and well directed. Mathematics had been his early choice, but it was as the best Greek scholar among English Wesleyans of his day that he will be remembered. He was not prolific as an author mainly for the reason that he had always so much teaching to do and because he took infinite pains with his literary work, and by preference did work requiring infinite pains if it were to be well done. He made his mark first by a fine translation of Winer's Grammar of New Testament Greek (Edinburgh, 1870) which superseded that by Edward Masson (1859). In 1870 he was selected as representative of the Wesleyans on the Bible Revision Committee and served very zealously in the New Testament Company. His interest in the general subject of Bible revision led to his preparing a brief but excellent History of the English Bible (London, 1878). His critical and exegetical studies were also well displayed in the commentary on Hebrews which he contributed to Bishop Ellicott's New Testament Commentary for English Readers (1879), and that on John, in cooperation with William Milligan, in Philip Schaff's Popular Illustrated Commentary on the New Testament (Edinburgh, 1880). Shortly before his death he appeared as editor with Alfred S. Geden of A Concordance to the Greek Testament according to the Texts of Westcott and Hort, Tischendorf and the English Revisers (1897), but in his prefatory note he disclaimed more than a consultative position. So, though his separate publications were few, their quality was high and he will not quickly be forgotten. His versatility, his accomplishments, and his spirituality endeared him to his contemporaries.
Bibliography: W. F. Moulton, William F. Moulton: a Memoir, with a Chapter on {his) Biblical Work and Opinions by James Hope Moulton, New York, 1899.
MOUNT OF OLIVES. See Jerusalem, I. MOURNING CUSTOMS, HEBREW.
Signs of Mourning (§ 1). Explanations of Schwally,
Frey, and Lagrange (§2). Grvineisen's Views (§ 3). Views of Baentsch (§ 4).
Expressions of grief among the Hebrews varied
with the occasion. Childless Rachel grieved through
envy (Gen. xxx. 1). Examples appear of the grief
of the vanquished (I Kings xx. 31;
i. Signs of Jer. xlix. 3); of the destitute (Jer.
Mourning, xvi. 5); of those under the wrath of God (Amos viii. 8) ; of those in trouble (Isa. lxi. 3) ; of those who receive evil tidings (Num. xiv. 39). Such grief shows itself by outward manifestations, the most striking of which are seen in the case of death and bereavement. Grief makes a man fall to the ground (II Sam. xii. 20) ; cover his face (II Sam. xix. 4); neglect his person (II Sam. xii. 20); seek solitude in the upper chamber (II Sam. xviii. 33) or on the very roof (Isa. xv. 3) ; while the weeping mourners assemble in the street
(Isa. xv. 3) or in the house of mourning (Matt. ix. 23). They have their heads shorn to baldness (Jer. xlviii. 37). The law, however, forbade this practise as heathenish (Deut. xiv. 1), but the Moabites observed it (Isa. xv. 2). Mourners even tore out their hair by the roots (Ezra ix. 3), sat in ashes (Jonah iii. 6), and put earth on their heads (I Sam. iv. 12). The wringing of the hands (Lam. i. 17) and the beating of the breast (Isa. xxxii. 12) are also signs of grief. The signs of mourning were carried also in the clothing. The mourner put off his adornment (Ex. xxxiii. 4), went barefoot (II Sam. xv. 30), rent his clothing (not so the high priest, however, Lev. xxi. 10), and assumed special signs of mourning such as sackcloth (Heb. sak, cf. Dress and Ornament, Hebrew, § 1; and II Sam. xxi. 10; Isa. 1. 3 ; Joel i. 8), or raiment of dark color (Mai. iii. 14, A. V margin). He also fasted (Dan. x. 3) even for seven days (I Sam. xxxi. 13). The neighbors would offer food to the mourner (II Sam. xii. 16-17), which may have been a specific " bread of mourners," baked of coarse meal (Hos. ix. 4). An important part was played in the mourning for the dead by the dirge or elegy, the most notable instances of which are David's lament over Jonathan (II Sam. i. 17 sqq.), and Jeremiah's over Josiah (II Chron. xxxv. 25). This was later accompanied with musical instruments (Matt. ix. 23). While such lamentations, like the fast mentioned (I Sam. xxxi. 13), usually lasted for seven days, Aaron and Moses were mourned for thirty days (Num. xx. 29). The anniversary of a death was also celebrated (Judges xi. 40) for four days. The Law forbade mourning celebrations over the criminal, the suicide, or the outlaw.
Modern critics have sometimes traced the mourning customs of the Hebrews to a natural religion which existed previously to the Mosaic 2. Explana- dispensation and an animistic belief tions of which was independent of the divine
Schwally, revelation of the Hebrew Bible (cf. F.
Frey, and Schwally, Das Leben nach dem Tode,
Lagrange. Giessen, 1892). Tonsure of the head and cutting off of the beard were by Schwally considered to be offerings of the hair; tearing or gashing of the flesh was a blood offering for the dead. Sackcloth was originally the clothing of slaves, and the wearing of it was a token of submission to the dead, who still had power to help or hurt the living. To win the favor of the dead the mourner ate with him the bread of mourning, and drank with him the cup of sorrow. The treasures laid in the graves of kings, as Josephus relates, were so many offerings to the dead. On the contrary J. Frey and Lagrange rightly maintain that all these mourning rites are celebrated as under the eye of Yahweh, who is, as it were, brought nearer to the mourners by the death of those they love or honor. Sackcloth is the religious material indicative of humiliation. The veiling of the head, or the hiding of the face with the hands is a sign of shrinking awe in the presence of Yahweh (Ex. iii. 6; I Kings xix. 13). The wearing of mourning garments was intended to call down the mercy and tenderness of God. The bread of mourning and the cup of sorrow were not meant to propitiate the
Mourning Customs Movement, Laymen's