17. Customs Relating to the Dead

Customs Relating to the Dead Wail with Tabrets, etc

Grave-clothes

1. When a person died, his relations rent their upper garment from head to foot, and a smaller rent was made by the spectators. This rending of the clothes was also a common act of mourning on almost every occasion of distress (Gen 37:29; Jdg 11:35; 2Sa 1:2; Est 4:1; etc.). In the case of death, a dismal cry was at the same time raised by the persons present; and if the parties were in good circumstances, the hired mourners and minstrels were soon in attendance to aggravate the ostensible mourning by their doleful lamentations and melancholy music (Jer 9:17-18; Mat 9:23; Mark 5:38; Acts 9:39). The eyes of the deceased were closed by one of his sons, or by the nearest present relative (Gen 46:4). The body was then laid out upon a cloth on the floor or on a table, and washed with warm water. It was next placed upon a table and embalmed. There were various ways of embalming; but except in the case of Jacob and Joseph, who were embalmed in Egypt (Gen 50:2; Gen 50:26), it is doubtful if this was ever done so elaborately as among the Egyptians. The most usual mode was to anoint the body with a solution of odoriferous drugs, and wrap it up in linen. Spices and perfumes were used in great abundance in preparing the bodies of the wealthy for the sepulcher. We may infer this from the large quantities provided by Joseph and Nicodemus for the body of Christ, which was wrapped up in linen, with a hundredweight of myrrh and lign aloes (John 19:39-40). Usually, after the ordinary washing and anointing, the body was wrapped round with many folds of linen, and the head enveloped in a napkin (John 11:44).

2. The funeral was seldom delayed above twenty-four hours after death, as the process of decomposition commences very soon in warm countries; and to enforce the salutary practice of speedy interment, the law extended to seven days the ceremonial defilement communicated by the presence of a corpse (Num 19:11-13; Acts 5:6; Acts 5:10). The body was not put into a coffin, but, closely wrapped up from head to foot, was borne in an open bier to the place of burial (Luk 7:14).

Ancient Jewish Funeral; Costume, Arabo-Syrian

The bier was followed by the mourners, who expressed their grief in loud lamentations; while the minstrels, with their melancholy pipes, and the mourning women with doleful voices and disheveled hair, enhanced the effect of this public display of sorrow (2Sa 3:31-32; Ecc 12:5; Mat 9:23; Mat 11:17). The body was deposited in its last home without any particular ceremony. As the funeral procession returned, there were several pauses, to enable certain of the company to administer comfort to the afflicted relatives. The day was concluded by a funeral feast, in which they ate what was called the “bread of mourning” and drank “the cup of consolation” (2Sa 3:35; Jer 16:7; Hos 9:4). Rent clothes and sackcloth formed the mourning attire of the Israelites (Gen 37:34; 2Sa 3:31; Joe 1:8; etc.). Other acts of mourning were, to go about with the face and head shrouded (2Sa 19:4), and to sprinkle dust upon the head (Job 2:12; Lam 2:10; Rev 18:19).

3. Our own custom of burying the dead in towns would not be endured in the East; nor did it exist among the Israelites.

Interior of Sepulcher

Modern Syrian Tombs

The burial-grounds are always at some distance from the towns; they are unenclosed, and the highways often pass through them. This was also the case among the Jews, as is evident from several passages of Scripture (Jer 26:23; Mat 27:52-53), and from mention being made of men walking over graves without being aware of them (Luk 11:44). Burial in these general cemeteries was for the mass of the people, or those who had no private or family sepulchers. The latter were commonly in private fields and gardens, in the outskirts of the towns; and, when possible, were caverns, some of which, still remaining, are extensive excavations, with niches in the sides wherein the corpses were deposited. They were closed either by a stone door, or by a flat stone placed against the entrance (Gen 23:17-20; 2Ki 13:21; Isa 22:16; Mat 23:27; Mat 23:29; Mat 27:52-53; Mat 27:60). Only the remains of kings and very distinguished men were allowed to be deposited in cities (1Sa 28:3; 2Ki 21:18; 2Ch 16:14; 2Ch 24:16); and the sepulcher of the kings of the line of David was upon Mount Zion (2Ki 14:20; 2Ch 21:20; etc.).It was usual to whitewash the exterior of sepulchers on the last day of the year, with the view of preventing the strangers who came to Jerusalem from defiling themselves by inadvertent contact therewith (Mat 23:27); for contact even with a bone of a dead body was counted a defilement (2Ch 34:5). By what kind of monuments the Israelites honored the dead is not very clear. In very early times Jacob erected a stone (called a “pillar”) over the grave of his beloved Rachel (Gen 35:20); and Absalom in his lifetime erected a monument (also called a “pillar”) to keep his name in remembrance (2Sa 18:18). The sepulchral stones appear to have been engraved with inscriptions declaring the name and quality of the dead (2Ki 23:17). That there were tombstones in the common cemeteries is not altogether clear from Scripture, but may be inferred from various circumstances, and from the analogy of existing usages.

Garden Tomb