where the Philistines had hung them up), and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there (1 Sam. xxxi. 12.); but by this time their bodies must have been in such a state, that they were not fit to be embalmed; or, perhaps, they were apprehensive that if they should embalm them, and so bury them, the people of Bethshan might at some future time dig them up, and fix them a second time against their walls; and, therefore, the people of Jabesh might think it more advisable to recede from their common practice, and for greater security to imitate the heathen in this particular. Amos also speaks of the burning of bodies (vi. 10.); but it is evident from the words themselves, and from the context, that this was in the time of a great pestilence, not only when there were few to bury the dead, but when it was unsafe to go abroad and perform the funeral rites by interment, in which case the burning was certainly the best expedient. In some cases the rites of sepulture were not allowed; and to this it has been thought that there is an allusion in Job xxvii. 19. It was the opinion of the pagan Arabs that, upon the death of any person, a bird, by them called Manah, issued from the brain, which haunted the sepulchre of the deceased, uttering a lamentable scream. This notion, also, the late professor Carlyle thinks, is evidently alluded to in Job xxi. 32., where the venerable patriarch, speaking of the fate of the wicked, says:— He shall be brought to the grave, And shall watch upon the raised up heap.1 The Jews showed a great regard for the burial of their dead; to be deprived of it was thought to be one of the greatest dishonours that could be done to any man: and, therefore, in Scripture it is reckoned one of the calamities that should befall the wicked. (Eccles. vi. 3.) In all nations there was generally so much humanity as not to prevent their enemies from burying their dead. The people of Gaza allowed Samson's relations to come and take away his body (Judg. xvi. 31.); though one would have thought that this last slaughter which he made among them might have provoked them to some acts of outrage even upon his dead body. But as he stood alone in what he did, none of the Israelites joining with him in his enterprises, they might possibly be apprehensive, that, if they denied him burial, the God of Israel, who had given him such extraordinary strength in his lifetime, would not fail to take vengeance on them in that case, and, therefore, they were desirous, it may be, to get rid of his body (as afterwards they were of the ark), and glad, perhaps, that any one would remove such a formidable object out of their sight. Jeremiah prophesied of Jehoiakim, that he should be buried with the burial of an ass (Jer. xxii. 19.), meaning that he should not be buried at all, but be cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem, exposed to the air and putrefaction above ground, as beasts are, which is more plainly expressed afterwards, by telling us, that his body should be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. (Jer. xxxvi. 30.) The author of that affecting elegy, the seventy-ninth psalm, when enumerating the calamities which had befallen his unhappy countrymen, particularly specifies the denial of the rites of sepulture, as enhancing their afflictions. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of heaven; the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. (Psal. Ixxix. 2.) IV. The RITES OF SEPULTURE were various at different times, and also according to the rank or station of the deceased. 1. Before the age of Moses, the funeral took place a few days after death. (Gen. xxiii. 19. xxv. 9. xxxv. 29.) In Egypt, a longer time elapsed before the last offices were performed for Jacob and Joseph, on account of the time which was requisite for the Egyptian process of embalming, in order that the corpse might be preserved for a long time. (Gen. xlix. 29. 1. 3. 24-26.) As it is probable that the Israelites, when in Egypt, had been accustomed to keep their dead for a considerable period, the Mosaic laws, respecting the uncleanness which arose from a dead body, would compel them to a more speedy interment. At length, after the return from the Babylonish captivity, it became customary for the Jews to bury the dead on the same day, and as soon as possible after the vital spark was extinguished. Jahn affirms (but without assigning any authority for his assertion), that the Jews did this in imitation of the Persians; but it is more likely, that the custom arose from a superstitious interpretation of Deut. xxi. 22, 23., which law enjoined, that Carlyle's Specimens of Arabian Poetry, p. 14. 2d edit. the body of one who had been hanged on a tree should be taken down before night. The burial of Tabitha was delayed, on account of the disciples sending for the apostle Peter. (Acts ix. 37.) 2. The poorer classes were carried forth to interment lying on an open bier or couch, as is the universal practice in the East to this day, not screwed into a coffin. In this way the son of the widow of Nain was borne to his grave without the city: and it should seem that the bearers at that time moved with as much rapidity as they do at the present time among the modern Jews.2 The rich, and persons of rank, were carried forth on more costly biers. Josephus relates that the body of Herod was carried on a golden bier, richly embroidered; and we may presume, that the bier on which Abner was carried was more costly than those used for ordinary persons. (2 Sam. iii. 31.) But whatever the rank of the parties might be, the superintendence and charge of the funeral were undertaken by the nearest relations and friends of the deceased. Thus, Abraham interred Sarah in the cave of Machpelah (Gen. xxiii. 19.); Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham (Gen. xxv. 9.); Esau and Jacob buried Isaac (Gen. xxxv. 29.); Moses buried Aaron on Mount Hor (Num. xx. 29.); the old prophet laid the disobedient prophet in his own grave (1 Kings xiii. 30.); Joseph of Arimathea interred Jesus Christ in his own new tomb (Matt. xxvii. 59, 60.); and the disciples of John the Baptist performed the last office for their master. The sons and numerous relations of Herod followed his funeral procession.3 Sometimes, however, servants took the charge of interring their masters, as in the case of Josiah king of Judah. (2 Kings xxiii. 30.) Devout men carried Stephen to his burial. (Acts viii. 2.) The funeral obsequies were also attended by the friends of the deceased, both men and women, who made loud lamentations for the deceased, and some of whom were hired for the occasion. David and a large body of the Israelites mourned before Abner. (2 Sam iii. 31, 32.) Solomon mentions the circumstance of mourners going about the streets (Eccles. xii. 5.); who, most probably, were persons hired to attend the funeral obsequies, to wail and lament for the departed. From Jer. ix. 17. it appears, that women were chiefly employed for this purpose; and Jerome, in his commentary on that passage, says, that the practice was continued in Judæa, down to his days, or the latter part of the fourth century. In Jer. xlviii. 36., the use of musical instruments by these hired mourners is distinctly recognised; and Amos (v. 17.) alludes to such mourning as a well-known custom. 66 In the time of Jesus Christ and his apostles, the funeral dirges sung by these hired mourners were accompanied by musical instruments. "The soft and plaintive melody of the flute was employed to heighten these doleful lamentations and dirges. Thus we read, that on the death of the daughter of Jairus, a company of mourners, with players on the flute, according to the Jewish custom, attended upon this sorrowful occasion. When Jesus entered the governor's house, he saw the minstrels and the people wailing greatly. (Matt. ix. 23.) The custom of employing music to heighten public and private grief was not in that age peculiar to the Jews. We find the flute also employed at the funeral solemnities of the Greeks and Romans, in their lamentations for the deceased, as appears from numerous testimonies of classic authors." The same custom still obtains among the Moors in Africa, the Turks in Palestine, and the modern Greeks. "At all their principal entertainments," says Dr. Shaw, "and to show mirth and gladness upon other occasions, the women welcome the arrival of each guest, by squalling out for seve 2 Not to detail the observations of the earlier travellers, it may suffice to adduce three instances from recent and intelligent English travellers.— At Cairo, says Mr. Carne, "we met an Arab funeral: about twenty men, friends of the deceased, advanced under a row of palm trees, singing in a inournful tone, and bearing the body. The corpse was that of a woman neatly dressed in white, and borne on an open bier, with a small awning of red silk over it." (Letters from the East, p. 109.) At Baghtchisarai in the Chimea, Dr. Henderson saw a corpse conveyed to the public cemetery of the Christians: it "was simply wrapped round with a white cloth, laid upon a bier or board, and borne by four men to the grave. This mode of performing the funeral obsequies obtains equally among the Jews, Christians, families, who naturally conform to the rite of their ancestors." (Biblical and Mohammedans in these parts, with the exception of the European Researches, p. 301.) Mr. Hartley observed a similar mode of interinent in Greece. The corpse is always exhibited to full view: it is placed upon and gayest garments possessed by the deceased." (Researches in Greece, a bier which is borne aloft upon the shoulders, and is dressed in the best p. 118.) Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xvii. c. 8. §3. Bell. Jud. lib. i. c. 33. § 9. Dr. Blayney's translation of Jeremiah, p. 270. 8yo. edit. 66 cession into the land of Canaan. (Gen. 1. 7-10.) At the burial of Abner, David commanded Joab and all the people that were with him to rend their garments, and gird themselves with sackcloth, and to mourn before Abner, or make lamentations in honour of that general; and the king himself followed the bier. (2 Sam. iii. 31.) All Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did honour to Hezekiah at his death. (2 Chron. xxxii. 33.) Much people of the city were with the widow of Nain, who was following her only son to the grave. (Luke vii. 12.) Josephus informs us that Herod was attended to Herodium (a journey of twenty-five days), where he had commanded that he should be interred, first, by his sons and his numerous relations; next, by his guards, and after them by the whole army, in the same order as when they marched out to war; and that these were followed by five hundred of his domestics, carrying spices. ral times together, Loo! Loo! Loo!! At their funerals, | to do honour to his memory, and who accompanied the proalso, and upon other melancholy occasions, they repeat the same noise, only they make it more deep and hollow, and end each period with some ventriloquous sighs. The aa Corras on, or wailing greatly (as our version expresses it, Mark v. 38.), upon the death of Jairus's daughter, was, probably, performed in this manner. For there are several women, hired to act upon these lugubrious occasions, who, like the præfica, or mourning women of old, are skilful in lamentation (Amos v. 16.), and great mistresses of these melancholy expressions: and, indeed, they perform their parts with such proper sounds, gestures, and commotions, that they rarely fail to work up the assembly into some extraordinary pitch of thoughtfulness and sorrow. The British factory has often been very sensibly touched with these lamentations, whenever they were made in the neighbouring houses."2 The Rev. William Jowett, during his travels in Palestine, arrived at the town of Napolose, which stands on the site of the ancient Shechem, immediately after the death of the governor. "On coming within sight of the gate," he relates, we perceived a numerous company of females, who were singing in a kind of recitative, far from melancholy, and beating time with their hands. On our reaching the gate, it was suddenly exchanged for most hideous plaints and shrieks; which, with the feeling that we were entering a city at no time celebrated for its hospitality, struck a very dismal impression upon my mind. They accompanied us a few paces, but it soon appeared that the gate was their station; to which, having received nothing from us, they returned. We learned in the course of the evening that these were only a small detachment of a very numerous body of cunning women, who were filling the whole city with their cries,-taking up a wailing with the design, as of old, to make the eyes of all the inhabitants run down with tears, and their eyelids gush out with waters. (Jer. ix. 17, 18.) For this good service they would, the next morning, wait upon the government and principal persons, to receive some trifling fee."3 The Rev. John Hartley, during his travels in Greece, relates, that, one morning, while taking a solitary walk in Ægina, the most plaintive accents fell upon his ear which he had ever heard. He followed in the direction from which the sounds proceeded, and they conducted him to the newly-made grave of a young man, cut down in the bloom of life, over which a woman, hired for the occasion, was pouring forth lamentation and mourning and wo, with such doleful strains and feelings, as could scarcely have been supposed other than sincere. In proportion to the rank of the deceased, and the estimation in which his memory was held, was the number of persons who assisted at his funeral obsequies, agreeably to the very ancient custom of the East. Thus, at the funeral of Jacob, there were present not only Joseph and the rest of his family, but also the servants and elders (or superintendents of Pharaoh's house) and the principal Egyptians, who attended 1 Dr. Shaw conceives this word to be a corruption of Hallelujah. He remarks, Ax, a word of the like sound, was used by an army either be fore they gave the onset, or when they had obtained the victory. The Turks to this day call out, Allah! Allah! Allah! upon the like occasion. Travels, vol. i. p. 435. note. (8vo. edit.) 2 Ibid. pp. 435, 436. Jowett's Christian Researches in Syria, p. 194. The mourning of the Montenegrins bears a great resemblance to that of the oriental nations. On the death of any one, nothing is heard but tears, cries, and groans from the whole family the women, in particular, beat themselves in a frightful manner, pluck off their hair and tear their faces and bosoms. The deceased person is laid out for twenty-four hours, in the house where he ex: pires, with the face uncovered; and is perfumed with essences, and strewed with flowers and aromatic leaves, after the custom of the ancients. The lamentations are renewed every moment, particularly on the arrival of a fresh person, and especially of the priest. Just before the defunct is carried out of the house, his relations whisper in his ear, and give him commissions for the other world, to their departed relatives or friends. After these singular addresses, a pall or winding sheet is thrown over the dead person, whose face continues uncovered, and he is carried to church: while on the road thither, women, hired for the purpose, chant his praises, amid their tears. Previously to depositing him in the ground, the next of kin tie a piece of cake to his neck, and put a piece of money in his hand, after the manner of the ancient Greeks. During this ceremony, as also while they are carrying him to the burial-ground, a variety of apostrophes is addressed to the defunct, which are interrupted only by mournful sobs, asking him why he quitted them? Why he abandoned his family? He, whose poor wife loved him so tenderly, and provided every thing for him to eat! Whose children obeyed him with such respect, while his friends succoured him whenever he wanted assistance; who possessed such beau tiful flocks, and all whose undertakings were blessed by heaven! When the funeral rites are performed, the curate and mourners return home, and partake of a grand entertainment, which is frequently interrupted by jovial songs, intermixed with prayers in honour of the deceased. One of the guests is commissioned to chant a "lament" impromptu, which usually draws tears from the whole company; the performer is accompanied by three or four monochords, whose harsh discord excites both laughter and tears at the same time. Voyage Historique et Politique à Montenegro, par M. le Colonel Vialla de Sommières, tom. i. pp. 275-278. Paris, 1820. 8vo. Hartley's Researches in Greece, pp. 119. 120 Further, it was usual to honour the memory of distin guished individuals by a funeral oration or poem: thus David pronounced a eulogy over the grave of Abner. (2 Sam. iii. 33, 34.) Upon the death of any of their princes, who had distinguished themselves in arms, or who, by any religious actions, or by the promotion of civil arts, had merited well of their country, they used to make lamentations or mournful songs for them: from an expression in 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. Behold they are written in the Lamentations, we may infer that they had certain collections of this kind of composition. The author of the book of Samuel has preserved the exquisitively beautiful and affecting elegy which David composed on occasion of the death of Saul and Jonathan; but we have no remains of the mournful poem which Jeremiah made upon the immature death of the pious king Josiah, mentioned in the last-cited chapter: which loss is the more to be deplored, because in all probability it was a masterpiece in its kind, since never was there an author more deeply affected with his subject, or more capable of carrying it through all the tender sentiments of sorrow and compassion, than Jeremiah. But no funeral obsequies were conferred on those who laid violent hands on themselves: hence we do not read that the traitor-suicide Judas was lamented by the Jews (Matt. xxvii. 4.), or by his fellow-disciples. (Acts i. 16.) Among many ancient nations, a custom prevailed of throwing pieces of gold and silver, together with other precious articles, into the sepulchres of those who were buried: this custom was not adopted by the Jews. But in Ezek. xxxii. 27. there is an allusion to the custom which obtained among almost all ancient nations, of adorning the sepulchres of heroes with their swords and other military trophies. The prophet, foretelling the fall of Meshech and Tubal, and all her multitude, says that they are gone down to hell (or the invisible state) with their weapons of war; and they have laid their swords under their heads. In Mingrelia, Sir John Chardin informs us, they all sleep with their swords under their heads, and their other arms by their sides; and they bury them in the same manner, their arms being placed in the same position. This fact greatly illustrates the passage above cited, since, according to Bochart and other learned geographers, Meshech and Tubal mean Mingrelia, and the circumjacent country. 6 V. The most simple TOMBS or monuments of old consisted of hillocks of earth, heaped up over the grave, of which we have numerous examples in our own country. In the East, where persons have been murdered, heaps of stones are raised over them as signs; and to this custom the prophet Ezekiel appears to allude. (xxxix. 15.) The earliest sepulchres, in all probability, were caverns. Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah of Ephron the Hittite for a family burial-place. (Gen. xxiii. 8—18.) Here were interred Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah; here also Jacob buried Leah, and charged his sons to deposit his remains. (Gen. xlix. 29-32. 1. 13.) The ancient Jews seem to have attached much importance to interment in the sepulchre of their fathers, and particularly to being buried in the land of Canaan (Gen. xlvii. 30. xlix. 29. 1. 25.), in which affection for the country of their ancestors they are not surpassed by their descendants, the modern Jews. Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xvi. c. 8. § 3. Harmer's Observations on Scripture, vol. iii. pp. 55, 56. The modern Jews, in the time of Rabbi Solomon Jarchi, buried their dead inmediately, and put wooden props in the tombs by their side, by leaning on which they would be enabled to arise more easily at the resurrection of mankind from death. They further persuade themselves that all the bodies of Jews dying out of Palestine, wherever they may be In Psal. xxviii. 1. cxliii. 7. and Prov. i. 12. the grave is also, was the grave in which the body of our Lord was derepresented as a pit or cavern, into which a descent is neces- posited. Joseph of Arimathea, a person of distinction, by sary; containing dormitories or separate cells for receiving St. Mark called an honourable counsellor" (Mark xv. 43.), the dead (Isa. xiv. 15. Ezek. xxxii. 23.), so that each person or member of the sanhedrin, "mindful of his mortality, had may be said to lie in his own house (Isa. xiv. 18.), and to hewn out of the rock in his garden a sepulchre, in which he rest in his own bed. (Isa. lvii. 2.) These sepulchral vaults intended his own remains should be reposited. Now in the seem to have been excavated for the use of the persons of place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the high rank and their families. The vanity of Shebna, who garden a new sepulchre, wherein was no man yet laid. When was reproved for it by Isaiah, is set forth by his being so Joseph, therefore, had taken the body of Jesus, and wrapped studious and careful to have his sepulchre on high, in a lofty it in a clean linen cloth, he carried it into the tomb which he vault, and, probably, in an elevated situation, that it might had lately hollowed out of the rock; and rolled a great stone be the more conspicuous. (Isa. xxii. 16.)1 Of this kind of to the low door of the sepulchre, effectually to block up the sepulchres there are remains still extant at Jerusalem, some entrance, and secure the sacred corpse of the deceased, both of which are reported to be the sepulchres of the kings of from the indignities of his foes, and the officiousness of his Judah, and others, those of the Judges. friends. Sometimes, also, they buried their dead in fields, The following description of the Tombs of the Kings (as over whom the opulent and families of distinction raised they are termed), which are situated near the village of superb and ostentatious monuments, on which they lavished Gournou, on the west bank of the river Nile, will illustrate great splendour and magnificence, and which they so reli. the nature of the ancient sepulchres, which were excavated giously maintained from time to time in their pristine beauty out of the mountains. "Further in the recesses of the and glory." To this custom our Saviour alludes in the folmountains, are the more magnificent Tombs of the Kings; lowing apt comparison: Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, each consisting of many chambers, adorned with hierogly-hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which inphics. The scene brings many allusions of Scripture to the deed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead mind; such as Mark v. 2, 3. 5., but particularly Isaiah xxii. men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly 16. Thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that hew- appear righteous to men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy eth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth a habitation and iniquity. (Matt. xxiii. 27.) But though the sepulchres for himself in a rock; for many of the smaller sepulchres of the rich were thus beautified, the graves of the poor were are excavated nearly halfway up the mountain, which is oftentimes so neglected, that if the stones by which they very high. The kings have their magnificent abodes nearer were marked happened to fall, they were not set up again, the foot of the mountain; and seem, according to Isaiah xiv. by which means the graves themselves did not appear; they 18., to have taken a pride in resting as magnificently in death were ada, that is, not obvious to the sight, so that men as they had done in life-All the kings of the nations, even all might tread on them inadvertently. (Luke xi. 44.) From of them, lie in glory; every one in his own house. The stuc- Jer. xxvi. 23. we may collect that the populace of the lowest coed walls within are covered with hieroglyphics. They order (Heb. sons or children of the people) were buried in a cannot be better described than in the words of Ezekiel, viií. public cemetery, having no distinct sepulchre to themselves, 8-10. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the as all persons of rank and character, and especially of so wall; and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. And honourable an order as that of the prophets, used to have.9 he said unto me, go in; and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in, and saw and behold every form of creeping things and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round about. The Israelites were but copyists: the master-sketches are to be seen in all the ancient temples and tombs of Egypt."4 Farther, "it appears from the Scriptures, that the Jews had family sepulchres in places contiguous to their own houses, and generally in their gardens:" and the same usage obtained among the Romans and other nations.5 "Such was the place in which Lazarus was interred; and such, interred, will perform a subterraneous journey into Palestine, in order that they may participate in the resurrection. S. Jarchi on Gen. xlvii.-Alber, Inst. Herm. Test. tom. i. p. 319. 1 Bp. Lowth on Isaiah, vol. ii. pp. 120. 170. 328, 329. a "Above half a mile from the wall" of Jerusalem, "are the Tombs of the Kings. In midst of a hollow, rocky and adorned with a few trees, is the entrance. You then find a large apartment, above fifty feet long, at the side of which a low door leads into a series of small chambers, hewn out of the rock, of the size of the human body. There are six or seven of these low and dark apartments, in which are hewn recesses of different shapes for the reception of bodies." (Carne's Letters from the East, p. 294. Three Weeks in Palestine, p. 75.) The "Sepulchres of the Judges, so called, are situated in a wild spot, about two miles from the city. They bear much resemblance to those of the Kings, but are not so handsome or spacious." (Carne's Letters from the East, p. 294.) "No shadow, not even of a rock, is spread over these long enduring relics, in which tradition has placed the ashes of the rulers of Israel. They consist of several divisions, each containing two or three apartments cut out of the solid rock, and entablatures are carved with some skill over the entrance. No richly carved relics, or fragments of sarcophagi remain here, as in the tombs of the kings; and their only use is to shelter the wandering passenger or the benighted traveller, who finds no other resting-place in the wild around." (Carne's Recollections of the East, pp. 135, 136) Jowett's Researches in the Mediterranean, p. 133. Thus, the Mausoleum of Augustus was erected in a garden. Dr. Münter has collected numerous classical inscriptions, which attest the application of gardens to sepulchral purposes. (Symbolæ ad Interpretationem Evangeli Johannis ex Marmoribus, pp. 29, 30.) The modern inhabitants of Mount Lebanon have their sepulchres in gardens. The Rev. Mr. Jowett, during his visit to Deir-el-Kamar, the capital of the Druses on that mountain, says, that while walking out one evening a few fields' distance with the son of his host, to see a detached garden belonging to his father, the young man pointed out to him near it a small solid stone building, very solemnly adding, “Kabbar Beity-the sepulchre of our family." It had neither door nor window. "He then" (adds Mr. J.) "directed my attention to a considerable number of similar buildings at a distance; which to the eye are exactly like houses, but which are, in fact, family mansions for the dead. They have a most melancholy appearance, which made him shudder while he explained their use."...."Perhaps this custom, which prevails particularly at Deir-el-Kamar, and in the lonely neighbouring parts of the mountain, may have been of great antiquity, and may serve to explain some Scripture phrases. The prophet Sanuel was buried in his house at Ramah (1 Sam. xxv. 1.); it could hardly be in his dwelling-house. Joab was buried in his own house in the wilderness. (1 Kings ii. 34.)" Jowett's Christian Researches in Palestine, p. 280. VOL. II. 2 C After the deceased had been committed to the tomb, it was customary among the Greeks and Romans, to put the tears shed by the surviving relatives and friends into lachrymatory urns, and place these on the sepulchres, as a memorial of their distress and affection. From Psal. Ivi. 8. it should seem that this custom was still more anciently in use among the eastern nations, especially the Hebrews. These vessels were of different materials, and were moulded into different forms. Some were of glass, and some were of earthenware,10 being diminutive in size and of delicate workmanship. In order to do honour to the memory of the dead, their sepulchres were sometimes distinguished by monuments. Harwood's Introduction, vol. ii. pp. 139. 141, 142. The sepulchres, Macknight's Harmony, sect. 87. vol. ii. p. 473. 10 Dr. Chandler's Life of David, vol. i. p. 106. Among the valuable re mains of ancient art collected by Dr. E. D. Clarke among the ruins of Sicyon, in the Peloponnesus, were lachrymatories of more ancient form and materials than any thing he had ever before observed of the same kind; "the lachrymatory phials, in which the Sicyonians treasured up their tears, deserve rather the name of bottles; they are nine inches long, two inches in diameter, and contains as much fluid as would fill a phial of three ounces; consisting of the coarsest materials, a heavy blue clay or marle.... Sometimes the vessels found in ancient sepulchres are of suc diminutive size, that they are only capable of holding a few drops of fluid in these instances there seems to be no other use for which they were fitted. Small lachrymal phials of glass have been found in the tombs of the Romans in Great Britain; and the evident allusion to this practice in the Sacred Scriptures-Put those my tears into thy bostle (Psal. lvi. 8 )-seems decisive as to the purpose for which these vessels were designed." Tra vels in various Countries of Europe, &c. vol. vi. pp. 541, 542. The custom of erecting these seems to have obtained even | the days of mourning. (Gen. xxvii. 41. and 1. 4.) Thus from the patriarchal age. Thus, Jacob erected a pillar upon the Egyptians, who had a great regard for the patriarch the grave of his beloved wife Rachel. (Gen. xxxv. 20.) This Jacob, lamented his death threescore and ten days. (Gen. is the earliest monument mentioned in the Scriptures: it is 1. 3.) The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab evident from that passage that it was standing when Moses thirty days. (Deut. xxxiv. 8.) Afterwards, among the Jews, wrote; and its site seems to have been known in the time of the funeral mourning was generally confined to seven days. Samuel and Saul. (1 Sam. x. 2.) The monument now shown Hence, besides the mourning for Jacob in Egypt, Joseph in the vicinity of Bethlehem, as Rachel's tomb, is a modern and his company set apart seven days to mourn for his father, and Turkish structure, which may, perhaps, be the true place when they approached the Jordan with his corpse. (Gen. of her interment.1 In later times, inscriptions appear to have 1. 10.) In the time of Christ, it was customary for the been placed on tombstones, denoting the persons who were nearest relative to visit the grave of the deceased and to there interred. Such was the title or inscription discovered weep there. The Jews, who had come to condole with by Josiah, which proved to be the burial-place of the prophet Mary on the death of her brother Lazarus, on seeing her go who was sent from Judah to denounce the divine judgments out of the house, concluded that she was going to the grave against the altar which Jeroboam had erected more than three to weep there. (John xi. 31.) The Syrian women are still centuries before. Simon Maccabæus built a splendid monu- accustomed, either alone or accompanied by some attendants, ment at Modin in honour of his father and his brethren. to visit the tombs of their relatives, and mourn their loss: (1 Macc. xiii. 25-30.) In the time of Jesus Christ, it appears and the same usage obtains almost throughout the East, that the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees repaired and among Jews as well as Christians and Mohammedans; and adorned the tombs of the prophets whom their ancestors had in Persia, Egypt, Greece, Dalmatia, Bulgaria, Croatia, murdered for their faithfulness, under a sanctimonious ap- Servia, Wallachia, and Illyria. pearance of respect for their memory. The ancient Arabs raised a heap of stones over the body of the dead (Job xxi. 32. marginal rendering), which was guarded. In the year 1820, Mr. Rae Wilson observed on the plain of Zebulun, not far from Cana, piles of stones covering over or marking the place of graves. Similar cairns, also the remains of remote antiquity, exist both in England and in Scotland. Among the Hebrews, great heaps of stones were raised over those whose death was either infamous, or attended with some very remarkable circumstances. Such were the heaps raised over the grave of Achan (Josh. vii. 26.), over that of the king of Ai (viii. 29.), and over that of Absalom (2 Sam. xviii. 17.); all which were sepulchral monuments to perpetuate the place of their interment. VI. A FUNERAL FEAST commonly succeeded the Jewish burials. Thus, after Abner's funeral was solemnized, the people came to David to eat meat with him, though they could not persuade him to do so. (2 Sam. iii. 35.) He was the chief mourner, and probably had invited them to this banquet. Of this Jeremiah speaks (xvi. 7.), where he calls it the cup of consolation, which they drank for their father or their mother; and accordingly the place where this funeral entertainment was made, is called in the next verse the house of feasting. Hosea calls it the bread of mourners. (Hos. ix. 4.) Funeral banquets are still in use among the oriental Christians. It does not appear that there was any general mourning for Saul and his sons, who died in battle: but the national troubles, which followed upon his death, might have prevented it. David, indeed, and his men, on hearing the news of their death, mourned and wept for them until even. (2 Sam. i. 12.) And the men of Jabesh-Gilead fasted for them seven days (1 Sam. xxxi. 13.), which must not be understood in a strict sense, as if they took no food during that time, but that they lived very abstemiously, ate little, and that seldom, using a low and spare diet, and drinking water only. How long widows mourned for their husbands is nowhere told us in Scripture. It is recorded, indeed, of Bathsheba, that when she heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for him (2 Sam. xi. 26.); but this could neither be long nor very sincere. 4"A female, with part of her robe drawn over her head, or veiled, was seen seated by the tombs of her relatives on the summit of Mount Moriah, or along its sides, just beneath the walls of Jerusalem." Carne's Letters, P332 "We arrived" (at one of the villages of Elephantina, an island in the Nile) "just in time to witness a coronagh, or wailing for the dead. woman of the village had that morning received the melancholy intelligence without her knowledge, near the spot where the body was found; and she, A poor that her husband had been drowned in the Nile. He had been interred along with several of her female friends, was paying the unavailing tribute of lamentation to his departed shade." (Richardson's Travels, vol. i. p. 355.) "One morning," says the same intelligent traveller, "when standing among the ruins of the ancient Syene, on the rocky promontory above the The usual tokens of mourning by which the Jews ex-ferry, I saw a party of thirteen females cross the Nile to perform the lugupressed their grief and concern for the death of their friends brious dirge at the mansions of the dead. They set up a piteous wail on and relations, were by rending their garments, and putting dirty robes of beteen. entering the boat, after which they all cowered up together, wrapt in their On landing they wound their way slowly and on sackcloth (Gen. xxxvii. 34.), sprinkling dust on their silently along the outside of the walls of the ancient town, till they arrived heads, wearing of mourning apparel (2 Sam. xiv. 2.), and at their place of destination, when some of them placed a sprig of flowers covering the face and the head. (2 Sam. xix. 4.) They on the grave, and sat down silently beside it; others cast themselves on the ground, and threw dust over their heads, uttering mournful lamentawere accustomed also in times of public mourning to go up tions, which they continued to repeat at intervals, during the short time to the roofs or platforms of their houses, there to bewail that I witnessed their procedure." (Ibid. vol. i. p. 360.) Mr. Jowett witnessed a similar scene at Manfelout, a more remote town of Upper Egypt. their misfortunes, which practice is mentioned in Isaiah xv. Christian Researches in the Mediterranean, p. 162. Alber, Inst. Herm. 3. and xxii. 1. Anciently, there was a peculiar space of Vet. Test. tom. i. pp. 311-319. Calmet, Dissertation sur les Funérailles time allotted for lamenting the deceased, which they called des Hébreux. Dissert. tom. i. pp. 290-309. Pareau, Antiquitas Hebraica, pp. 472-477. Jahn, Archæol Bibl. §§ 204-211. Stosch, Compendium Archæologiæ Economica Novi Testamenti, pp. 121–132. Brünings, Compendium Antiquitatum Græcarum, pp. 388-400.; and his Compendium Antiquitatum Hebræarum, pp. 257-264. The subject of Hebrew sepulchres is very fully discussed by Nicolai, in his treatise De Sepulchris Hebræorum (Lug. Bat. 1706), which is illustrated with several curious plates, some of which, however, it must be confessed, are rather fanciful. 1 Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo, p. 117. "It has all the appearance of one of those tombs often erected to the memory of a Turkish Santon." Carne's Letters, p. 277. Rae Wilson's Travels in the Holy Land, vol. ii. p. 5. third edition. • Harmer's Observations, vol. iii. p. 19. ANALYSIS OF SCRIPTURE. PART V. ANALYSIS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. CHAPTER I. ON THE PENTATEUCH, OR FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. SECTION I. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PENTATEUCH. I. Title.-II. Argument of the Pentateuch.-III. Notice of other Writings ascribed to Moses. I. THE PENTATEUCH, by which title the five books of Moses are collectively designated, is a word of Greek original, which literally signifies five books, or volumes; by the Jews it is frequently termed an (TORAH) the Law, or the LAW OF MOSES, because it contains the ecelesiastical and political ordinances issued by God to the Israelites. The Pentateuch forms, to this day, but one roll or volume in the Jewish manuscripts, being divided only into paraschioth and siderim, or larger and smaller sections. This collective designation of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, is of very considerable antiquity, though we have no certain information when it was first introduced. As, however, the names of these books are evidently derived from the Greek, and as the five books of Moses are expressly mentioned by Josephus, who wrote only a few years after our Saviour's ascension, we have every reason to believe that the appellation of Pentateuch was prefixed to the Septuagint version by the Alexandrian translators. must be applied also to the nine following psalms, is not sufficient. The greater part of the titles of the psalms is not original, nor, indeed, very ancient; and some of them are evidently misplaced: we find also in these psalms the names of persons, and other marks, which by no means agree with Moses. II. This division of the sacred volume comprises an account of the creation of the world, and of the fall of man, the outlines of the early annals of the world, and a full recital of the Jewish law, and of the events which happened to the Israelites from their becoming a distinct people to their departure out of Egypt, and their arrival on the confines of the land of Canaan, a period of two thousand five hundred and fifteen years according to the vulgar computation, or of three thousand seven hundred and sixty-five years, according to the computation established by Dr. Hales. "It is a wide description gradually contracted; an account of one nation, preceded by a general sketch of the first state of mankind. The books are written in pure Hebrew, with an admirable diversity of style, always well adapted to the subject, yet characterized with the stamp of the same author; they are all evidently parts of the same work, and mutually strengthen and illustrate each other. They blend revelation and history in one point of view; furnish laws, and describe their execution; exhibit prophecies, and relate their accomplishment. "5 III. Besides the Pentateuch the Jews ascribe to Moses ten psalms, from psalm xc. to xcix. inclusive. There is, however, no solid evidence to prove that these psalms were composed by him; for the title of the ninetieth psalm ("a prayer of Moses the man of God"), which, they pretend, 1ПTT5, from ITI, five, and Tuxos, a book or volume. Bible de Vence, tom. i. p. 310. p. 213. 2 For an account of these divisions, see Vol. I. The author of the treatise De Mundo, which is commonly ascribed to Philo Judeus, was of opinion that Moses himself divided his work into five books; but he assigned no authority for such opinion. Jesus Christ and his apostles never cite the five books of Moses under any other name than that of Moses, or the Law of Moses; as the Jews ordinarily do to this day. Calmet conjectures that Ezra divided the Pentateuch into five books. Dissertations, tom. ii. p. 23. Further, some of the ancient fathers have thought that Moses was the author of the book of Job: Origen, in his commentary on Job, pretends that Moses translated it out of Syriac into Hebrew; but this opinion is rejected both by Jews and Christians. Besides, if this book had really been composed by Moses, is it likely that the Jews would have separated it from the Pentateuch 26 There are likewise ascribed to Moses several apocryphal books; as an Apocalypse, or Little Genesis, the Ascension of Moses, the Assumption of Moses, the Testament of Moses, and the Mysterious Books of Moses. The principal part of the "Little Genesis" was transferred by Cedrenus into his chronological history: it was extant in Hebrew in the fourth century of the Christian æra, for we find it cited by Jerome. From the apocalypse just noticed, it has been pretended that Saint Paul copied Gal. v. 6. and vi. 15.; and it has been imagined that what is said in the Epistle of Jude (verse 9.), respecting the archangel Michael's contention with Satan for the body of Moses, was taken from the apocryphal Ascension of Moses. Such was the opinion of Origen, who, though he cites it in another place, alludes to it as not being in the canon. All these pretended Mosaic writings, however, are confessedly spurious, and are supposed to have been fabricated in the early ages of Christianity. On the difference between the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuchs, or, rather, editions of the Pentateuch, see Volume I. p. 204.; for a view of the Genuineness and Credibility of the Pentateuch, see Volume I. pp. 32-38.; and for a List of the principal Commentators on this portion of the Sacred Scriptures, see Volume II. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX, PART II. CHAP. V. SECT. III. § 4. SECTION II. ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS. I. Title.-II. Author and date.-III. General argument.- 1. THE first book of the Pentateuch, which is called GE- In his Jewish Antiquities, Josephus terms the Pentateuch the "Holy Books of Moses" (lib. x. c. iv. §2.); and in his Treatise against Apion (lib. i. c. 8.), when enumerating the sacred writings of the Jews, he says that Cedrenus, enumerating the authorities consulted by him, says, that he PIVE of them belong to Moses."-Some critics have imagined that this dis- "collected not a few things from the Little Genesis, &O THE ATHS tinction of the Pentateuch into five separate books was known to and recog-Trg. Historia Compendiaria, tom. i. p. 2. edit. Venet. 1729. Cedrenus nised by St. Paul (1 Cor. xiv. 19.), by the term five words; but the context frequently cites this apocryphal book in the course of his work. of that passage does not authorize such a conjecture. Bp. Gray's Key to the Old Testament, p. 76. 5th edit. See the passages of Origen at length in Dr. Lardner's works, vol. ii. pp. 483-512. 8vo. or vol. i. pp. 541-557. 4to. |