The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1882-12-21
FUNERALS IN OLDEN TIME.
The Manner Of Obsequies in the Days
of Christ's Ministry,

The touching Gospel account of the
funeral procession that wound out OF
the gates of Main, says Mrs. Palmer'S
Home Life in the Bible" as our Lord
and His disciples came nigh, gives US
probably the most familiar idea of the
ordinary mode OF committing the
dead to their 'long homes" in that
day. First in order came the women,
according to an ancient commentary
of the Jews, which explains that. as
woman brought death TITO our
world, she it is who ought to lead the
way in a funeral procession" Among
| them, how easy for anyone, much
more the Lord, her maker, to recog-
niZe the widow, about to hide away
forever from her eyes an only son. Be
hind the bier followed much people
of the city," and last of all the hired
mournerS and the musicians, with
their distracting and discordant
wailing and piping. According
to prevailing custom, our
Lord and His companions
should have joined the procession, and
wept with them who wept, or shared
in bearing the burden of the open bier
on which lay the young man, 1.-THE
only son of his mother, and she was a
widow" 1t was contrary to the law
that high priest should attend the
funeral or observe any of the cuStO-
mary rites of mourning for any rela-
tive, not even for his father or his
mother; the priest might be ''detiled'
for his mother, father, son, daughter,
brother, and unmarried sister, but for
no other relation in life. Oevit. xxi.
IA, 10, III.
In the time Of Christ it was the GUS
tom, from the moment the body was
carried out Of the house, to reverse all
chairs or coucheS, or seats OF whatever
sort. The mournerS sat on the floor,
except on the Sabbath and on one
hour of the Friday, the day of prepa-
ration, and on some feaSt-dayS
in which mourning was pro-
hibited. On the return Of the
family from the burial with
their friends, they were served by their
neighborS with a Symbollcal refresh
ment in earthenware, consisting of
bread, hard-boiled eggs and lentilS.
The friends and funeral guests, how
ever, partook of generous meal, but
at which the supply of wine was linn
tied to ten cups. These ''cups" may
have been a relic of the ancient Gus
tom referred to in jeremiah: Neither
shall men give them" (the mourners)
1.-The cup of consolation for their father
or for their mother" xvi. 8, y. An
allusion to funeral banquets is sup
posed to be found in the circumstance
after Abner's death, as recorded in this
text: when all the people came to
cause David to eat meat while it was
yet day, David swore, saying, so do
God to me, and more also, ii | taste
bread, or aught else, till the sun be
down." Oil SAM, :30); and Jeremy
in his epistle, speaks of the priests in
the temples of idols, who "roar and
cry before their gods, as men do at the
feast when one is dead" (Bar., Vi:32).
With the return from the grave be-
gan the formal mourning, when the
passionate expressions of grief, loud
and demonstrative before the burial,
were, if possible, redoubled and inten-
sified. The prescribed season for deep
mourning was seven days, the first
three of these being those of weep
ing" the others those of "lamenta-
ton" These being fulfilled, there
followed a lighter mourning of thirty
days or more, according to the nature
of the bereavement. Under the rab-
bis, children mourned for their parents
a whole year. The anniversary of
the death of relative was also to be
kept; while, for a season, the Jewish
prayer for the dead' mot, however,
intercessary in its character was to
be offered.