salem, within whose walls the kings of the house of David, and the bodies of Jehoiada the high priest and of Huldah the prophetess were laid, 2 Chr. xxiv. 16. Their sepulchres were in gardens, in fields, and in the sides of mountains; and they were generally in solitary and unfrequented places. Thus the demoniac of Gadara wore no clothes, and abode not in any house, but had his dwelling among the tombs (Mark v. 2, 3, 5), delighting in these gloomy and melancholy recesses, as most friendly and congenial to the wretched state of his mind. Josephus also informs us that these sepulchre were the haunts and lurking-places of those numerous and desperate bands of robbers with which Judea was at that time infested. * Sometimes they buried their dead in the open fields, over whom the opulent and families of distinction raised su perb and ostentatious monuments, which they religiously maintained from time to time in their pristine splendour and magnificence. To this custom our Saviour alludes in his address to the Pharisees, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity," Matt. xxiii. 27. The following extract from Dr. Shaw forcibly illustrates these passages. "If we except a few persons, who are buried within the precinct of the sanctuaries of their Marabutts, the rest are carried out to a small distance from their cities and villages, where a great extent of ground is allotted for the purpose. Each family has a particular part of it walled in, like a garden, where the bones of their ancestors have remained for many generations. For in these inclosures the graves are all distinct and separated, each of them having a stone placed upright, both at the head and feet, inscribed with the name and title (2 Ki. xxiii. 17) of the deceased, whilst the intermediate space is either planted with flowers, bordered round with stones, or paved with tiles. The graves of the principal citizens are further distinguished, by having cupolas or vaulted chambers of three, four, or more square yards built over them; and as these very frequently lie open, and occasionally shelter us from the inclemency of the weather, the demoniac might with propriety enough have had his dwelling among the tombs: and others * See Macknight on Mark v. 3. + For a description of the various kinds of tombs among the Jews, see Fragments to Calmet, Nos. 210, 575, &c. are said to 'remain among the graves, and to lodge in the monuments,' Isa. lx. 4. And as all these different sorts of tombs and sepulchres, with the very walls likewise of their respective cupolas and inclosures, are constantly kept clean whitewashed and beautified, they continue to illustrate those expressions of our Saviour, where he mentions the garnishing of sepulchres, and compares the Scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites to whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but within were full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.' The Jews call a cemetery, "the house of the living," to shew their belief in the immortality of the soul, and of the resurrection of the body; and when they come thither bearing a corpse, they address themselves to those who lie there, saying, Blessed be the Lord who hath created you, fed you, brought you up, and at last, in his justice, taken you out of the world. He knows the number of you all, and will in time revive you. Blessed be the Lord, who causeth death, and restoreth life." They hold that it is not lawful to demolish tombs, nor to disturb the repose of the dead, by burying another corpse in the same grave, even after a long time; nor to carry an aqueduct across the common place of burial; or a highway; nor to go and gather wood, or suffer cattle to feed there. † 6. The Jewish idea of a future state seems to have been as follows. (1.) They believed in the existence of heaven, or the heaven of heavens, the place of God's peculiar residence, the dwelling of good angels, and the everlasting abode of the blessed, after the resurrection. (2.) They believed in the existence of hell, which they metaphorically styled "Gehenna," from the fires which were kept constantly burning in the valley of Hinnom (Giahenem); and "Tophet," from the tophs, or drums, which were there employed to drown the cries of the children who were sacrificed to Moloch. This they considered as the residence of the devil and his angels, and the destined abode of the wicked, after the general judgment. (3.) They believed in an intermediate state, where the souls of all who died had their residence till the resurrection, in a state of comparative happiness, or misery, according to their previous characters, Is. xiv. 8-20; Ezek. Xxxii. 23-30. This was named Shaul in the Old Testament; and Hades, in the New Testament, in the LXX. and in Jose *Travels, p. 315. first edit. 1738. Harwood's Introduction, vol. ii. pp. 126-142; and Calmet Bib. Ency. art. "Burial." phus. Accordingly, while the body was committed to the grave, the soul went to Shaul, to be rewarded or punished, in an inferior degree, between death and the resurrection. But in what particular place that state was, has been differently explained: some making it an immense cavern in the centre of the earth; some, the state of the dead in general; and some, an intermediate state, rather than an intermediate place, where the saints, though in heaven, are less happy; and the wicked, although in hell, are less wretched, than they will respectively be, after the resurrection. This last seems to have been the belief of the best informed among the Jews. Accordingly, it was a saying of theirs, that "Abraham and Moses, and all the righteous, when they die, are laid up under the very throne of God :"+ implying, that those who are lying under the throne, between death and the resurrection, will after that, stand before the throne, more exalted and more happy. Towards the end of the Mosaic economy, when the Jews became acquainted with the philosophical opinions of the Greeks and Romans, they began to describe the intermediate state, by expressions somewhat corresponding to the infernus of their heathen neighbours, with its Elysium, Tartarus, and intersecting rivers. For they supposed it to have had a place which contained the good, called Paradise, and Abraham's bosom (Lu. xxiii. 43; Rev. ii. 7; Lu. xvi. 23); a place which contained the wicked, called Tartarus (2 Pet. ii. 4); and a great gulf which divided between them, Lu. xvi. 26. From the representation of Josephus, § Dr. Campbell is inclined to conclude, that in the time of that writer, a resurrection and future judgment (in the sense in which they were understood by the primitive Christians) were not, universally, the doctrine even of the Pharisees: but that the prevalent and distinguishing opinion was, that the soul survived the body; that vicious souls would suffer an everlasting imprisonment in Hades, and that the souls of the virtuous would not only be happy there, but in process of time would obtain the privilege of transmigrating into other bodies. In other words, that the immortality of human souls, and the transmigration of the good, were all that they comprehended in the resurrection of the dead. Several allusions to this doctrine of transmigration, however ridiculous it may appear to * In the common English version of the Scriptures, the words are translated, hell, the pit, and the grave, but the Jews, and many of the Christian commentators, explain them uniformly of the intermediate state. + Lightfoot, Sermon on Luke xxiii. 42, 43. See particularly an extract from Josephus's discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades, in Whiston's translation of that author, vol. iv. p. 353, &c. § Jewish Wars, b. ii. c. 12. us, seem to be made in the New Testament; for the question which was put by the disciples to our Lord, "Who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" and some popular notions concerning Jesus, whom they knew to have been born and brought up among themselves, that he was Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets, evidently presuppose it, Matt. xvi. 14; John ix. 2. There is reason to believe, however, that this strange doctrine was not universal; and that afterwards, when the doctrines of the Gospel concerning a future state became better known, the opinions of the Talmudists had a much greater conformity to them, than the opinions of some of their predecessors in and before the days of our Saviour. Thus were life and immortality more clearly brought to light by the Gospel.* In the Miscellaneous Works of Mr. Harmer (8vo. London, 1823), there is a most valuable and interesting account of the Jewish doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. That this fact was admitted among the descendants of Abraham, Mr. Harmer satisfactorily proves, both from the sacred Scriptures, and from some of the most celebrated Jewish writers. But although they agree upon the fact, they differ materially as to the subjects of it. From a treatise on this subject, by Manasseh-ben-Israel, an eminent Jew of Amsterdam, and from another, by Dassovius, a later German Jew, it appears to be the general opinion of this people, that the resurrection will not extend to all dead men: but they find it difficult to decide upon the persons who will be excluded. Some of them have supposed that only the just of the Jewish nation will arise: the famous Rabbi David Kimchi was of this opinion. Rabbi Bechai, on the contrary, thought that the wicked as well as the good were to arise: but still he limits the resurrection to the Israelites. Others, among whom is the great Maimonides, differ from both these classes, as they do not exclude the Gentiles from the resurrection, but suppose that some good people among them shall partake of this honour: among these they reckon Plato and Socrates. But neither of these collections will enable us to determine with sufficient clearness and precision, what was the opinion of the Jews in the time of our Lord, as to the extent of the resurrection. This is only to be known by carefully comparing the sentiments of the modern Jews, with the hints given by St. Paul of the opinions of those in his time. + * Brown's Jewish Antiq. p. ix. s. 14. SECTION IX. DOMESTIC CUSTOMS. THEIR FOOD-1. Bread-2. Manner of preparing corn for bread 3. Milk, butter, butter-milk, &c.—4. Their meals, and nature of their repasts-5. Manner of eating 6. Posture at table-7. Portions sent to the absent-8. Grace at meals. The Jewish people generally lived upon food of the plainest description. Boaz complimented Ruth, who was much his inferior in rank, by permitting her to partake of his meal, of the nature of which we may pretty well judge from the passage: : “At meal-time come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left," Ru. ii. 14. Of as plain and simple a description was the supply of food brought to David and his companions in arms, when he had been obliged to fly from Jerusalem. "Two hundred loaves of bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine," 2 Sam. xvi. 1:— also ch. xvii. 28, 29, "And they brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse, and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him to eat." 1. Their simplest and most ordinary diet which was prepared by themselves, was bread, which was commonly baked in a wooden bowl, or kneading trough (Exod. viii. 3), in which the dough is mixed with leaven, or suffered to stand and ferment until it becomes sour. † Sometimes their bread was baked on the hearth (Gen. xviii. 6), which is still a common method in the East. Another kind of bread was baked in a shallow earthen vessel, like a frying-pan (Lev. ii. 7), and sometimes round the outside of a great stone pitcher, properly heated, on which was poured a thin paste of meal and water. Parkhurst thinks this is alluded to in Ex. xvi. 31. Sometimes also they bake it in an oven in the ground, four or five feet deep, well plastered with mortar, against the sides of which they place the bread, where it is instantly done. *See Shaw, p. 230; Niebuhr, tom. i. p.188. See Harmer, vol. i. p. 232, &c. |