Jewish Death And Burial Practices - 1410 Words

Introduction Burial has long been considered an important component of death; it is the mourners’ final encounter with the recognizable, substantial body of the deceased. Every culture has to determine how to deal with the physical remains of the dead, to find a way to honour their memory, and to go on living in a society that is now deprived of one of its members. Burial traditions and practices have developed throughout history and around the world to meet this human need. This paper will examine Jewish death and burial practices from the Old Testament, the Gospels, and other New Testament accounts, as well as archaeological evidence from first century Palestine; this evidence, when compared to recent arguments against the burial of†¦show more content†¦This was also the first of seven days of mourning. This mourning took place publicly, either just outside the entrance of the tomb, or inside the tomb itself.. Burial in the Jewish nation most commonly occurred in a family tomb, usually a cave located outside the city proper, and therefore away from where people lived. In the Old Testament, the euphemism for death, â€Å"slept with his fathers,† references the familial tomb (eg. 1 Kings 2:10; 1 Kings 11:43; 2 Kings 15:7,22,38; 2 Chr. 26:2,23). The Jewish people in the Old Testament showed respect for the dead by providing them with proper burials. In Scripture, examples of burial of the dead date back to the days of the patriarchs (Sarah, Gen. 23; Abraham, Gen. 25, Jacob, Gen. 50), the judges (Tola and Jair, Judg. 10; Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, Judg. 12), and the kings, both good and evil (Saul, 1 Sam. 31; David, 1 Kings 2; Manasseh, 2 Kings 21; and Josiah, 2 Kings 23). In keeping with the Mosaic laws, even executed criminals were to be buried promptly, in order to avoid defiling the land: â€Å"When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death and is executed, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you shall bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you for possession.† (Deuteronomy 21:22–23, New Revised Standard Version) It was permissible in Jewish culture