There is one curious notice of a tomb of the period between the return from Babylon and the N. T. age. It is the description of the tomb of the Maccabees at Modin, built or completed by Simon, when he buried Jonathan his brother, leaving apparently a place for himself. Simon also built a monument upon the sepulchre of his father and his brethren, and raised it aloft to the sight, with hewn stone behind and before. More he set up seven pyramids, one against another, for his father, and his mother, and his four brethren. And in these he made cunning de vices, about the which he set great pillars, and upon the pillars he made all their armour for a per petual memory, and by the armour ships carved, that they might be seen of all that sail on the sea. This is the sepulchre which he made at Modin, and it standeth yet unto this day' (I Maccab. xiii. 25-3o). This description in some points strikingly recalls the two tombs in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, called those of Zechariah and Absalom, and its difficulties may perhaps be accounted for if we suppose it was written by some one who had not seen the edifice. It must, however, be remarked, that a tomb at l'etra is surmounted by five little pyramids or rather obelisks (Feydeau, Usages Funebres, ii. p. 175).
Several passages in the N. T. give us a clear idea of the burial-rites of that time. Immediately after the death, the people of the house, as well as hired mourners, once called ' pipers ' (` minstrels,' A. V., Matt. ix. 23), began to lament (Mark v. 38, 39 ; Like viii. 52). The dead was washed (Acts ix. 37), and wound in grave-clothes, the head being covered with a separate cloth (John xx. 7 ; xi. 44). When the funeral was costly, as that which the piety of Joseph of Arimathxa and Nicodemus gave to our Saviour, a great quantity of spices was put either in the folds of the grave-clothes or around the body. It is related that Joseph of took the body of the Lord, and it is added, And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound [weight]. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes [elsewhere called fine linen,' Mark xv. 46] with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury' (John xix. 39, 4o). Sweet spices were also brought by the pious women to anoint the Saviour's body on the morning when they found Him risen (Mark xvi. 1; Luke xxiii. 56; xxiv. I). The burial was conducted in secrecy : there is, therefore, no account of any public rites. It seems, from another passage, to have been the custom for the bier to be borne on the shoulders to the tomb, and accom panied by the kinsfolk and friends (Luke vii. ti-14) At this period it was considered a pious art to rebuild, restore, or beautify the tombs of prophets or righteous men, and all tombs were whitened from time to time.
The sepulchre of our Lord was a new tomb, hewn in the rock by Joseph of Arimathma for himself, and having its entrance closed by a heavy stone rolled to it. The tomb of Lazarus is thus described, It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it' (John xi. 38). St. Paul mentions burning the body as an inexpensive manner of burial, which those who gave all to the poor enjoined for themselves (1 Cor. xiii. 3). But it most be remembered that the Apostle was addressing the Gentile church of Corinth.
We may now speak of the ancient tombs that remain in Palestine, and compare them with what we learn from the passages that have been noticed. Some of these tombs are probably of great anti quity, but most of the more remarkable are likely to have been rebuilt or altered in periods long after they were first made. In the time of our Saviour it was the custom, as already noticed, to restore or decorate the tombs of persons held in respect. The early Christians maintained this practice, and have been followed in it by the Muslims. Thus any monuments to which a tradition is attached, or indeed any of important aspect, require the most careful examination. The tombs remaining in Pales tine are of three kinds. The first kind is the com mon excavation in the flat rock, covered by an oblong stone, of which very many are seen in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The second is the more
costly sepulchral grotto, consisting of excavated chambers, approached through galleries, or ing from a portico. The third is the isolated sepulchre, like the well-known tombs of salom and Zechariah, in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The tomb of the first kind may be often of great antiquity, but it will have been observed that the references to tombstones in the Bible do not seem to allude to any but upright ones. It must, however, he noticed that there are very numerous tombs of this sort around the tional tomb of Aaron on the mountain called Mount Hor, and it is difficult to find any period in which so many pulchres would have been ed in the desert, excepting that of the sojourn of the ites, not to speak of the markable identity of these with the common tombs at lem. The tombs of the second kind correspond in their main characteristic with the sepulchres spoken of in ture. We have, however, no proof that any of the latter were more than simple excavations ; there is no reference to decoration, though this may be conjectured, with probability, in the instance of Shebna's tomb. Our knowledge of Hebrew architecture is too scanty to give us the means of deciding whether some of the tombs of this kind that remain are of early times. If, however, we compare one of the most remarkable of these excavations, that on the Mount of Olives called the Tombs of the Prophets, with the ments of neighbouring tries, we shall feel little doubt that it is of the age of the kings, perhaps one of the royal pulchres. Nowhere out of estine should we suppose it to be later than this age, excepting perhaps in barbarous countries. This excavation will be seen by the accompanying plan (t) to resemble the tumulus called the Tomb of Alyattes, and the late galleries in the Pyramid of Steps at Sakkarah. It is not a single sepulchre, but has niches for many bodies. The vation at the head of the ley of Jehoshaphat, called the Tombs of the Kings (2), is of a very different style. It is entered from a court ; its face is a portico, adorned externally with architectural mouldings and ornaments, both in Graeco-Roman style ; within is a hall, from which open several chambers, all of which have their walls recessed for bodies excepting one, apparently of later date than the rest, since it is approached through one of the recesses. The whole is regular in its forms, and thus sustains the opinion which the external decoration warrants, and forbids the forced supposition that this decora tion was added at a late period. The excava tion called the Tombs of the Judges (3) resembles that just described, but it is important that its entrance is decorated in Greek style, and cannot be considered to be later than the rest of the work. We have spoken of two remarkable isolated tombs at Jerusalem as examples of the third kind of sepulchres. Both may be described as cubical structures, sustaining an upper portion of a pyra midal or similar form. They thus belong to the great class of tombs of Grxco-Roman style which were imitations of the famous Mausoleum, and if compared with the architectural works of Petra, they afford evidence that they are of the time of the Idumssan dynasty, which, it must be remembered, was a building age at Jerusalem.
The modern Muslim burial-rites and tombs are described by Mr. Lane. We will not do him the injustice to abridge his account, but refer to the Modern Egyptians (chap. xxviii. 5th ed. pp. 511, seqq.) It must be remembered that the usages, not alone of Egypt, but of the Muslim world, as the university of Cairo has been for centuries the place of instruction for all the most learned religious teachers of El-Islam, shew clear traces of ancient Egyptian practices, as Mr. Lane has observed (p. 516) ; therefore, we must not use them at random to illustrate the notices of burial in the Bible, and to supply what is there left unrecorded.—R. S. P.