It is not without Reason, nor by Chance, that we conclude this Part with so melancholy a Subject. Funerals are all that remain for Men when they have once taken leave of this painful Life. They go out of the World as they came into it, without either bringing any thing into it, or carrying any thing out of it. But as when they are born, all the Help is given them which is necessary to prevent their dying immediately; so when they are dead, the last Duties are paid to them, that they may be replaced with Honour in the Bosom of the Earth, from whence they at first spung. Now these Duties have been different, according to the different Usages prevailing in different Nations. Those of the ancient Hebrews always were the same, because they were prescribed by the Law; which has set learned Men upon writing on this Subject, it being one of the most curious in its Nature, and the most capable of their Critical Observations.
Martini Geieri, de luctu Hebræorum, Lipsiæ, 1666, in 12mo. and in 1683, in 12mo. the third Edition. He has borrowed every thing he says here from the Holy Scriptures, Maimonides, and those who have written on the same Subject. The Work is divided into two and twenty Chapters. The Author treats in it of Funerals and Burials. See his Title in the Index.
Freder. Mulleri, lib. 3. de Sepulchris Hebræorum in 4to. Giessæ. See likewise his Title, ibid.
Joan. Nicolai, de Sepulchris Hebræorum, in 4to. Amstel. 1705, and at Leyden, 1706, in 4to. It may be said of this Work, that it is by an Author of great Reading. If it were methodical, and written in better Latin, it would deserve more Esteem. It is divided into four Books. In the first we have a sort of Glossary of all the Hebrew brew, Greek, and Latin Words which signify either Death, or what has any relation to Death, such as Burial, Funeral, Bier, Grave. Nicolai begins the second with shewing, that to give Burial to the Dead is part of the Law of Nations; that to bury them in the Earth has been the most ancient Custom: After which he runs through many Nations in order to demonstrate their several Usages in this particular. Lastly, in the third Book he comes properly to the Subject, I mean, he brings the Reader to the Graves of the Jews, having first gone through all Nations with him, and then insisted for some time on Sardanapalus’s Epitaph, and the Pyramids of Egypt. The fourth includes several things, for the most part inconsiderable enough, concerning the Tombs and Funerals of the Jews. We speak of him upon Genesis, Article VIII.
Joan. Henr. Hottingeri, Cippi Hebraici. Heidelberg, in 12mo.
Monumenta antiqua Judaica Augustæ Vindelicorum reperta, cum Notis Matthiæ Freder. Beckii, 1686. in 8vo.
See our Dissertation on the Funerals of the Hebrews, before Ecclesiasticus; and upon the Resurrection of the Dead, before our Comment on St. Paul.
Manasseh Ben-Israel, de Resurrectione mortuorum. Amstel. 1636, in 12mo.
Jul. Bartolocci, de Resurrectione secundum Talmudistas, t. 3. Biblioth. Rabbin. p. 475.
See likewise his Dissertation on the Bone called Luz, Tome 1. of the Rabbinical Library, p. 86.
Et Buxtorf, Synag. Judaica. c. 35. See his Title.
Melchior Leidecker, de Rep. Hebræorum, l. 12. c. 10. The Edition of it we have taken notice of.
Joan. Bened. Carpzovii, de Sepultura Jacobi Patriarchæ. This Dissertation was printed at Lipsick, in 4to. 1697.
Joan. Hieronymi Sopranis, digressio de ritibus Hebræorum in funere, & de publico eorum privato luctu. Lugduni, 1645. at the End of his Work upon David.
Menochius, l. 8. de Rep. Hebr. c. 5. & seq.
Goodwin in Mose & Aaron. l. 6. c. 5. Octavii Ferrarii, Electa, l. 2. c. 20.
Joan. Jacobi Chiffleti, de linteis & fasciis Sepulchralibus. Antwerp. p. 1624. in 4to.
Joan Andr. Schmidt, de Tumba Salvatoris, Dissert. Helmstadt, 1703. See his Title.
Vide & Step. le Moine, varia Sacra, t. 2. p. 516. & seq. To those who have written on this Subject in particular, and have been taken notice of by us, others may be added, who have treated in general of Funerals, and funeral Solemnities in all Nations; they are to be found in Fabricius’s Bibliographia Antiquaria, c. 23. p. 655. and in Lipenius’s Bibliotheca Theologica, Juridica, & Philosophica.
To these we shall add Henry Sponde, who has made a Treatise on Churchyards, wherein he discourses of the Funeral Ceremonies in use among the Jews; printed at Paris, 1638, in 4to. This Work is divided into four Books, and is very much esteemed. The Author was born a Calvinist, in 1568, at Mauleon in Bern, studied Canon and Civil Law, abjured his Heresy, went to Rome, was nominated Bishop of Pamiers in 1626, and died at Paris, in 1643.
They who would know or consult the Jewish Authors who have written upon all the several Subjects now proposed by us, and on many others which may have some Relation to the Study of Holy Scripture, may see the Catalogue of these Writers, in the Beginning of the fourth Volume of Bartolocci and Imbonati’s Bibliotheca Rabbinica, p. 21, &c.
And as to Christian Authors, whether Catholick, or Protestant, see Fabiani Justiniani, Index Universalis. Romæ. in 8vo. 1614.
And Guill. Crovæi Elenchus Scriptorum in sacram Scripturam. F. le Long’s Bibliotheca Sacra, in fol. 1723, two Vols. and the whole fifth Volume of F. Charles -Joseph Imbonati’s Bibliotheca Rabbinica.
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