The popular and critical Bible encyclopædia and Scriptural dictionary, fully defining and explaining all religious terms, including biographical, geographical, historical, archaeological and doctrinal themes . ire of rendering all such objects ofinterest in the environs of Jerusalem pleasing tothe eye, as of making them easily discernible, andso preventing the risk of contracting ceremonialdefilement through accident or ignorance, moreespecially at the annual festivals, when multitudesunacquainted with the localities resorted to thecapital. To paint them with white was obviouslythe best preser
The popular and critical Bible encyclopædia and Scriptural dictionary, fully defining and explaining all religious terms, including biographical, geographical, historical, archaeological and doctrinal themes . ire of rendering all such objects ofinterest in the environs of Jerusalem pleasing tothe eye, as of making them easily discernible, andso preventing the risk of contracting ceremonialdefilement through accident or ignorance, moreespecially at the annual festivals, when multitudesunacquainted with the localities resorted to thecapital. To paint them with white was obviouslythe best preservative against the apprehended dan-ger; and the season chosen for this garniture ofthe sepulchers was on the return of spring, a lit-tle before the Passover, when, the winter rainsbeing over, a long unbroken tract of dry weatherusually ensued. The words of Christ referred to were spoken but a few days before the Passover,when the fresh coating of white paint would beconspicuous on all the adjoining hills and valleys;and when we consider the striking contrast thatmust have been presented between the gracefularchitecture and carefully dressed appearance ofthese tombs without, and the disgusting relics of. /—• Interior of Tomb of the Kings. mortality that were moldering within, wecannot fail to perceive the emphatic energy of thelanguage in which our Lord rebuked the hypoc-risy of the Pharisees. (12) Visits to Tombs. During the first fewweeks after a burial, members of a family, es-pecially the females, paid frequent visits to thetomb. This affecting custom still continues in theEast, as groups of women may be seen daily atthe graves of their deceased relatives, strewingthem with flowers, or pouring over them the tearsof fond regret. And hence, in the interestingnarrative of the raising of Lazarus, when Maryrose abruptly to meet Jesus, whose approach hadbeen privately announced to her, it was naturalfor her assembled friends, who were ignorantof her motives, to suppose she wa
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbible, bookyear1904
