811. Weeping at the Grave

From: Manners and Customs of the Bible By: James M. Freeman

• 1 min. read • grade level: 8

John 11:31³¹The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. (John 11:31). She goeth unto the grave to weep there.

It is very common for the friends of deceased persons—especially for the women to make formal visits to the grave for the purpose of audibly expressing their grief. Professor Hackett, on visiting a Syrian town, was compelled by the quarantine officers to pitch his tent in a graveyard, where be observed a great number of women who surrounded the graves of their friends, and shrieked and wept for a long time. See Illustrations of Scripture, p. 111. Porter noticed a similar custom in the Druse country; where he found a long procession of women near a clamp of newly-made graves. “As they marched with stately steps around the tombs they sung a wild chant, that now echoed through the whole glen and now sunk into the mournful cadence of a death-wail” (Giant Cities of Bastian, p. 39). When the Jews saw Mary hastily arise and leave the house they supposed she was going to the grave according to custom. It was thus the two Marys visited the sepulcher of the Lord. See Matthew 27:61; 28:1⁶¹And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre. (Matthew 27:61)
¹In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. (Matthew 28:1).

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