Death & Burials
Eastern customs and culture relating to burial and death, as well as Ecclesiastes 12 describing old age and death. Death & Burials Burial in the East is not nearly the expensive affair that it is in the West. The Easterners believe that since the soul has departed, the body that is left knows nothing anyway, so it is not thought necessary to spend money on it. A typical Eastern burial is described in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes. This is the chapter which begins: Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; Most of the rest of the chapter is a continuation of this thought, describing old age and death: While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble [a figure of speech meaning one's feet], and the strong men shall bow themselves [knees], and the grinders cease because they are few [teeth], and those that look out of the windows be darkened [eyes]. And the doors shall be shut in the streets [ears], when the sound of the grinding is low [not much grain to grind for meal] and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird [even a bird call frightens him], and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low [his voice is no longer strong.] Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high [afraid of falling from high places], and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish [the almond tree in bloom looks like a white-headed old person], and the grasshopper shall be a burden [weakness of flesh; unable to do much] desire shall fail [no appetite], because man goeth to his long home [grave], and the mourners go about the streets. The mourners going about the streets is indeed an apt description , since the whole town turns out whenever a funeral is being held. Easterners think they do a service to God in participating; even a
From this work
Topic: Ecclesiastes, Let the dead bury the dead, Luke 9 Format: Verified Digitized Pages: 3 As a convert to Christianity from Hinduism, Bishop K.C. Pillai came to the Western world on a singular mission: to teach the Eastern culture of the Bible. Although Christianity is generally considered a western religion, the Bible itself was written and set in the Orient, and it must be viewed through the light of that eastern window. The Bible is filled with passages that perplex the Western mind, and yet they were readily understood by the Easterner. When the reader becomes knowledgeable of the oriental idioms, customs, and traditions of the Biblical setting, these Scriptures become clear. God called Bishop K.C. Pillai to reveal these Biblical truths he called Orientalisms. At the time of the Bishop’s early life, his native India had remained an isolated country for thousands of years. Therefore