In those days, she became sick and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 37. Washed. This custom of washing the dead was observed among the Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, and most other nations. It is still practised in monasteries, and formerly was observed with much ceremony. S. Chrysostom observes, that our Saviour’s body was washed and embalmed. The same custom is mentioned in Homer and Virgil:
Corpusque lavant frigentis, et ungunt.—And again,
Date, vulnera lymphis abluam.—Æneid. iv.
—Tertullian, in his Apology, testifies, that the Christians performed that office to the dead. It was a proof of their respect for the image of God impressed upon his creature, and for the character of Christian, which these persons have borne during their lives. It was likewise a sign of the confidence they had in a future resurrection.