Ashes
ASHES
To repent in sackcloth and ashes, or to lie down among ashes, was an external sign of self-affliction for sin, or of grief under misfortune. We find it adopted by Job, Job 2:8 ; by many Jews when in great fear, Gen 4:3 ; and by the king of Nineveh, Jon 3:6 . The ashes of a red heifer were used in ceremonial purification, Num 19:1-22 .
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Ashes
See Heifer and Mourning.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Ashes
It is not easy to arrive at the fundamental conception of the liturgical use of ashes. No doubt our Christian ritual has been borrowed from the practice of the Jews, a practice retained in certain details of synagogue ceremonial to this day, but the Jewish custom itself needs explanation. A number of passages in the Old Testament connect ashes (efer) with mourning, and we are told that the mourner sat or rolled himself in, sprinkled his head or mingled his food with, “ashes”, but it is not clear whether in these passages we ought not rather to translate efer as dust. The same phrases are used with the word afar which certainly means dust. It may be that the dust was originally taken from the grave, in token that the living felt himself one with the dead, or it may be that humiliation and the neglect of personal cleanliness constituted the dominant idea; for a similar manifestation of grief was undoubtedly familiar among Aryan peoples, e.g. in Homer (Iliad, XVIII, 23). It seems less probable that the cleansing properties of ashes (though this also has been proposed) are taken as significant of moral purification. The chief foundation for this last suggestion is the Rite of the Red Heifer (Numbers 19:17) in which the ashes of the victim when mixed with water had the ceremonial efficacy of purifying the unclean (cf. Hebrews 9:13). Be this as it may, Christianity at an early date undoubtedly adopted the use of ashes as symbolical f penance. Thus Tertian prescribes that the penitent must “live without joy in the roughness of sackcloth and the squalor of ashes” (De Pœnitentiâ, x); and many similar passages might be quoted from St. Cyprian and other early Fathers. Eusebius in his account of the apostasy and reconciliation of Natalis describes him as coming to Pope Zephyrinus clothed in sackcloth and sprinkled over with ashes (spodon katapasamenon, Hist. Eccles., V, 28). This was the normal penitential garb, and n the expulsion of those sentenced to do public penance, as given in early pontificals, the sprinkling of their heads with ashes always plays a prominent part. Indeed the rite is retained in the Pontificale Romanum to this day. With this garb of penance we must undoubtedly connect the custom, so frequent n the early Middle Ages, of laying a dying man on the ground upon sackcloth sprinkled with ashes when about to breathe his last. Early rituals direct the priest to cast holy water upon him, saying, “Remember that thou are dust and unto dust the shall return.” After which he asked: “Art thou content with sackcloth and ashes in testimony of thy penance before the Lord, in the day of judgment?” And the dying man answered: “I am content.: Ashes are also liturgically used n the rite of the dedication of a church, first upon which all the alphabet is written in Greek and Latin letters, and secondly to mix with oil and wine in the water which is specially blessed for the consecration of the altars. This use of ashes is probably older than the eighth century.
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Kaulen, in Kirchenlex., s. v. Asche; Cabrol, Livre de la priere antique (Paris, 1900), 347-348; Jewish Encyclopedia, s. v. Ashes; Lesêtre in Vig., Dict. de la Bible, s. v. Cendres.
HERBERT THURSTON Transcribed by Michael Christensen
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume ICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Ashes
(properly , e’pher, from its whiteness, ; twice , aphar’, Num 19:17; 2Ki 23:4, elsewhere “dust;” also , de’shen, lit. fatness, i.e. the fat ashes from the victims of the altar, Lev 1:16; Lev 4:12; Lev 6:10-11; 1Ki 13:3; 1Ki 13:5; or of corpses burnt, Jer 31:40, ashes being used as a manure for land, Plin. 17:9. In 1Ki 20:38; 1Ki 20:41, , apher’, incorrectly rendered “ashes,” signifies a covering for the head or turban, Sept. , and so the Chaldee and Abulwalid represent it by this latter word, which in Syriac means a priestly tiara; New Test. ). SEE ASH-CAKE.
In general, respecting the Biblical mention of ashes (, de’shen; , epher), the following things deserve notice:
(1.) As the ashes of the sacrifices consumed upon the altar of burnt- offerings accumulated continually (Lev 6:3 sq.), they were from time to time removed so as to cleanse () the altar. For this purpose there were in the sanctuary shovels () and ash-pots () of brass (Exo 27:3; Exodus 33). The performance of this office (by the priests) is not prescribed in the law; but, according to the Mishna (Tamid, i and ii), the scouring of the altar was as. signed by lot to a priest, who, after the top of the altar had been cleared of coals, etc., swept the ashes together into a heap (, apple, from its shape), and (according to the rabbins) took the greatest part of it away (for some of the ashes must always be allowed to remain), in order that they might be carried out of the city to a spot undisturbed by the wind. Only on high festivals the ashes were suffered to lie upon the altar as an ornament (Mishna, Tamid, ii, 2). Also upon the altar of incense ashes gradually accumulated; and the removal of these was likewise apportioned among the priests by lot. The priest to whom this function fell gathered them in a basket, and then, after another priest had used a part in cleansing the candlestick, carried out and poured the contents on the floor of the porch (Mishna, Tamid, iii, 9; 6:1; i, 4). SEE ALTAR.
(2.) On the expiatory ashes of the red heifer (, Numbers 19), SEE PURIFICATION.
(3.) In deep affliction persons were accustomed, as an act suitable to the violence of internal emotions, to scatter dust or ashes () on their heads or in their hair, and to sit, or lie, or even roll in ashes, whence ashes became the symbol of penitential mourning (Job 42:6; Mat 11:21). SEE GRIEF. The Mishna (Taamith, ii, 1) mentions a custom of covering the ark that contained the law with ashes on fast-days, and the rabbins even allude to a ceremonial sprinkling of persons with ashes on the same occasions (see Bartenora, on Taamith ii). (See generally Reinhard, De sacco et cinere, Vitemb. 1698; Plade, De cineris usu lugentibus, Hafn. 1713; Schmid, De cinerum in sacris usu, Lips. 1722; Carpzov, Cinerum ap. Heb. usus, Rost. 1739; Quanat, De cinere in sacris Hebr. Regiom. 1713; Goetze, De cinerum in sacris usu, Lips. 1722.)
(4.) The ancient Persians had a punishment which consisted in executing certain criminals by stifling them in ashes (Valerius Maximus, 9:2). Thus the wicked Menelaus was despatched, who caused the troubles which had disquieted Judaea (2Ma 13:5-6), being thrown headlong into a tower fifty cubits deep, which was filled with ashes to a certain height. The action of the criminal to disengage himself plunged him still deeper in the whirling ashes; and this agitation was increased by a wheel, which kept them in continual movement till he was entirely choked. SEE EXECUTION.
Ashes were a symbol of human frailty (Gen 18:27); of deep humiliation (Est 4:1; Jon 3:6; Mat 11:21; Luk 10:13; Job 42:6; Jer 6:26; Dan 9:3); a ceremonial mode of purification (Heb 9:13; Num 19:17); they are likened to hoar-frost (Psa 147:16). In Eze 27:30, we find the mourning Tyrians described as wallowing in ashes; and we. may remark that the Greeks had the like custom of strewing themselves with ashes in mourning (Homer, Iliad, 18:22; Odyss. 24:315; comp. Virgil, En. 10:844, and Ovid’s Metam. 8:528). Job 2:8, “And he sat down among the ashes.” So Ulysses in Odyssey, 7:153 (see also Iliad, 18:26). Psa 102:9, “I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,” i.e. I have eaten the bread of humiliation, and drunk the water of affliction; ashes being the emblem of the one, and tears the consequence of the other (see Home, in loc.). So Isa 61:3, “A beautiful crown instead of ashes” (see Lowth’s note). See 2Sa 14:2; Jdt 10:3. Isa 44:20, “He feedeth on ashes,” i.e. on that which affords no nourishment; a proverbial expression for using ineffectual means, and bestowing labor to no purpose. In the same sense Hosea says (Hos 12:1), ” Ephraim feedeth on wind” (see Lowth, in loc.). SEE MOURNING.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Ashes
The ashes of a red heifer burned entire (Num. 19:5) when sprinkled on the unclean made them ceremonially clean (Heb. 9:13).
To cover the head with ashes was a token of self-abhorrence and humiliation (2 Sam. 13:19; Esther 4:3; Jer. 6:26, etc.).
To feed on ashes (Isa. 44:20), means to See k that which will prove to be vain and unsatisfactory, and hence it denotes the unsatisfactory nature of idol-worship. (Comp. Hos. 12:1).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Ashes
Sitting down in, or covering one’s self with, is the symbol of mourning (Job 2:8; Job 42:6; Est 4:1; Isa 61:3; Mat 11:21). To eat asides expresses figuratively mourning is one’s food, i.e. one’s perpetual portion (Psa 102:9). “He feedeth on ashes,” i.e., tries to feed his soul with what is at once humiliating and unsatisfying, on an idol which ought to have been reduced to ashes, like the rest of the tree of which it is made (Isa 44:20). The ashes of a red heifer burnt entire (Numbers 19), when sprinkled upon, purified ceremonially the unclean (Heb 9:13) but defiled the clean person.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Ashes
ASHES.Used twice in the Gospels, referring to an ancient and widespread Eastern mourning custom. The mourner, or the penitent, would throw dust, or dust mixed with ashes (), into the air, as an expression of intense humiliation, due to penitence for sin, or grief because of affliction (Mat 11:21; for this idea in the OT cf. Mic 1:10, Job 42:6). Such symbolic use of dust and ashes was not unnatural, since grief seems to call for a prostration of the body. These, being beneath the feet, suggest humiliation, and when thrown into the air they were allowed to fall upon the person of the mourner, that he might carry the evidences of his grief with him. Sometimes ashes is associated with , sackcloth; the penitent or mourner sitting upon the ash-heap, his face begrimed with the dust. To this custom Christ referred when He said of Tyre and Sidon, They would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes (Luk 10:13; cf. use of in Job 2:8, Jon 3:6).
E. B. Pollard.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Ashes
ASHES.Ashes on the head formed one of the ordinary tokens of mourning for the dead (see Mourning Customs as of private (2Sa 13:19) and national humiliation (Neh 9:1, 1Ma 3:47). The penitent and the afflicted might also sit (Job 2:8, Jon 3:6) or even wallow in ashes (Jer 6:25, Eze 27:30). In 1Ki 20:38; 1Ki 20:41 we must, with RV [Note: Revised Version.] , read Headband (wh. see) for ashes.
In a figurative sense the term ashes is often used to signify evanescence, worthlessness, insignificance (Gen 18:27, Job 30:19). Proverbs of ashes (Pro 13:12 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ) is Jobs equivalent for the modern rot. For the use of ashes in the priestly ritual see Red Heifer.
A. R. S. Kennedy.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Ashes
In the language of Scripture, ashes are sometimes spoken of to denote great humility and contrition of heart. Thus Abraham calls himself “dust and ashes.” (Gen 18:27) Job saith, that he “abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6 See Dan 9:3; Psa 102:9; Lam 3:16)
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Ashes
ashiz: Among the ancient Hebrews and other Orientals, to sprinkle with or sit in ashes was a mark or token of grief, humiliation, or penitence. Ashes on the head was one of the ordinary signs of mourning for the dead, as when Tamar put ashes on her head … and went on crying (2Sa 13:19 the King James Version), and of national humiliation, as when the children of Israel were assembled under Nehemiah with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth (ashes) upon them (Neh 9:1), and when the people of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes at the preaching of Jonah (Jon 3:5, Jon 3:6; compare 1 Macc 3:47). The afflicted or penitent often sat in ashes (compare Job 2:8; Job 42:6 : I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes), or even wallowed in ashes, as Jeremiah exhorted sinning Israel to do: O daughter of my people … wallow thyself in ashes (Jer 6:26), or as Ezekiel in his lamentation for Tyre pictures her mariners as doing, crying bitterly and ‘casting up dust upon their heads’ and ‘wallowing themselves in the ashes’ (in their weeping for her whose head was lifted up and become corrupted because of her beauty), in bitterness of soul with bitter mourning (Eze 27:30, Eze 27:31).
However, these and various other modes of expressing grief, repentance, and humiliation among the Hebrews, such as rending the garments, tearing the hair and the like, were not of Divine appointment, but were simply the natural outbursts of the impassioned oriental temperament, and are still customary among eastern peoples.
Figurative: The term ashes is often used to signify worthlessness, insignificance or evanescence (Gen 18:27; Job 30:19). Proverbs of ashes, for instance, in Job 13:12, is Job’s equivalent, says one writer, for our modern rot. For the ritual use of the ashes of the Red Heifer by the priests, see RED HEIFER.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Ashes
Ashes, in the symbolical language of Scripture, denote human frailty (Gen 18:27), and deep humiliation (Est 4:1; Jon 3:6; Mat 11:21; Luk 10:13; Job 42:6; Dan 9:3). To sit in ashes was a token of grief and mourning (Job 2:8; Lam 3:16; Eze 27:30), as was also strewing them upon the head (2Sa 13:19; Isa 61:3) [MOURNING]. ‘Feeding on ashes,’ in Psa 102:9, appears to express grief, as of one with whose food the ashes with which he is covered mingle. But in Isa 44:20, ‘feeding on ashes,’ which afford no nourishment, is judged to denote ineffectual means, labor to no purpose. Compare Hos 12:1.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Ashes
Ashes, mostly from burnt wood, were used as a sign of sorrow or mourning, either put on the head, 2Sa 13:19, or on the body with sackcloth, Est 4:1; Jer 6:26; Lam 3:16; Mat 11:21; Luk 10:13; or strewn on a couch on which to lie, Est 4:3; Isa 58:5; Jon 3:6. To eat ashes expresses great sorrow, Psa 102:9; and to be reduced to them is a figure of complete destruction, Eze 28:18; Mal 4:3; to feed on them tells of the vanities with which the soul may be occupied. Isa 44:20. ‘Dust and ashes’ was the figure Abraham used of himself before Jehovah, Gen 18:27; and Job said he had become like them by the hand of God. Job 30:19. For the ashes of the Red Heifer see HEIFER.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Ashes
Uses of, in purification
Num 19:9-10; Num 19:17; Heb 9:13
A symbol of mourning
2Sa 13:19; Est 4:1; Est 4:3
Sitting in
Job 2:8; Isa 58:5; Jer 6:26; Eze 27:30; Jon 3:6; Luk 10:13
Repenting in
Job 42:6; Dan 9:3; Jon 3:6; Mat 11:21; Luk 10:13
Disguises in
1Ki 20:38; 1Ki 20:41
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Ashes
Ashes. The ashes on the altar of burnt-offering were gathered into a cavity in its surface. On the days of the three solemn festivals the ashes were not removed, but the accumulation was taken away afterwards in the morning, the priests casting lots for the office. The ashes of a red heifer burnt entire, according to regulations prescribed in Num 19:1-22, had the ceremonial efficacy of purifying the unclean, Heb 9:13, but of polluting the clean. Ashes about the person, especially on the head, were used as a sign of sorrow.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Ashes
Ashes. The ashes on the Altar of Burnt Offering were gathered into a cavity in its surface. The ashes of a red heifer burnt entire, according to regulations prescribed in Numbers 19, had the ceremonial efficacy of purifying the unclean, Heb 9:13, but of polluting the clean. See Sacrifice. Ashes about the person, especially on the head, were used as a sign of sorrow. See Mourning.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
ASHES
of burnt offerings
Lev 4:12; Lev 6:11; Num 19:9; Heb 9:13
Fuente: Thompson Chain-Reference Bible
Ashes
“ashes,” is found three times, twice in association with sackcloth, Mat 11:21; Luk 10:13, as tokens of grief (cp. Est 4:1, Est 4:3; Isa 58:5; Isa 61:3; Jer 6:26; Jon 3:6); of the ashes resulting from animal sacrifices, Heb 9:13; in the OT, metaphorically, of one who describes himself as dust and “ashes,” Gen 18:27, etc.
“to turn to ashes,” is found in 2Pe 2:6, with reference to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Notes: (1) Tephra, frequently used of the “ashes” of a funeral pile, is not found in the NT.
(2) The Hebrew verb, rendered “accept” in Psa 20:3, “accept thy burnt sacrifice,” signifies “to turn to ashes” (i.e., by sending fire from heaven). See also Exo 27:3; Num 4:13, “shall take away the ashes.”
Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words
Ashes
Several religious ceremonies, and some symbolical ones, anciently depended upon the use of ashes. To repent in sackcloth and ashes, or, as an external sign of self-affliction for sin, or of suffering under some misfortune, to sit in ashes, are expressions common in Scripture. I am but dust and ashes, exclaims Abraham before the Lord, Gen 18:27; indicating a deep sense of his own meanness in comparison with God. God threatens to shower down dust and ashes on the lands instead of rain, Deu 28:24; thereby to make them barren instead of blessing them, to dry them up instead of watering them. Tamar, after the injury she had received from Amnon, covered her head with ashes, 2Sa 13:19. The Psalmist, in great sorrow, says poetically, he had eaten ashes as it were bread, Psa 102:9; that is, he sat on ashes, he threw ashes on his head; and his food, his bread, was sprinkled with the ashes wherewith he was himself covered. So Jeremiah introduces Jerusalem saying, The Lord hath covered me with ashes, Lam 3:16. Sitting on ashes, or lying down among ashes, was a token of extreme grief. We find it adopted by Job 2:8; by many Jews when in great fear, Est 4:3; and by the king of Nineveh, Jon 3:6. He arose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. This token of affliction is illustrated by Homer’s description of old Laertes. grieving for the absence of his son, Sleeping in the apartment where the slaves slept, in the ashes, near the fire. Compare Jer 6:26, Daughter of my people, wallow thyself in ashes. There was a sort of ley and lustral water, made with the ashes of the heifer sacrificed on the great, day of expiation; these ashes, were distributed to the people, and used in purifications, by sprinkling, to such as had touched a dead body, or had been present at funerals,
Num 19:17.
Fuente: Biblical and Theological Dictionary
Ashes
Gen 18:27 (a) By the use of this word Abraham is expressing to GOD his own utter worthlessness and lowliness as though he were not even worth any consideration from GOD.
2Sa 13:19 (b) Ashes on the head was typical of deep shame and mental anguish as well as repentance and sorrow.
Job 2:8 (c) The disease which afflicted Job was probably the one which we know as elephantiasis. Potash is the remedy for that disease. Job sat in the ash pile so that the potash would continually cover his limbs, and thereby he would recover.
Job 13:12 (b) These ashes represent references made by Job’s comforters to the glory which he once had, but now had lost. They kept reminding him of his former position of power and wealth, which had now become a pile of ashes.
Job 42:6 (a) Job not only sat in actual ashes, but those mentioned in this passage represent also his feeling of great humility and shame. He seemed to realize his utter worthlessness before GOD. All of this sad experience and loss which he suffered he calls “ashes.” (See also Jer 1:1; Lam 3:16; Eze 28:18; Dan 9:3).
Isa 44:20 (b) This refers to those who had great plenty at one time but afterwards lost their wealth. They feed on their losses, they meditate on these sorrows, they talk about the tragedies in their lives, they live on the “ashes” that are left after the destruction of their former glory and wealth. Many people talk constantly of what they once were, or what they once had.
Isa 61:3 (b) The ashes in this passage represent the wreck of former beauty and the tragic end of former loveliness. There are those who at one time were sweet and delightful in their lives, but through calamity have been made bitter and sorrowful. When these turn back to the Lord, He restores His joy to their hearts, and His beauty to their lives.
Mal 4:3 (b) This word is used to describe the utter and complete defeat of everything in this world that is of the Devil. The Lord will destroy the works of the Devil and will cause His people to triumph in CHRIST.