The hours of principal note in the course of the day were the third, the sixth, and the ninth. These hours, it would seem, were consecrated by Daniel to prayer, Dan. vi, 10; Acts ii, 15; iii, 1; x, 9. The day was divided into twelve hours, which, of course, varied in length, being shorter in the winter and longer in the summer, John xi, 9. In the winter, therefore, the clepsydras were so constructed that the water might sink them more rapidly. The hours were numbered from the rising of the sun, so that, at the season of the equinox, the third corresponded to the ninth of our reckoning; the sixth, to our twelfth; and the ninth, to three o’clock in the afternoon. At other seasons of the year, it is necessary to observe the time when the sun rises, and reduce the hours to our time accordingly. We observe, therefore, that the sun in Palestine, at the summer solstice, rises at five of our time, and sets about seven. At the winter solstice, it rises about seven, and sets about five.
Before the captivity, the night was divided into three watches. The first, which continued till midnight, was denominated the commencing or first watch, Lam. ii, 19. The second was denominated the middle watch, and continued from midnight till the crowing of the cock. The third, called the morning watch, extended from the second to the rising of the sun. These divisions and names appear to have owed their origin to the watches of the Levites in the tabernacle and temple, Exod. xiv, 24; 1 Sam. xi, 11. In the time of Christ, however, the night, in imitation of the Romans, was divided into four watches. According to the English mode of reckoning they were as follows: 1. The evening, from twilight to nine o’clock. 2. The midnight, from nine to twelve. 3. The cock crowing, from twelve to three. 4. From three o’clock till daybreak. A day is used in the prophetic Scripture for a year: “I have appointed thee each day for a year,” Ezek. iv, 6. See [Cock].
DEACON, from the Greek word διάκονος, in its proper and primitive sense, denotes a servant who attends his master, waits on him at table, and is always near his person to obey his orders, which was accounted a more creditable kind of service than that which is imported by the word δοῦλος a slave; but this distinction is not usually observed in the New Testament. Our Lord makes use of both terms in Matt. xx, 26, 27, though they are not distinctly marked in our translation: “Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your deacon; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.” The appointment of deacons in the first Christian church is distinctly recorded, Acts vi, 1–16. The number of disciples having greatly increased in Jerusalem, the Greeks, or Hellenistic Jews, began to murmur against the Hebrews, complaining that their widows were neglected in the daily distribution of the church’s bounty. The twelve Apostles, who hitherto had discharged the different offices of Apostle, presbyter, and deacon, upon the principle that the greater office always includes the less, now convened the church, and said unto them, “It is not reasonable that we should leave the ministration of the word of God, and serve tables: look ye out, therefore, among yourselves, seven men of good report, full of the Holy Ghost, and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” And the saying pleased the whole multitude; and they (the multitude) chose Stephen, and six others, whom they set before the Apostles, &c.
The qualifications of deacons are stated by the Apostle Paul, 1 Tim. iii, 8–12. There were also, in the primitive churches females invested with this office, who were termed deaconesses. Of this number was Phœbe, a member of the church of Cenchrea, mentioned by St. Paul, Rom. xvi, 1. “They served the church,” says Calmet, “in those offices which the deacons could not themselves exercise, visiting those of their own sex in sickness, or when imprisoned for the faith. They were persons of advanced age, when chosen; and appointed to the office by imposition of hands.” It is probably of these deaconesses that the Apostle speaks, where he describes the ministering widows, 1 Tim. v, 5–10.
DEAD. See [Burial].
Dead, Mournings for the. The ancient Israelites, in imitation of the Heathen, from whom they borrowed the practice, frequently cut themselves with knives and lancets, scratched their faces, or pricked certain parts of their bodies with needles. These superstitious practices were expressly forbidden in their law: “Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.” The bereaved Greeks tore, cut off, and sometimes shaved, their hair; they reckoned it a duty which they owed to the dead, to deprive their heads of the greatest part of their honours, or, in the language of Scripture, made a baldness between their eyes. The same custom prevailed among the ancient Persians, and the neighbouring states. When the patriarch Job was informed of the death of his children, and the destruction of his property, he arose and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and worshipped; and in the prophecies of Jeremiah, we read of eighty men who were going to lament the desolations of Jerusalem, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, in direct violation of the divine law, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the Lord, Jer. xii, 5. Shaving, however, was, on some occasions, a sign of joy; and to let the hair grow long, the practice of mourners, or persons in affliction. Joseph shaved himself before he went into the palace, Gen. xli, 14; and Mephibosheth let his hair grow during the time David was banished from Jerusalem, but shaved himself on his return. In ordinary sorrows they only neglected their hair, or suffered it to hang down loose upon their shoulders; in more poignant grief they cut it off; but in a sudden and violent paroxysm, they plucked it off with their hands. Such a violent expression of sorrow is exemplified in the conduct of Ezra, which he thus describes: “And when I heard this thing I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head, and of my beard, and sat down astonied,” Ezra ix, 3. The Greeks, and other nations around them, expressed the violence of their sorrow in the same way; for in Homer, Ulysses and his companions, bewailing the death of Elpenor, howled and plucked off their hair. Mourners withdrew as much as possible from the world; they abstained from banquets and entertainments; they banished from their houses as unsuitable to their circumstances, and even painful to their feelings, musical instruments of every kind, and whatever was calculated to excite pleasure, or that wore an air of mirth and gaiety. Thus did the king of Persia testify his sorrow for the decree, into which his wily courtiers had betrayed him, and which, without the miraculous interposition of Heaven, had proved fatal to his favourite minister: “Then the king went to his palace, and spent the night fasting; neither were instruments of music brought before him,” Dan. vi, 18.
2. Oriental mourners divested themselves of all ornaments, and laid aside their jewels, gold, and every thing rich and splendid in their dress. This proof of humiliation and submission Jehovah required of his offending people in the wilderness: “Therefore, now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount Horeb,” Exodus xxxiii, 5, 6. Long after the time of Moses, that rebellious nation again received a command of similar import: “Strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins,” Isaiah xxxii, 11. The garments of the mourner were always black. Progne, having notice of Philomela’s death, lays aside her robes, beaming with a profusion of gold, and appears in sable vestments; and Althæa, when her brethren were slain by Meleager, exchanged her glittering robes for black:--
“Et auratas mutavit vestibus atris.” Ovid.
These sable vestments differed from their ordinary dress, not only in colour, but also in value, being made of cheap and coarse stuff, as appears from these lines of Terence:--
“Texentem telam studiose ipsam offendimus