De politia judaica, tam civili quam ecclesiastica, jam inde a suis primordiis, hoc est ab orbe condito, repetita

which they call שמאתא or שמתא, as if it were שם אתא, i.e., "the Lord himself comes." But if this interpretation holds, other than what they commonly bring forward, "There is death," it will be a certain allusion invented after that genuine composition, just as very many of such sort exist among Jurisconsults. For this excommunication is a certain adjudication to eternal death, and the just judgment of God. And to this seems to pertain what John says

1. John 5. 16 regarding the sin unto death. See also below, where we will treat of the Ecclesiastical polity of the Jews prescribed at Mount Sinai.

The rite which was observed concerning the dead was the care of burying and interring, and the holiness and religion of the sepulcher.

The command of burying is in some way shadowed forth by those words of God to Adam, Genesis 3:19: "Until thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

The pure care of burying and the right and holiness of the sepulcher exists in Genesis 23.

Of the rites which were observed concerning things, that one exists by which living creatures are distinguished into clean and unclean, of which Genesis 7:2, 8, and 8:20.

That selection of clean animals seems to have concerned only sacrifices.