Bier

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

BIER. —The Gr. word σορός (Heb. סִמָה,  2 Samuel 3:31), ‘bier,’ more strictly means ‘a coffin.’  Luke 7:14 is the only place where the word appears in the NT. The bier was an open coffin, or simply a flat wooden frame on which the body of the dead was carried to the grave. Closed coffins were not used in the time of our Lord. According to the Levitical Law, contact with a dead body was forbidden as a source of defilement ( Numbers 19:11-14). In raising to life the widow’s son at Nain, Jesus, by touching the bier only, avoided any infringement of the letter of the Law. But the miracle, prompted by that same intense sympathy with human sorrow which He so strikingly manifested on another occasion ( John 11:35), pointed to a higher and more authoritative law—that Divine eternal law of compassion which received its freest and fullest expression for the first time in His own life, and which forms one of the most distinctive features of His Gospel.

Dugald Clark.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Σορός (Strong'S #4673 — Noun Feminine — soros — sor-os' )

originally denoted a receptacle for containing the bones of the dead, "a cinerary urn;" then "a coffin,"  Genesis 50:26;  Job 21:32; then, "the funeral couch of bier" on which the Jews bore their dead to burial,  Luke 7:14 .

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (n.) A handbarrow or portable frame on which a corpse is placed or borne to the grave.

(2): (n.) A count of forty threads in the warp or chain of woolen cloth.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

A light frame or couch on which the dead could be carried.  2 Samuel 3:31;  Luke 7:14 . The Hebrew word mittah is often translated 'bed.'

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Bier. See Burial; Sepulchres, 1 .

King James Dictionary

BIER, n. L. feretrum, from fero. See Bear.

A carriage or frame of wood for conveying dead human bodies to the

grave.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 2 Samuel 3:31 Luke 7:14

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Bier.  Luke 7:14 See Burial.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

BIER . See Mourning Customs, Tomb.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Luke 7:14

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

See Burial .

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bēr  :

(1) Found in the Old Testament only in  2 Samuel 3:31 , "and king David followed the bier "; and in the New Testament in  Luke 7:14 , "and he (Jesus) came nigh and touched the bier." The Hebrew word rendered "bier" ( miṭṭāh ) and its Greek equivalent ( sorós ) mean strictly "coffin." The so-called "bier" among the ancient Hebrews was simply an open coffin or a flat wooden frame, on which the body of the dead was carried from the house to the grave.

(2) Closed coffins, so universal now in the West, were unknown to common usage among the Hebrews of olden times, though not unknown to Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.

At the burial of Abner the people were commanded to "rend their clothes" and "gird themselves with sackcloth," and the king himself in token of his grief and royal regard, "followed the bier " in the procession to the grave ( 2 Samuel 3:31 ).

(3) Of Jesus, when He met the procession that went out of the gate of the city of Nain, bearing to the grave the only son of the widowed mother, Luke says, "When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her ... and he came nigh and touched the bier," and commanded the young man to arise, etc. We should recall that contact with a dead body was forbidden by the law as a source of defilement ( Numbers 19:11 f); so Jesus here "came nigh" and "touched the bier" only in raising the young man, Thus avoiding any criticism for infraction of the law. In   John 11:35 , as here, we have a miracle of Jesus which clearly pointed to a higher law - the eternal law of compassion which received its first full expression in the life of Jesus and forms one of the distinctive features of the gospel.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( מַטָּה , Mittah', a bed, as elsewhere,  2 Samuel 3:31; Σορός , a funereal urn, hence an open Coffin or Burial-Couch,  Luke 7:14). (See Burial).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Bier [BURIAL]