By local custom, sounds of lamentation announced the death of an individual—a shrill cry, followed by weeping and wailing of professional mourners. The body, washed and rubbed with oil or sprinkled with perfume, was prepared for burial within 24 hours. Normally Dorcas would have been wrapped with special grave clothes made of long strips of linen, but the book of Acts only records that she was laid in an upper room, awaiting the arrival of the Apostle Peter.
For more information:
Reader’s Digest’s Jesus and His Times, page 117.
Sketches of Jewish Social Life, Alfred Edersheim, pages 154-156
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol.1, “Burial”
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