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Bible Dictionaries
Nurse
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or The nurse in an eastern family is always an important personage. Modern travellers inform us, that in Syria she is considered as a sort of second parent, whether she has been foster-mother, or otherwise. She always accompanies the bride to her husband's house, and ever remains there an honoured character. Thus it was in ancient Greece. This will serve to explain Genesis 24:59 : "And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse." In Hindostan the nurse is not looked upon as a stranger, but becomes one of the family, and passes the remainder of her life in the midst of the children she has suckled, by whom she is honoured and cherished as a second mother. In many parts of Hindostan are mosques and mausoleums, built by the Mohammedan princes, near the sepulchres of their nurses. They are excited by a grateful affection to erect these structures in memory of those who with maternal anxiety watched over their helpless infancy: thus it has been from time immemorial.
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Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Nurse'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/n/nurse.html. 1831-2.
