“Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle.” (Psalm 56:8) There is an interesting history to tear cups or tear bottles that have been found dating to the time of the ancient Pharaohs in Egypt and Middle Eastern societies.[1] King David is accredited with writing the 56th Psalm about 1,020 years before Christ. The Greeks and the Romans definitely used tear bottles to collect the tears of mourners and bury the tear bottles with the deceased. Early tear bottles were made from clay or small leather waterproof pouches pronounced “Node” in Hebrew.[2] Tear bottles usually had a distinct phalange at the top making it easier to collect the tears. Roman glass tear cups or bottles were made possible by the discovery of glass blowing. The Holy Land was a prime producer of Roman glass because of the abundance and excellent quality of the sand.
Is there any relationship to the tear cup and Jesus? Indeed there is! The 56th Psalm is a Messianic Psalm referring to the tears that Jesus would shed in the Garden of Gethsemane, for the sins of all of God’s children. Jesus said to put His tears into our tear bottles.
In the Garden of Gethsemane in anticipation of sweating blood from every pore, Jesus prayed, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this [tear] cup from me; nevertheless not my will but thy will be done.” The Greek word used in this verse in the New Testament for cup is pronounced “Poterion.”[3] It has two meanings. The first is a cup as a drinking vessel and the second is a “cup of fate or destiny.” In referring to paying the price for sin, Jesus said to Peter, “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” (John 8:11). It was a significant part of the foreordained mission of Jesus the Messiah, the “Anointed One,” to atone for the sins of all mankind. Jesus told his disciples, “I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world.” (3 Nephi 11:11), “Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit-and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink, nevertheless…I partook.” (D&C 19:18). “Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people. Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again.” (Isaiah 51:22).
There is a price to pay for sin that we as mortals could not pay. We needed a Redeemer and someone to save us from being shut out of the presence of Heavenly Father. Because of the love Jesus has for each one of us, He paid a divine and supernal price for our sins. Jesus is now our advocate with the Father saying, “Father, behold the suffering and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life. (D&C 45: 3-5). And what does Jesus require of us but this, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:34). By doing so we will avoid drinking our own bitter cup.
[1] Some scholars question whether the tear bottles in Egypt were for tears or for just for oils and perfumes. Other scholars believe that the Egyptians had both tear bottles and oil and perfume bottles buried with the Pharaohs.
[2] Strong’s Dictionary for Hebrew and Chaldee, #4997.
[3] Strong’s Greek Dictionary of the New Testament, #4221.