The use of cremation as a method of disposing of a person’s remains after death has been sharply on the increase in our society. Naturally, there is an increased discussion about the propriety of this practice, even as it gains acceptance as a viable option. When someone asked me recently what the Bible says about cremation, I could only answer that I had heard that it was not a good thing, but I didn’t know exactly why. In light of these things, this seems to be the right time to examine what the Bible has to say on this subject.

The various possibilities for disposing of the body would normally include:

1. Internment in a sepulchre, which is like a crypt or mausoleum.
2. Burial in an earthen grave. This equates with our normal idea of a grave site.
3. Cremation: this may or may not include placing the remains in a grave or mausoleum.
4. Uncommon forms of burial, such as burial at sea.

Sometimes, either because the body was somehow destroyed at death, or was not recoverable after death, burial is not possible.

BURIAL IN A SEPULCHRE

Although the first three forms of disposing the body are mentioned in the Bible, burial in a sepulchre is by far the most prominent biblical method of internment. Sepulchres were used for burying by those who could afford it. The Pyramids were sepulchres of great cost. Abraham, a rich man, purchased a sepulchre to bury Sarah and other family members.

Genesis 23:5 – And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him,
6 Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead.
7 And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.
8 And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar;
9 That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you.

The sepulchre which Abraham purchased apparently was part of a cave that had been renovated and built up to serve as a family crypt. It was a structure fit for a “mighty prince”, as stated in verse six.

Some sepulchres were hewn out of solid rock, and these were very expensive to make. Jesus’ grave was an example of this.

Isaiah 53:9 – And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Matthew 27:59 – And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
60 And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

Sepulchres were expensive, and they were passed down from generation to generation. The deceased would be placed on a stone platform which was sometimes hollowed out slightly to accept the body. The body would lay there until the flesh had decayed away, and only the bones remained. Then the bones would be gathered together and moved to another spot, so that the next body could be placed on the platform. Some sepulchres had up to six platforms to lay bodies simultaneously.

Gideon and Asahel were buried in the tombs of their forefathers.

Judges 8:32 – And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
II Samuel 2:32 – And they took up Asahel, and buried him in the sepulchre of his father, which was in Bethlehem…

When Barzillai spoke to King David, he voiced a desire to be buried in his parents’ grave.

II Samuel 19:37 – Let thy servant, I pray thee, turn back again, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and of my mother…

The biblical idea of burial has little to do with digging a grave. In the following passage, the disobedient prophet was buried in the sepulchre of the old prophet. Though it speaks of him being buried, it is obvious he is not covered with earth. The old prophet’s bones were to be placed beside the bones of the first prophet after the flesh of both of them had decayed away.

I Kings 13:31 – And it came to pass, after he had buried him,
[NOTE: the old prophet had buried the disobedient prophet]
that he spake to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones:

The primary emphasis of burial seems to have been to place the body out of the view of the living. Abraham attests to this in his burial of Sarah.

Genesis 23:4 – I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

BURIAL IN AN EARTHEN GRAVE

Burial in the ground was common for the average person. If you couldn’t afford a tomb, or if your family didn’t have a crypt to hand down, you would be buried in the ground. In the following passage, foreigners were to be buried in the potter’s field, which became a graveyard.

Matthew 27:6 – And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.
7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.
8 Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.

In this next instance, a group of men were digging a grave. When they spotted a group of Moabite bandits, they became frightened and decided to quickly place the body into the nearby tomb of Elisha. Tossing the body onto Elisha’s bones resulted in a miracle.

II Kings 13:20 – And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year.
21 And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.

Because Jacob’s family was traveling, Rachel was not placed in the family tomb, but in an earthen grave.

Genesis 35:16 – And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour…
19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.
20 And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave unto this day.

Elijah prophesied that those killed in the war against Christ would be buried in the ground.

Ezekiel 39:11 – And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel…
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.

CREMATION AS A MEANS OF DISPOSING OF THE BODY

There is one point that needs to be made first of all, which is that cremation is not burial. Although many people realize this, some do not. Burial takes place when the remains are committed to a final resting place. In many cases the ashes of a person are buried in an earthen grave or crypt after cremation. If an urn containing the ashes of the dead is placed on the fireplace mantle or in the attic, that person has been denied their right to be buried.

Before I undertook this study, I believed for certain offences, burning at the stake was one of the penalties commanded by God in the Mosaic Law. Upon taking a closer look at the account of Achan which follows, I realized that cremation, not death by fire, was really what God commanded.

Joshua 7:10 – And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
11 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff…
15 And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel…
24 And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.
25 And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.
26 And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.

It is clear from this narrative that cremation after stoning to death, not burning at the stake, is the divinely ordered punishment. Some might say that Joshua did not precisely carry out the commandment of the Lord, since nothing is recorded in verse 15 of God ordering the stoning of Achan. However, if Joshua were disobedient here, there would have been a further judgment by God against his people and Joshua. Since we find in verse 26 that God turned from his anger after these things, it is clear that God was pleased with Joshua’s obedience.

Many believers are aware of the fact that the Mosaic penalty for adultery was death.

Leviticus 20:10 – And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

On the other hand, numerous believers do not realize that for some sexual offences, more than death was prescribed.

Leviticus 20:14 – And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.
Leviticus 21:9 – And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.

If we did not have the account of Achan’s death to guide us in our thinking, we might surmise that these sinners were to be burned at the stake. A case could also possibly be made for the opinion that branding, perhaps similar to Cain’s punishment, was intended. However, since we do have the account of Achan, we can quite clearly see that the punishment was to be death by stoning, with cremation to follow.

Sometimes the Law of Moses codified practices which were already an accepted custom among believers that pre-dated the giving of the law. The animal sacrifice by Abel is one such example. In the next passage, Judah seeks to punish his daughter-in-law Tamar for her immorality.

Genesis 38:24 – And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.

Again, if this passage were taken at face value, several conclusions could be possible.

1. Tamar was to be burned at the stake.
2. She was to be branded.
3. She was to be executed and cremated.

Admittedly, the passage is most easily interpreted as “bring her forth TO be burned.” However, I believe that the phrase “bring her forth” has to do with her being brought to her execution, and the phrase “let her be burnt” has to do with cremating her body. The word AND separating those two phrases would then serve to distinguish two separate actions. This line of reasoning comes from the realization that cremation after stoning is what God later ordered in the case of Achan, although you would not have thought so by reading God’s words in that instance. The fact that Tamar was guilty of a sexual sin lends more credence to the possibility of cremation, since later in the giving of the law, that was precisely the kind of sin that was to be punished in that way.

In the following verses, the Philistine leaders executed judgment on Samson’s wife and her father for their unfaithfulness. Though God had commanded otherwise, the cultures of the Israelites and the Philistines were very much intertwined at the time. It is possible therefore, that the Philistines were familiar with enough of the Mosaic Law to understand that death and cremation were prescribed in some cases. Samson indicated in verse 7 that the judgment meted out to his wife and her father by the Philistines was proper and just, but still not enough to satisfy his indignation.

Judges 15:6 – Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
7 And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.

Cremation was used as a means of worshiping the demonic deities. The peoples who preceded Israel in Palestine cremated the bodies of their children as an offering to their pagan gods. The account of Abraham’s aborted sacrifice of Isaac shows us that the victim was to be killed before being burned. Of course God did not want Abraham to sacrifice his son, and the sacrifices of the heathen’s children had displeased God greatly. He commanded Israel never to do such things.

Deuteronomy 12:29 – When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
31 Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

When the Israelite kings continued this practice, it led to their own destruction.

II Chronicles 28:1 – Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem : but he did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father:
2 For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim.
3 Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

By the time of Jeremiah, the cremation of their children had become a common practice with the Israelites.

Jeremiah 19:3 – And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:

The king of Moab resorted to the sacrifice and cremation of his son as an appeal to his god during a battle against a united confederacy of Israel and Edom. Apparently the Edomites were greatly affected by this act, and left off helping Israel in the war against Moab. Perhaps the Edomites feared the same pagan god as the Moabites, and were concerned that so great a sacrifice would cause the god to come to the Moabites aid.

II Kings 3:26 – And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom: but they could not.
27 Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel : and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.

DEATH BY FIRE

Somewhat beyond the topic of cremation, but still related to it is the matter of death by fire. There are several accounts in the Bible of God’s judgment upon men through the use of fire. The purpose of discussing some of these instances is to show that the destruction of the body by fire, whether causing death directly or after death, is a picture of the wrath of God.

Nadab and Abihu provoked the Lord with strange fire, and died by fire.

Leviticus 10:1 – And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.
2 And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.

Korah died when God caused the earth to swallow him up, but his fellow conspirators were consumed by fire from God.

Numbers 16:1 Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men:…
18 And they took every man his censer, and put fire in them, and laid incense thereon, and stood in the door of the tabernacle of the congregation with Moses and Aaron…
35 And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.

The following psalm recounts the incident cited above.

Psalms 106:16 – They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the LORD.
17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.
18 And a fire was kindled in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.

King Ahaziah three times sent soldiers to arrest Elijah. The first two captains and their companies of fifty men were ungodly. Their captains spoke roughly and would have mistreated the prophet. The third captain and his fifty had the proper spirit toward Elijah, and God spared his life and the lives of his men.

II Kings 1:9 – Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.
10 And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
11Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.
12 And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
13 And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.
14 Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.
15 And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.

If we ask ourselves whether death by fire was an honorable thing, the answer is an emphatic no. In each case the fire represented the judgment of God against ungodly men.

The following verse tells us quite plainly that the cremation of even an enemy’s bones, can stir the wrath of God. Doubtless, the King of Moab was an evil man, and yet he is singled out for continued judgment because of one particular act. These are perhaps the same two kings that fought against one another until the King of Moab killed and cremated his own son on the wall (see II Kings 3:26-27). Some expositors think that at some later date there was another battle in which the King of Edom was captured or killed and his body brought to Edom. This was what the Philistines did to King Saul. Another possibility is that grave robbers were sent to Edom after the king had died from causes not related to the hostilities with Moab. Whatever did happen, God has strong words for him that cremated another.

Amos 2:1 – Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:

Even in a figurative sense (which would of course refer to some literal activity), cremation is disapproved by God.

Revelation 17:15 – And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

WHERE CREMATION IS JUSTIFIED

At this point, we can deal with the two places in the Bible where cremation is not spoken ill of. In the first instance, the cremation never actually took place, though it had been commanded by God.

Genesis 22:7 – And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

Of course, we know that God never actually intended for Abraham to kill his son, and we also know that he never intended for Isaac to be cremated. However, we can glean some information from this passage. We see Isaac was to be killed before his body was to be burned. This is an important point in understanding other Biblical passages related to burning of the body.

An instance where it was appropriate to cremate the deceased was that of King Saul and his sons. The Philistines had killed Saul in battle, and now considered his corpse a prized treasure of war. Moreover, in the eyes of the Philistines, their god was the victor over Israel’s God, making Saul’s body an important religious symbol for them.

I Samuel 31:8 – And it came to pass on the morrow, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in mount Gilboa.
9 And they cut off his head, and stripped off his armour, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of their idols, and among the people.
10 And they put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth: and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan.
11 And when the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul;
12 All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there.
13 And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

King David approved of this cremation, since the bodies of Saul and his sons were in danger of further defilement by the Philistines. As we have seen, when the king of Moab publicly burned the body of his son, it was a powerful religious act. It is evident that Saul’s body would have been used in the Philistine’s pagan rituals as well.

II Samuel 2:5 – And David sent messengers unto the men of Jabeshgilead, and said unto them, Blessed be ye of the LORD, that ye have shewed this kindness unto your lord, even unto Saul, and have buried him.

Because of the actions of the men from Jabeshgilead, the Philistines boasting about their god was greatly lessened, and Saul’s body could not be used for ritual pagan worship. These were good and valid reasons for Saul’s cremation, reasons which do not exist in our society today.

REMEMBRANCE OF THE DECEASED

One of the purposes of burial is to be able to have a place where the deceased is remembered in a special way. The grave of a loved one is a singular place where strong feelings come to the surface of one’s soul. God has placed in each one of us the desire to be remembered after our departing. It is confusion to desire to be remembered, and also to desire to be cremated, for the two are antithetical. As pointed out already, the Pyramids are sepulchers. They broadly proclaim to the world that there are kings there which desired to be remembered. Even wicked Absalom thought it important to be remembered after his death.

II Samuel 18:18 – Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king’s dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom’s place.

God indicated that the eternal remembrance of a just person is a blessed thing, but the memory of the wicked is cursed.

Proverbs 10:7 – The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.
Psalms 109:13 – Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

As part of the punishment for her evil deeds, Jezebel was denied a grave – the place of remembrance.

II Kings 9:35 – And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands.
36 Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel:
37 And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.

Verse 37 says quite succinctly that as a direct judgment of God there was not a place to remember her by. Cremation often accomplishes the same purpose.

CONCLUSION

Based on what we have seen in the Bible, we can now come to the following conclusions:

Though some might object to burial in a crypt or mausoleum, it is just as normal biblically as burial in an earthen grave. I’ve had to make an adjustment in my own thinking on this point.

Cremation carries with it the stigma of an executed and sinful person.

In the matter of Achan, covetousness was the sin for which God required the disgrace of cremation.

In the Mosaic Law, certain sexual sins call for cremation. Since the body was the object of the sin, the body was also the object of judgment. Cremation therefore represents judgment upon the body.

Cremation was and is an important part of idol worship. Christians who want to use their bodies to serve the Lord (after all, God owns their bodies [I Corinthians 6:20]), ought not to portray serving idols by seeking to be cremated.

Cremation destroys the remains of the person, which symbolizes the blotting out of that person from man’s memory. Keeping the memory of yourself active after your death is given a high priority in the Bible.

With cremation, a person first dies, and then is cast into the fire. It is easy to see how cremation can symbolize the punishment of hell after death. This is especially true in light of the biblical connection between sin and cremation. If a believer is cremated the message of the atoning power of Christ to save sinners is obscured.

In summary, there is no doubt that cremation is not a godly option. Its connection with sin, judgment, and hell is all too apparent. Add to that the loss of a godly remembrance before future generations, along with the association with idol worship, and there is nothing left to commend its practice.