Does the Bible have anything to say about cremation?

QUESTION:

“Does the Bible have anything to say about cremation? I know it talks about burying people, but did not know if there was any direction about the practice of cremation as an option when people die instead of burying them?”

RESPONSE:

“For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19 Those are the final words that God said to Adam and Eve after the Fall just before the Lord God made coverings of skins and clothed them in their nakedness. When dealing with the issue of death, it is important for us to remember that regardless of how one’s life on earth is remembered, all will eventually return to dust until the time God makes all things new and brings history to its final culmination of restoration and ultimate renewal.

The Bible has countless records of how the majority of those who were followers of the one true God responded to those who died. They primarily buried the bodies. Great significance was placed around the remembering of life and making sure the bodies were properly dealt with rather than simply being left in a field for the birds of the air or wild beasts to dispose of them. Such an act was actually seen as a curse in the eyes of biblical society.

However, there is one reference in the Old Testament that references a type of cremation that took place that is worth noting as we consider the question listed above. It is recorded that the people of Jabesh-gilead cremated the bodies of Saul and his sons and then buried their bones under a tamarisk tree. Saul and his army, which included his sons, were brutally defeated in battle by the Philistines as recorded in 1 Samuel. Chapter 31 speaks of how Saul died and how the Philistines treated his body and the bodies of his sons and soldiers with great disrespect.

However, 1 Samuel 31:11-12 indicate that people of Jabesh-gilead took it upon themselves to take risky steps to ensure Saul and his sons did not remain in such a humiliating fashion even in their state of death.

“But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 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 Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and fasted seven days.” 1 Samuel 31:11-13

In a very real sense, Saul and his sons were cremated before their bones (and ashes) were finally laid to rest. The men of Jabesh-gilead were simply speeding up the process of decay most likely out of an act of mercy due to the severity of how badly the bodies had been mutilated by their captors. However, when people were buried in biblical days, the custom for burial was to place the body in a tomb for a year to let the body decay. Then, after the year of decay had passed, family members would return to the tomb or cave where the body had been laid, and would gather the remaining bones. These bones were then buried in a type of box called an ossuary where they were then placed or buried with other family members who had died.

Different cultures and different time periods have recorded different ways to approach the process of disposing of the body at the time of death. However, it has been consistent throughout history that much significance was given to a person’s life in a memorial or way of remembrance across the different cultures on the earth. It seems that in Saul’s case and in the case of his sons, their cremation, along with those who have been cremated throughout church history in different cultures up to present day, are simply speeding up the process that God spoke of in Genesis 3:19 when God said, “and to dust you shall return.”

In conclusion, the Bible does not specifically speak for or against cremation. It merely indicates that cremation did occur for Saul and his sons at the end of their lives and that they were properly remembered and honored at the end of their lives by those who remained alive.