Burial, Burial Customs

Burial usually means placing a dead person’s body in a grave or tomb. Burial customs are the practices a society follows after a person dies. These may include preparing the body, placing it in a grave or tomb, burning it, holding ceremonies, and mourning. The Bible often refers to burial practices. Such customs often show what people believe about death and life after death.

For example, the ancient Egyptians believed that life after death continued in another world. They expected people to continue many physical activities there. Their richly furnished tombs show this belief.

The ancient Hebrews placed more emphasis on the spiritual union of the dead with earlier generations. In other words, they believed that people who died would join their ancestors in the afterlife.

Among the Hebrews, families usually buried their dead in the same burial place. The Old Testament often refers to an Israelite's desire to be buried with family members. It also describes death as "going to his fathers" (Genesis 15:15; 1 Kings 13:22), meaning that a person would be united with earlier generations after death.

The cave of Machpelah at Hebron is one example of a family tomb that several generations shared. Abraham bought the site from Ephron the Hittite when Sarah died (Genesis 23). When Abraham died, Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the same tomb (25:9). Jacob later buried his parents, Isaac and Rebekah, there. He also buried his wife Leah there (49:31).

Before Jacob died, he asked to be buried in the same family tomb. His family honored his request (Genesis 49:29; 50:13). Jacob’s son Joseph also asked his relatives to preserve his remains. He wanted them to carry his body back to the homeland when God brought his people out of Egypt (50:25).

The Bible says that Samuel was buried at his house in Ramah. This probably means that he was buried in a family burial place on his property (1 Samuel 25:1). Joab was also buried at his own house in the wilderness (1 Kings 2:34). King Manasseh was buried in the garden of his palace (2 Kings 21:18. Joshua was buried on the land that he had received at Timnath-serah (Joshua 24:30).

Kings often prepared special burial places so that people would remember them. Many of these burial places were in the City of David. This was the part of Jerusalem on the southeastern hill where David first lived. King Josiah chose his burial place before he died. It was probably a family tomb (2 Kings 23:30).

Individual burial places were less common. Deborah was buried near Bethel (Genesis 35:8) and Rachel was buried on the road to Ephrath (Genesis 35:1, 20). These burials may have been necessary because each woman died suddenly while far from the family tomb. Such cases were rare.

Bodies were placed in tombs. These tombs could be natural caves or chambers cut into rock. The body of Jesus was placed in this kind of tomb, which belonged to Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:59–60). Some bodies were also buried in shallow graves and covered with piles of stones. The stones marked the grave and helped protect the body from animals.

Some graves had monuments that showed love or honor (Genesis 35:20; 2 Kings 23:17). However, people sometimes piled stones over the burial place of a person who had died in disgrace. This happened to Achan and Absalom (Joshua 7:26) and Absalom (2 Samuel 18:17).

People often decorated tombs or made them more beautiful. They also sometimes covered tombs with white paint. This helped warn people not to touch them and become ceremonially unclean under the law of Moses. Jesus referred to decorated and whitewashed tombs when he rebuked the Pharisees (Matthew 23:27).

God told Jacob that “Joseph’s own hands will close your eyes” (Genesis 46:4). This probably refers to the custom in which a close relative closed the eyes of a person who had died. Close relatives might also hold and kiss the body soon after death.

The body was washed and dressed in the dead person’s clothing. Pins and other objects found in ancient tombs show that people were buried fully clothed.

Soldiers were sometimes buried with their armor and weapons. Their shields covered or supported their bodies, and their swords were placed under their heads (Ezekiel 32:27). These practices showed respect and honor for the dead.

Embalming, the process of preserving a dead body, was not common in Israel. The Egyptian treatment of Jacob and Joseph was an exception.

According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Egyptian embalmers first removed the brain through the nose with a long, curved hook. They then washed the empty space inside the skull with a mixture of resins and spices.

Next, they removed the internal organs and placed them in four special containers called canopic jars. They soaked the body in natron, a natural salt mixture, for 40 to 80 days. The length of time depended on how much the family could pay.

At the time of burial, they wrapped the body from head to foot in strips of fine linen. They then placed it in a human-shaped coffin. The canopic jars were put in the tomb with the body. This practice expressed the belief that the person would be made whole again and continue to exist after death.

Burning the bodies of Saul and his sons was also unusual (1 Samuel 31:12–13). The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that Jewish religious practice required people to bury dead bodies rather than burn them. This differed from the common Roman practice.

Under the law of Moses, burning a person’s body could be part of a punishment for serious wrongdoing (Leviticus 21:9; Joshua 7:25). Therefore, burial, not burning, was the normal Jewish practice.

After preparing the body, people carried it on a bier, a simple frame with poles. They did not place the body in a coffin. They laid the body in a prepared space in the wall of a tomb cut into rock. In other cases, they placed it directly in a shallow grave in a burial area. The bier and coffin were not buried with the body.

People also used spices to give the body a pleasant smell and to slow decay for a short time. This was not the same as embalming, which preserves a body for a longer period (Mark 16:1).

The Gospel accounts of the burial of Jesus show that some cave tombs had an entrance that could be closed. The entrance may have had a wooden door on hinges or a flat stone that could be rolled into place. Moving such a stone again required great effort (Mark 15:46; 16:3–4).

By New Testament times, some Jewish families saved space in a family tomb by placing the dry bones of relatives in small stone boxes called ossuaries. These boxes may have developed from Roman containers used to hold ashes after cremation.

Under the law of Moses, a person became ceremonially unclean by touching a dead body or by taking part in mourning customs. The rules were especially strict for Israel’s priests.

The high priest was not allowed to go near a dead person, even if the person was his father or mother. He also could not leave the sanctuary to attend their funeral because God had set him apart through the anointing oil (Leviticus 21:10–12).

Burial customs seem to have changed little between Old Testament and New Testament times. However, the New Testament gives some additional details.

The body was washed (Acts 9:37). It was then covered with oil and wrapped in linen cloths with spices (Mark 16:1; John 19:40). The arms and legs were bound with strips of cloth, and a separate cloth covered the head (John 11:44).

See also Mourning; Funeral Customs.