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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

BURIAL, BURIAL CUSTOMS*

The Bible makes frequent reference to burial practices. A society’s burial customs are a reflection of its views about death and the afterlife. The ancient Egyptians, for example, thought of life after death as a continuation of physical activities in another realm, as evidenced by their elaborately furnished tombs. The ancient Hebrews emphasized a more spiritual concept of union or fellowship of the departed with generations gone on before.

Graves and Tombs

Among the Hebrews, location of burial plots was generally determined on a family basis. The OT contains many references to an Israelite’s desire to be buried in the family burying place, describing his death as “going to his fathers” (Gn 15:15; 1 Kgs 13:22).

The cave of Machpelah at Hebron was one example of family “cohabitation” of a tomb for a succession of generations. Abraham purchased the site from Ephron the Hittite at the time of Sarah’s death (Gn 23). When Abraham died, Isaac and Ishmael laid his body in the same tomb (25:9), and there Jacob in turn buried his parents, Isaac and Rebekah, as well as Jacob’s wife Leah (49:31). After his death, Jacob’s body was buried with his father’s in accord with his own request (49:29; 50:13). Jacob’s son Joseph made his kinsmen promise that his remains would be preserved so they could be carried back to the homeland when God enabled his people to return from Egypt (50:25). Samuel is spoken of as being buried in his house at Ramah, evidently referring to a family graveyard plot (1 Sm 25:1). Joab was buried in his own house in the wilderness (1 Kgs 2:34). King Manasseh was buried in the garden of his palace (2 Kgs 21:18), and Joshua in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah (Jos 24:30). Kings were careful to perpetuate their memory by special burial sites, often in the City of David (the part of Jerusalem on the southeastern ridge first occupied by that great king). King Josiah designated his burial place in advance, most likely an ancestral tomb (2 Kgs 23:30).

Individual burial sites, such as that of Deborah near Bethel (Gn 35:8) and of Rachel on the road to Ephrath (Gn 35:1, 20), were an exception necessitated by sudden death at some distance from the family tomb.

Bodies were buried in tombs, that is, natural caves or rock-hewn sepulchers, such as that belonging to Joseph of Arimathea where the body of Jesus was laid (Mt 27:59-60). They were also buried in shallow graves covered with rock heaps, serving both to mark them and to prevent desecration of the body by animals.

Some graves were marked by a monument erected in love (Gn 35:20) and honor (2 Kgs 23:17), but stones were sometimes heaped on a dishonorable burial place, as in the case of Achan (Jos 7:26) and Absalom (2 Sm 18:17). Tombs were often adorned or embellished, sometimes whitewashed, in part to warn against ceremonial contamination prohibited by Mosaic law. Jesus spoke of such embellishment in a rebuke of the Pharisees (Mt 23:27).

Treatment of the Corpse

The assurance given by God to Jacob that “Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes” (Gn 46:4, rsv) probably alludes to the custom of a near relative closing the eyes of one who died with a fixed stare. Close relatives might also literally embrace and kiss the body immediately upon expiration. The body was washed and dressed in the deceased one’s clothing. Pins and other ornaments found in excavated tombs are evidence that the dead were buried fully clothed. Soldiers were buried in full regalia, with shields covering or cradling the armored bodies, their swords under their heads (Ez 32:27).

Embalming was not a usual practice in Israel. Egyptian treatment for Jacob and Joseph was the exception rather than the rule. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the Egyptians commenced embalming procedures by removing the brain from the cranium through the nasal apertures, piecemeal, using a long curved hook. When this had been done, the cranial cavity was rinsed out with a mixture of resins and spices. The corpse was eviscerated, and the entrails were placed in four canopic jars. The body was soaked in a solution of natron for a period of from 40 to 80 days, depending on the cost of the burial. At the time of interment, the corpse was wrapped in strips of fine linen cloth from head to foot and put in an anthropoid coffin. The canopic jars were placed in the tomb along with the body, symbolizing the reuniting of the personality and its survival after death.

Cremation of the bodies of Saul and his sons (1 Sm 31:12-13) was also an exception to normal practice. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that in contrast with Roman custom, Jewish piety required the burying rather than burning of dead bodies. Under Mosaic law such burning was reserved as a sentence of judgment (Lv 21:9; Jos 7:25).

After preparation of the body, it was carried on a bier (a simple frame with carrying poles) without being placed in a coffin. The body was laid either in a prepared niche in the wall of a rock-hewn chamber or directly in a shallow grave dug in a burial plot. Neither bier nor any form of casket entered the pit with the corpse. The spices used as a perfume and temporary deterrent to decay cannot properly be considered an attempt at embalming (Mk 16:1).

As we know from the Gospel record of Jesus’ burial, some cave tombs had a seal at the doorway, either a hinged wooden door or a flat stone shaped so it could be rolled into place. Such a stone seal could be reopened only with extreme effort (Mk 15:46; 16:3-4). By NT times the Jews sometimes economized on the use of a family tomb by placing the dry bones of formerly buried relatives in ossuaries. These boxlike receptacles were probably an adaptation of chests used by the Romans for holding ashes after a cremation.

Under Mosaic legislation, ceremonial defilement was contracted either through physical contact with the corpse or by participation in the formalities of mourning. Especially stringent prohibitions applied to the priests of Israel. The high priest himself could have nothing at all to do with mourning. In particular, he “must never defile himself by going near a dead person, even if it is his father or mother. He must not desecrate the sanctuary of his God by leaving it to attend his parents’ funeral, because he has been made holy by the anointing oil of his God” (Lv 21:10-12, NLT).

Although the customs and procedures were evidently modified little from OT to NT times, some added details are given in the NT record. For example, it is noted that the corpse was washed (Acts 9:37). The body was then anointed and wrapped in linen cloths with spices enclosed (Mk 16:1; Jn 19:40). Finally, the limbs were tightly bound and the head covered with a separate piece of cloth (Jn 11:44).