Burial

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

(mounding). Place, a cave or hewn rock (Gen. 23:4; 25:9; 50:5-13; Matt. 27:60). Body washed (Acts 9:37); swathed and spiced (Matt. 27:59; Mark 15:46; 16:1). Head covered separately (2 Chron. 16:14; John 19:40); pallbearers and mourners, relatives and friends (2 Sam. 3:31; Luke 7:12); sometimes hired mourners (Jer. 9:17; Ezek. 24:17; Matt. 9:23).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

This was the universal custom among the Israelites for the disposal of their dead, and provision was made in the law for the burial of criminals (Deut. 21:23). Those slain in battle were also interred (1 Kings 11:15). This was needful in so warm a country in order to avoid a pestilence, and the dead were always promptly buried, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. These were probably bound round with the clothes they were wearing and at once laid in the grave. In other cases linen cloths were wrapped round the body and round the head, as in the case of Lazarus, and as loving hands tended the body of the Lord. Spices were enclosed among the cloths: Nicodemus furnished 100 pound weight of “myrrh and aloes” at the burial of the Lord, besides what the devout women had brought.

It does not appear that there was any service “or prayers” offered at the burial of the dead. At the death of Lazarus, Jews were present, mourning with the family four days after the death; and in the case of the daughter of Jairus there was a “tumult” with weeping and great wailing; these were probably hired mourners (as is the custom to this day), for “musicians” were also present.

Among the judgments pronounced on the people of Jerusalem one was that they should not be buried: their bodies should be eaten by the fowls and the wild beasts (Jer. 16:4). In the case of God’s two future witnesses in Jerusalem the wicked will rejoice over their dead bodies and will not allow them to be buried; only to have their joy turned into terror when they see them stand upon their feet alive again, and behold them ascend to heaven (Rev. 11:9-12).

“350. Hebrew Mode of Burial” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

2 Kings 13:21. 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 sepulcher of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.

To understand this text fully, it is necessary to remember that among the Israelites the dead were not buried in coffins as with us. The Egyptians sometimes used coffins, (see note on Genesis 50:26, #102) but the Israelites, who brought many Egyptian customs with them into Palestine, did not adopt this custom. They wrapped their dead in linen cloths and laid them in the tomb. See note on John 19:40 (#822). Thus the man mentioned in the text was about to be buried when his friends saw the Moabites. Seeing that they could not reach the grave prepared for him without being perceived by the enemy, they quickly rolled away the stone from Elisha’s sepulcher, near which they were, and put the corpse there. As there was no coffin for either body, the body of the newly dead could easily touch the bones of the buried prophet.

“443. Unburied Bodies” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

Psalm 79:2. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.

To be deprived of burial was considered by the Jews one of the greatest dishonors that could be inflicted on a human being. In this, they but shared the common feeling of civilized man. We find a number of scriptural references to this sentiment. The Psalmist, lamenting the desolations he beheld, says, “Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth” (Psa. 141:7). Solomon speaks of it as a great disgrace that a man “have no burial” (Eccl. 6:3). The Lord said of Jehoiakim, “his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost” (Jer. 36:30). In the text the bodies are represented not only as unburied, but as further dishonored by being devoured by birds and beasts. This was one of the curses pronounced by Moses for disobedience to the Divine law (Deut. 28:26). It was a threat mutually exchanged between David and Goliath (1 Sam. 17:44-46). The prophet Jeremiah has several references to this dishonorable treatment of the bodies of the dead. See Jeremiah 7:33; 16:4; 19:7; 34:20.

In connection with this subject it may not be amiss to state that, on the other hand, the ancient Magi exposed the bodies of their dead, to be eaten by birds, as a matter of religious principle; their theory being that any other mode of disposing of a corpse would pollute at least one of the four so-called elements: earth, air, fire, and water. If living beings should devour the dead, this pollution would be prevented. At the present day the Guebers, or Fire-worshipers, the descendants of the ancient Persians, follow the same practice, and even have apparatus prepared for the purpose. “Round towers of considerable height, without either door or window, are constructed by the Guebers, having at the top a number of iron bars, which slope inwards. The towers are mounted by means of ladders, and the bodies are placed crossways upon the bars. The vultures and crows which hover about the towers soon strip the flesh from the bones, and these latter then fall through to the bottom. The Zendavesta contains particular directions for the construction of such towers, which are called dakhmas, or ‘towers of silence.’” (Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies, vol. 2, p. 350, note 2).

“822. Preparation for Burial” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

John 19:40. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

This was not embalming according to the Egyptian method, as described in the note on Genesis 50:2-3 (#98). The Jews simply anointed the body, and wrapped it in fine linen, putting spices and ointments in the folds. In our Saviour’s case the operation was not completed, owing to the coming of the Sabbath. As soon as the Sabbath was over the pious women came to complete the work. See Mark 16:1. The use of ointment in burial is referred to in Matthew 26:12; Mark 14:8; John 12:7.

John and Luke are the only evangelists who speak of the ointment and spices at the burial of Christ. See text and Luke 23:56. All four of them, however, mention the linen clothes. See Matthew 27:59; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53; text; and John 20:5-7. These are also named in connection with the burial of Lazarus. See John 11:44. It is there said that he was “bound hand and foot with grave-clothes,” and skeptics have made themselves merry with the absurdity of the story that a man having both feet bound together should be able to “come forth.” That the feet were bound together is, however, a gratuitous assumption. If each leg and each arm were separately swathed in linen bandages the assertion of the evangelist would still be strictly true, for Lazarus would then have been “bound hand and foot,” while at the same time able, at the command of Christ, to move, though not to walk easily.

A “napkin” is also mentioned in connection with the burial of Lazarus. It was bound about his face. See John 11:44. One was also used at the burial of Jesus. See John 20:7. This was a handkerchief which was employed to tie up the chin of a corpse.

Reference to the use of linen bandages in burial is also seen in the account of the burial of Ananias, wherein it is said that “they wound him up.” See Acts 5:6.

“826. Time for Burial” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

Acts 5:6. The young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him.

It was usual in Palestine to bury a corpse on the day of death. The heat of the climate, doubtless, had much to do with this custom; besides which, so far as the Jews were concerned, their law made any one unclean for seven days who touched a dead body, or who was even in a house whore a dead body lay. See Numbers 19:11,14. Lazarus was probably buried on the day of his death. See John 11:17, 39. Sapphire, the wife of Ananias, was, like her husband, buried immediately after death. See Acts 5:10.