Q. What does the Bible teach about cremation? Was anyone in the Bible cremated? (Submitted by: Mark ) A. On the issue of the means by which a dead body should be taken care of, the Bible is fundamentally SILENT. There is no text that condemns burning a body. It's true that non-Biblical religions, such as Hinduism and the paganism of the Vikings, practice(d) cremation. It's also true that there are no examples in the Bible of a dead body being cremated. The practice of the ancient patriarchs was burial, such as Jacob being buried with his ancestors in a cave that his grandfather Abraham had bought (Genesis 49:29-33). Jesus' body was interred in a tomb after His crucifixion and then wrapped with aromatic spices (Luke 23:52-56; John 19:38-42). Interestingly, if a person accepted the Nazarite vow, that person was forbidden to touch any dead body, even if it was the body of a close family member: "All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he shall not go near a dead body. He shall not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother, for his brother or his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head." (Numbers 6:6-7, NKJV)
The Apostle Paul made a statement that implies that to offer one's body to be burned isn't sinful, but actually highly self-sacrificing: "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing." (1Corinthians 13:3, NKJV)
Therefore, the Bible has to be regarded as silent on the issue of how a dead body is to be properly cared for and respectfully disposed of after death. Ultimately, it is not HOW someone's body is dealt with after death, but rather what kind of life they led while the body was ALIVE. God is powerful enough to physically resurrect anyone's body regardless of how it was destroyed (cf. Ezekiel 37:1-14). | 