Burial

Burial among the Israelites was regarded as a duty of piety, and denial of burial was considered a great indignity (Eccl. 6:3; Jer. 22:19). The first detailed burial account in Scripture is that of Sarah, for whose sepulcher Abraham negotiated with the sons of Heth, establishing the cave of Machpelah as the patriarchal burial site (Gen. 23). Burial normally followed death within hours in the hot Palestinian climate, and the body was washed, wrapped in linen, and sometimes anointed with spices before being laid in a tomb cut from rock or in a simple grave.

The family tomb, where generation after generation were “gathered to their people,” expressed the continuity of family identity and the hope of belonging to the ancestral community even in death. New Testament burial practice followed similar conventions: Jesus was wrapped in linen with spices and laid in a garden tomb within hours of his crucifixion (John 19:38–42), and the women's return to the tomb with further spices on Sunday morning (Mark 16:1–2; Luke 24:1) reflects the ongoing desire to complete proper burial preparation. Paul's use of burial imagery in Romans 6:4 and Colossians 2:12 makes the Christian's baptism a participation in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.