If the Bible doesn't speak against cremation as a final option why isn't it encouraged by all Christians and Jews?

Answer 1

Judaism has always taken the position that the body should return to the earth from which it came, in as natural a manner as possible. Traditionally, cremation and embalming have been seen as unnatural treatments of a body, interfering in the natural process of decomposition. So, too, would an airtight coffin be seen as interfering. A more recent reason why many Jews, who are not necessarily traditional in their religious practices, reject cremation is that it was the primary means by which so many Jewish bodies were treated during the Holocaust.

Answer 2

Cremation is implicitly against the principle of the resurrection of the dead and, therefore, discouraged. In the prophecies of Ezekiel, at the End of Days, God will lift the bones of the righteous out of the ground, put sinew and flesh on the bones, and rejuvenate the people of Israel. If a person is cremated, there are no bones for God to raise from the Earth, meaning that such a person will be cutoff from the wonder of the End of Days.

Please see Ezekiel 37:1-14 which details this prophecy more clearly.

Answer 3

Some within Christianity and Judaism hold beliefs that the body must remain 'undisturbed' by man-made measures to separate it into unrecognizable substance in order to be part of the resurrection to judgment and the end of the age of humankind. But this would then discount many who have been fully eaten by animals, cut apart and dispersed by enemies, or cremated. Is this what The Bible says God intends to do? Wouldn't that be harshly judgmental and unfair to many?


Many peoples, particularly the Greeks and Romans, believed it an honor to cremate their fallen hero warriors and to bring their ashes home to their respective families. This custom lasted for many centuries until approximated the beginning of the 2nd century AD, perhaps due to the lack of wood to fully burn the dead. It was revitalized some time afterwards and today, modern cremations are a cost effective alternative to a casket burial. And if you have ever spoken to the people who do the cremation, you would soon discover that the oven does not fully burn to ash all of the human dead. Many larger bones like the femur are relatively undamaged.

Didn't God tell our first parents because of their sin, they would die and return to the ground? Before embalming techniques, those buried thousand of years ago are probably dust today.

Genesis 3:19 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your forehead till you return to the ground — for you were taken out of it: you are dust, and you will return to dust.”


Weren't the three friends of Daniel (see Daniel 3:8-30) fully faithful that whatever the outcome of the hottest fire at the time, that God would not forget them but will raise them at the end of time? If God is all powerful and fair couldn't He raise anyone regardless of how they end up. Even one atom of one person will not be lost. Cremation then is not against biblical teachings.

Answer 4

I cannot answer for Judaism, but I can for Christianity. The Church discourages cremation because it is a practice that was promoted by the pagans, and it does not give due respect for the body which is a creation and gift of God, AND will be raised from the dead at the last day.

Also, I should like to point out that Christianity is the body of beliefs that were given to Christ's Church by Himself and the Apostles, and only a small portion of that was put into the Bible. The Bible, as such, is inerrant BECAUSE THE CHURCH WROTE IT AND GUARANTEES IT, but it is NOT an encyclopedia of Christianity, and was never meant to be. If that was the case, Our Blessed Lord made a terrible mistake in not having them write a Bible before He left, AND inventing the printing press and universal literacy!

The New Testament, as we have it today was not put together by the Church until A.D. 382 at the Council of Rome by Pope Damasus, and the printing press wasn't invented until a millennium later, and we are still working on universal literacy 2,000 after Christ left the earth. You may quote the Bible for the things it was written to support but NOT for Christian belief.

Answer 5

The Hebrew Bible does not include all laws. Some unstated laws are self-understood and/or tradition so ancient and well-known that they did not need stating. These include burying the dead, not eating human flesh, belief in the afterlife, and more. We see for example how Cain made an offering (Genesis ch.4), Jacob and Laban observed seven days of wedding-celebration (implicit in Gen. 29:27), and Abraham donated a tithe (Gen.14), even though these had not been commanded. There are very many such examples. In the annals of Sinuhe, the famous ancient Egyptian narrative, three thousand years ago, describes the Semitic burial-practice of simple unadorned interment, much as is done in Israel today. This practice goes back to the first man, Adam, who (like Abel) was laid to rest as is.