BURIAL ber’ i əl (קֶ֫בֶר, H7700, grave, sepulcher, קְבוּרָה, H7690, grave, burial, קָבַר, H7699, bury, מְקַבְּרִ֔ים, buriers [Ezek 39:15]; ἐνταφιάζω, G1946, prepare for burial, bury, θάπτω, G2507, bury, συνθάπτω, G5313, bury with, be buried with). Burial in the Bible means either the act of interment (as קְבוּרָ֖ה used in Eccl 6:3 and Jer 22:19) or the place of interment (as קְבוּרָ֔ה in Gen 35:20; Deut 34:6; 2 Kings 9:28) of the corpse in the earth, in a natural or man-made rocky cave or tomb, or in the sea.

1. Time of burial. Among the Jews, as well as people of the Near E generally, burial usually took place on the day of death (cf. Deut 21:23) or within twenty-four hours. Problems of sanitation and fear of possible defilement through contact with a dead body (Num 9:10-14) constituted reasons for such swiftness, being exemplified by Abraham’s burying Sarah out of his sight (Gen 23:4) and Lazarus having been interred on the day he died (John 11:17, 39). Jesus’ body was buried on the day in which He was crucified (Matt 27:57-60; cf. Deut 21:23; Gal 3:13).

2. Care for the dead. That burying of the dead in the Stone, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages was considered important is suggested in the care evidenced in handling parts of the skeleton and in the deposit of grave objects with the corpse, as seen in such places as Wadi el-Mugharah, Jericho and Teleilat el-Ghassul.

In Bible times, as in Absalom’s hasty burial (2 Sam 18:17) little or nothing was done to the body. Often the body was washed (Acts 9:37), anointed with aromatic preparations (Mark 16:1; John 19:39) which was an old practice (2 Chron 16:14), and wrapped in some cloth or garment (Acts 5:6) or bound up with grave bandages (κειρία, G3024, John 11:44) usually of linen (σινδών, G4984, Mark 15:46; ὀθόνιον, G3856, John 19:40), with the face evidently covered or bound separately with a face cloth (σουδάριον, G5051, 11:44), these practices being “as is the burial custom of the Jews” (19:40). That wrapping the body was practiced early is evidenced by remains of a skeleton enclosed in cloth found in a 13th-12th cent. b.c. tomb at Tell es-Sa ’idiyeh in the Jordan Valley.

The Jews, as Tacitus (Hist 5.5) indicates, were averse to cremating the corpse, as was frequently the practice of the Greeks (cf. Sophocles, Electra 1136-1139; for inhumation, Thuc 1, 134,6; Plato Phaedo 115E) and of the Romans who in Cicero’s day used both methods (De leg 2, 22, 56). The seeming exception in the burning of the bodies of Saul and his sons (1 Sam 31:11-13) prob. was an emergency measure lest the Philistines molest the bodies, for the same men then buried their bones. Early Bible legislation required that those guilty of sexual immorality (Lev 20:14; 21:9) and those under a curse as Achan and his family (Josh 7:15, 25) were to be burned.

There is no Biblical evidence that embalming, a process so prevalent among the Egyptians, was practiced by the Jews, except in the isolated cases of Jacob and Joseph (Gen 50:2, 26) where the latter’s official position in Egypt dictated the procedure.

3. Receptacles used in burials. Of several receptacles in, or on, which the corpse was placed the first was the bier on which the body was placed before burial, this structure being indicated both by מִטָּה, H4753, usually meaning “bed” but being the bier in 2 Samuel 3:31 and 2 Chronicles 16:14 (in this latter instance the thought is possibly crypt; and by σορός, G5049, [Luke 7:14]).

Archeology has shown that pottery storage jars sometimes were used to hold the remains of adults (as at Byblos) and of infants and small children.

Although the Egyptians customarily used the coffin, often elaborately decorated, this object does not seem to have been common among the Jews, mentioned in the Bible only in Joseph’s case (Gen 50:26, אֲרﯴן, H778, “portable chest”). There have been found terra cotta coffins with anthropoid designs at Beth-Shan and Dibon, and in Hel. and Rom. times elaborately decorated marble sarcophagi were used.

Although not mentioned in Scripture, ossuaries (bone-boxes) were used early (cf. the house-shaped clay one from Hederah, c. 3500 b.c.) and were quite common in the early Rom. period, rectangular limestone ones, twenty to thirty inches in length, with personal names and decorations often inscribed on them being found near Jerusalem in caves and tombs. These were used for bones after the flesh had decomposed, and grave space was needed for other corpses.

Types of burying places included simple holes or pits (sometimes lined with stones or bricks), stone slab dolmen graves (c. 4500 b.c.) as well as natural caves and tombs hewn out of rocky hillsides.

In the Hel. and through the Rom. periods the poor continued to use caves and cisterns, but other hewn tombs became larger and more elaborate like the Mausoleum of Queen Helena of Adiabene (Jos. War. V. iv. 2) and the structures in the Kidron Valley opposite the Temple area, with catacombs also being used in Christian times. (See Tomb.)

At times tombs included multiple units used by families, as exemplified by Abraham’s family tomb at the cave of Machpelah (Gen 23), such practice of communal burial being seen throughout Pal. by 3000 b.c. Religious scruples did not preclude the use of the same grave space over again, for archeology has shown that often grave areas were reused, parts of old skeletons being pushed aside to make room for the new. In addition, graves for single burials appear, for example, in the Bible (Aaron, Deut 10:6; Moses, Deut 34:6; and Jephthah, Judg 12:7), at Jericho (late third millennium b.c.) and at Qumran (about the time of Christ).

4. Geographical locations of burial places. Sometimes graves were located beneath the floors of houses, a practice evident throughout the Stone Age as well as in the Chalcolithic Age. In Scripture frequently burial areas are associated with cities and regions, as the graves of Joshua at Timnath-serah (Josh 24:30), of Samson, between Zorah and Eshtaol (Judg 16:31), and of David and Solomon in the city of David (1 Kings 2:10; 11:43). Usually burial places were located outside the city or village (as at Nain, Luke 7:12, and seen at Jericho, Dibon, Jerusalem, etc.), due to the fear of defilement (Lev 21:1). Quite unusually, however, in Scripture Jewish graves are to be found in houses of important persons, such as Samuel, a prophet (1 Sam 25:1); Joab, a general (1 Kings 2:34); and Manasseh (2 Kings 21:18; 2 Chron 33:20) whether related to the ancient practice of house burials being unclear. In Jeremiah’s and Josiah’s day burial grounds for common people were located in the Kidron Valley at Jerusalem (Jer 26:23; 2 Kings 23:6).

5. Ritual in burial. In death father and mother (Mark 5:40), family (Gen 46:4) and friends (Matt 27:57-60; John 19:38, 39) were naturally involved in caring for the body of the loved one and seeing to its burial, with women esp. being prominent (Matt 27:61; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55, 56). There may have been in the NT church a confraternity of men who occasionally took care of preparations for the dead (Acts 5:6; 8:2).

Mourning for the dead was an essential part of the burial ceremony with great wailing (8:2) and a shrill cry involved (Jer 4:8; 49:3; Joel 1:13). The family (Gen 23:2; 2 Sam 11:26), friends and those who were affected by the death (1 Sam 25:1; 2 Sam 1:11, 12; Jer 22:18) participated in it, and tears were shed ritually at the appropriate time (Jer 9:17, 18; Mal 2:13; Luke 7:32). The mourning with flute playing, took place right after death (Gen 23:2), at the home where the corpse was resting (Matt 9:23) and continued on to the tomb (Luke 7:12, 13), lasting in OT times ordinarily for seven days (Gen 50:10; 1 Chron 10:12; cf. Judg 16:24 and Ecclus 22:12); for important persons, as Moses and Aaron, thirty days (Num 20:29; Deut 34:8); and, in one case, Jacob, seventy days (Gen 50:3) according to Egyp. custom. In the NT mourning and other acts took place over several days, as for Christ (parts of three days, Matt 27:61; Luke 24:1; John 20:11) and for Lazarus (John 11:33, 39). Professional mourners were also important in the death ritual (compare 2 Chron 35:25, “singing women”; Jer 9:17, “the mourning...skilful women”).

In Isaiah’s time part of the idolatrous practices of the people involved necromancy as they sat in the tombs (Isa 65:4).

It is well known through excavations at such places as Dothan, Gezer, Jericho, etc., that grave goods were deposited with the dead, including such things as weapons, jewelry, lamps, furniture, and food. The practice of depositing the last item may have evoked the prohibition in Deuteronomy 26:14 regarding not giving food to the dead.

6. Concepts regarding burial. Burial was considered a necessary act, the deprival of which, with the resultant exposure to the ravages of beasts, was considered a serious indignity and calamity (2 Kings 9:36, 37; Ezek 29:5). Even criminals were allowed to be buried (Deut 21:22, 23).

The law instructed that touching a corpse brought ceremonial defilement (Lev 21:1; Num 19:11ff.), but it was considered a proper act to protect the bodies of slain warriors until they could be buried (2 Sam 21:1-14) and to bury those slain in times of persecution (Tobit 1:17-19; 2:8).

Although there is no indication that the heathen practice of depositing grave goods with the dead with any implications of belief in life after death connected with it had any influence on the Jews, yet Ezekiel 32:17-28 seems to set forth a belief in an abode of the dead in part at least similar to that set forth in Luke 16:19-23.

Bibliography K. Kenyon, Digging Up Jericho (1957), 60-65, etc.; H. E. Stutchbury, “Excavations in the Kidron Valley,” PEQ XCIII (1961), 101-113; J. E. Callaway, “Burials in Ancient Palestine,” BA XXVI (1963), 74-91; D. Fishwick, “Talpioth Ossuaries Again,” NTS X (1963), 49-61; B. A. Mastin, “Chalcolithic Ossuaries and Houses for the Dead,” PEQ XCVII (1965), 153-160; J. M. Myers, II Chronicles, The Anchor Bible (1965), 92; J. B. Pritchard, “First Excavations at Tell es-Sa ’idîyeh,” BA XXVIII (1965), 10-17; J. Munck, The Acts of the Apostles, The Anchor Bible (1967), 70.