“Is cremation biblical?”
When Israel’s first king and three of his sons were killed
in battle with the Philistines, the men of Jabesh-gilead took their bodies back
home, cremated
them as best they could, then buried their bones. The writer of
1 Samuel does not comment on the morality of cremation, but gives credit
to the men who treated the bodies of royalty with dignity at risk to their own
lives.
When Jacob the patriarch died, his son Joseph had
him embalmed over a forty day period in the manner of Egyptian royalty.
The writer of Genesis likewise makes no comment on the morality of embalming a
body.