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Bible Encyclopedias
Cremation
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
How far religious, or sanitary, or practical reasons were influential in deciding between the different methods, it is impossible to say. That bodies were burned in times of pestilence in the Valley of Hinnom at Jerusalem is without support (see Ezekiel 39:11-16 ). The "very great burning" at the burial of Asa (2 Chronicles 16:14 ) is not a case of cremation, but of burning spices and furniture in the king's honor (compare Jeremiah 34:5 ). Nor is 1 Kings 13:2 a case in point; it is simply a prophecy of a king who shall take the bones of men previously buried, and the priests of the high places that burn incense in false worship, and cause them to be burned on the defiled altar to further pollute it and render it abominable.
There is in the New Testament no instance of cremation, Jewish, heathen or Christian, and clearly the early Christians followed the Jewish practice of burying the dead (see Tert., Apol ., xlii; Minuc. Felix, Octav ., xxxix; Aug., De civ. Dei , i.12, 13). Indeed, cremation has never been popular among Christians, owing largely, doubtless, to the natural influence of the example of the Jews, the indisputable fact that Christ was buried, the vivid hope of the resurrection and the more or less material views concerning it prevalent here and there at this time or that. While there is nothing anti-Christian in it, and much in sanitary considerations to call for it in an age of science, it is not likely that it will ever become the prevailing practice of Christendom.
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Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Entry for 'Cremation'. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​isb/​c/cremation.html. 1915.