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The Incineration of Saul's and His Sons' Corpses according to Josephus

Department of Bible, Bar-Ilan University, 52900 Ramat-Gan, Israel

This article deals with Josephus's retelling of the Bible story of the incineration of the bones of Saul and his sons in 1 Samuel 31. In several places in the biblical text, researchers have found echoes of the practice of cremation, a practice borne out in archaeological excavations. The question dealt with in the Bible is: How does Josephus treat the practice of cremation? This question is examined through comparison of earlier texts that retell the biblical accounts. It is argued that Josephus (Ant. 6.375-77) omits cremation from his account in order not to draw similarities between Israelite burial practices and pagan ones.

Key Words: Burial practices • Cremation • Jewish antiquities • Josephus • King Saul

Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 18, No. 4, 285-292 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0951820709106747


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