DEATH AND BURIAL IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS

Sergey Petrovich Bakhtin

Kostroma Theological Seminary, Kostroma, Russia

Email: s.p.bakhtin@mail.ru

ORCID: 0009-0008-3876-9380

Issue: № 2 (22), 2023

Pages: 21

Annotation

This article examines the significance of funeral prayers for the Christian tradition through the prism of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, paying attention to the biblical teaching about death. In general, questions about death, about the posthumous existence of a person, about the "afterlife" belong to the so-called "eternal questions" that a person inevitably asks in the process of forming his worldview. These are the questions that no natural science can answer, they belong to the field of metaphysics. For the religious worldview, questions about the death of a person and about posthumous existence belong to the fundamental, universally binding truths of religion, without which religion does not exist. In the Christian worldview, it is possible to fix a certain restraint in the answers to these metaphysical questions. In particular, these questions remain largely unanswered, because the afterlife of man is a region hidden until time, according to the Apostle Paul, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." (1 Corinthians 13:12). And in the same epistle to the Corinthians: "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor. 2:9). Despite this divination, Christian teaching offers answers to these questions, gives a person everything necessary for salvation, for the formation of a holistic worldview.

Keywords

death, burial, Holy Scripture, Old Testament, New Testament, funeral service

For citation

Bakhtin S. P., deacon. Death and burial in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments // Ipatievsky vestnik. 2023. № . 2. Р. 21–31 (In Russian). https://doi.org/10.24412/2309–5164–2023–2–21–31