It doesn't say that. Maybe it just means what is says.

The passage speaks more about the meaning of life than it does about funeral arrangements. Systems tend to return to their original form after a time we have possibilities to use them.

 Dear Colleague

Although , Im Muslim but I can help you :

Cremation has been practiced for thousands of years and was a method that was used by the Greeks and other ancient empires. When the Romans eventually adopted Christianity as their state religion, cremation was replaced by Christian burial. Early church saints did not practice cremation because of its pagan influence. Cremation was even prohibited by the Catholic Church in the late nineteenth century. Some other ancient cultures such as the Egyptians carefully embalmed their precious dead in preparation for an afterlife. During the new millennium however, cremation has become more popular here in America. Cremation seems to be a sensible answer to the limited number of available gravesites and the rising cost of burial. Before we draw a conclusion on this important subject, let us consider what the Bible has to say.  Genesis 3:19

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. A. Dust to dust, not dust to ashes. The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed life into him. We are to return unto dust or to the dust. I believe this to mean that we are to be buried in the dust or dirt and not necessarily turned into dust.

Hope that will help you.

Regards 

"For He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust /in the wind/.

Matthew Henry Commentary

103:6-14 Truly God is good to all: he is in a special manner good to Israel. He has revealed himself and his grace to them. By his ways we may understand his precepts, the ways he requires us to walk in; and his promises and purposes. He always has been full of compassion. How unlike are those to God, who take every occasion to chide, and never know when to cease! What would become of us, if God should deal so with us? The Scripture says a great deal of the mercy of God, and we all have experienced it. The father pities his children that are weak in knowledge, and teaches them; pities them when they are froward, and bears with them; pities them when they are sick, and comforts them; pities them when they are fallen, and helps them to rise; pities them when they have offended, and, upon their submission, forgives them; pities them when wronged, and rights them: thus the Lord pities those that fear him. See why he pities. He considers the frailty of our bodies, and the folly of our souls, how little we can do, how little we can bear; in all which his compassion appears.

Psalm 103:14 Commentaries

http://biblehub.com/psalms/103-14.htm

In Russia cremation is not very popular, only in the big cities there is it. We try to  make a monument to the dead and a priest and the nearest pray for the soul. 

1. In the BIBLE:  Adam was cursed damnation as the result of sin.

2. There are many comments of this text. I think that all of your interpretations are correct.

3. But they are only very smart mental speculations since the Bible explains the essence of human life and gives materials for reflection on the meaning of life, and provides guidance for proper behavior.

Genesis 3:19

By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."

Dear Joachim Neumaier

You can’t find ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ in the Bible . Although the word "cremation" is not used in the Bible, the subject is clearly covered. Burning human bodies after death has always been an occult practice observed by many of the world’s false religions. The ONLY time someone's body was burned in the Bible was when they were under a curse. Honorable people of God in the Bible were always buried upon death, not burned. Their bodies were placed back into the earth for safekeeping, the same earth from whence they came, until the Lord comes to resurrect those bodies for Eternal service to Him. In Scripture it was an insult to the Holy Spirit to burn a human body. It was God's will that even the wicked be buried and not burned unless they were under a very specific curse. Burning a human body was to deliberately point out the fact they were indeed under a specific curse for deliberately defying the Most High God, not because it was “economical,” “sanitary” or “practical.” In the Old Testament only the CURSED were instructed to NOT be buried. The Bible says we are BURIED with Christ in Baptism. It does not say we are “cremated” with Him in Baptism. Going down into and coming up out of a watery grave symbolizes the Believer’s identification with Christ’s death, BURIAL and resurrection, not His death, cremation and scattering of ashes.  Although there is no single verse of Scripture that says Believers are not to be burned or “cremated,” we are to walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham our spiritual Father. Abraham was buried, not cremated, and he left very specific instructions for all of his family to be buried. Jesus Himself followed Abraham’s example. Therefore, we must now follow their example.

Thank you

Dear Irina! Thank you for the informative answer. Vladimir

Ahmed my good man

Cremation  it was first adopted by the Ancient Greeks

Read the following try to understand the meaning behind the words if that overwhelms you keep silent if not then comment..  

Buried and Raised in Baptism Through Faith

Scripture: Colossians 2:8–15    Topic: Baptism & Membership

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; 11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

Does Christian Baptism Parallel Old Testament Circumcision?

This is the second in a four-part series on Christian baptism. Let me tell you a bit about how I am choosing the texts to preach from. I discovered in my seminary and graduate school days that my old ways of defending believer's baptism were not compelling. I used to spend time pointing out that all the baptisms described in the New Testament are baptisms of believers and that all the commands to be baptized are given to believers. I used to point out that infant baptism is simply not mentioned in the Bible and that it is questionable to build a crucial church practice on a theological inference, without explicit Biblical teaching when all the examples go in the opposite direction.

But I discovered that those who baptize infants ("paedobaptists") were not swayed by these observations, because they pointed out that, of course, we only see believer's baptism in the New Testament since we are dealing in all these settings with first generation evangelism, not with second generation child-rearing. Everybody agrees that the only adults that should be baptized are believing adults. The issue is, what happens when these baptized Christian adults have children?

So they pointed out that all my statistics are irrelevant and the question boils down to one of theological inference. Specifically, does Christian baptism parallel Old Testament circumcision as the sign of those who join the covenant people of God, and if so, should not the children of Christians receive baptism the way the sons of Israel received circumcision?

For example, the Heidelberg Catechism was written in 1562 as an expression of the Reformed faith. It is said by some to have the intimacy of Martin Luther and the charity of Philip Melanchthon and the fire of John Calvin : three great Reformers in the 16th century. At the end of the section on baptism, question #74 asks, "Are infants also to be baptized?" The answer goes like this:

Yes; for since they, as well as their parents, belong to the covenant and people of God, and both redemption from sin and the Holy Ghost, who works faith, are through the blood of Christ promised to them no less than to their parents, they are also by Baptism, as a sign of the covenant, to be ingrafted into the Christian Church, and distinguished from the children of unbelievers, as was done in the Old testament by Circumcision, in place of which in the New Testament Baptism is appointed.

Now this has been the standard understanding of baptism among Presbyterians and Congregationalists and Methodists and many others for hundreds of years. Lutherans and Catholics defend the practice of infant baptism differently, putting more emphasis than these other churches have on the actual regenerating effect of the act.

Are New Truths Revealed in the New Covenant?

So one of the most crucial questions you must face as you ponder the New Testament command to be baptized is whether you think this parallel with circumcision settles the matter. That is, is it the will of God revealed in the New Testament that Baptism and circumcision correspond so closely that what circumcision signified, baptism signifies? Or are there new truths about the creation and nature of the people of God in the New Covenant that point toward a discontinuity as well as continuity between circumcision and baptism?

Well, in my struggles with this issue over the years, especially the years in graduate school when I was studying mainly with paedobaptists, three or four texts, more than any others, kept me from embracing the argument from circumcision. One is Colossians 2:11-12. Another is 1 Peter 3:21. Another is Romans 9:8. And another is Galatians 3:26-27. I will take the Colossians text today and build on the others in the weeks to come.

But first let's make sure we don't miss the forest for the trees. This text (Colossians 2:10-15) is a virtual rain forest of strong gospel timber. Get a bird's eye view of it with me. It's all about what God has done for us (in history, objectively through Christ), and what he has done in us so that we will indeed inherit what he purchased

What God Has Done For Us

Take first the objective, historical, external work of God in verses 14-15. In essence, what these two verses tell us is that our two greatest enemies were defeated in the death of Christ. Nothing more powerful than the death of Christ has ever happened.

The first enemy defeated was the "certificate of debt" that was filed against us in the courtroom of heaven. In other words, because of our sin and rebellion, the laws of God had become a deadly witness against us and we were in such deep debt to God that there was no way out. Verse 14 says that Christ canceled that whole debt by paying it all on the cross. "[He] canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." So the great enemy of our sin and guilt and debt, Christ defeated. That happened in history, objectively, outside us.

The second enemy defeated was the host of evil spiritual beings : the devil and his forces. Verse 15: "When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him." It's true that we must still "wrestle with principalities and powers" (Ephesians 6:12), but if we wrestle in the power of Christ and his shed blood, they are as good as defeated, because the blow he struck was lethal. Revelation 12:11 says that believers "overcame [the devil] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death." We must fight. But the battle belongs to the Lord and the decisive blow has been struck at Calvary. Satan cannot destroy us.

 Thanks for reading.

Does the bible text that says 'ashes to ashes, dust to dust' allow to refer to a coexistene of cremation and inhumation in the ancient near eas ?

The bible didn't specifically mention "ashes to ashes, dust to dust".  This phrase came from non-bible - you can refer to this link:

http://www.kencollins.com/answers/question-27.htm

The phrase "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" not specifically refer to burial but in the context that God formed human beings using the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7) & when they died, they will decay & turn back to dust as well (Ecclesiastes 3:20, Ecclesiastes 12:7).

In the 1662 version of the Book of Common Prayer indicated the manner and text of the burial service:

Then, while the earth shall be cast upon the Body by some standing by, the Priest shall say,

Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.

Saeed Al Rashid

where did  get this sophism to say the least 

Cheers !!!!!

The first mention is in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer.

http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1549/Burial_1549.htm

I think 'ashes' had come to mean the mortal remains of a body. The ancient custom of cremation had sparked this, but by the 13th century ashes could refer to remains, whether cremated or not.

James,

Thanks for your comment (plausible) and the link.

Burying is saying GOOD BYE to  a loved person or good friend it is a ceremony and not act of commerce (quick and about extra or not space in the cemetery) It is the last thing you can possibly do for the deceased.

It is also paying one's respect to the fallen in the course of duty.

Thanks.

My parents taught me that the texts of the Bible interpretation is available only to the Church Fathers or the Holy Ghost. Please forgive me, that's why I do not participate in this discussion.

Vladimir,

I think that the outreach and interpretation of the Bible should be universal to all Christians and not limited to the Clergy.

Hello,

I 'm suggesting to read my recent simplified paper titled:

Burial versus Cremation form a Pure Western Greek Orthodox Argument

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.36836.58241

The Bible does not deal with the cremation of the dead. We find that there is mention of certain events in the Old Testament in which people were burned to death (Kings I 18:16 and Kings II 6:21), and also for the cremation of the dead (II Kings 16: 23-20), but these are not examples of burning practice The dead bodies as we know them today. It is interesting to note that the burning of human bones found in (Kings II 16: 23-20) caused the desecration of the altar. Although there is nothing in the Old Testament, people are commanded not to burn the bodies of the dead, and no curse or condemnation is given to anyone who burns his body.

The cremation was done at the time of the Bible, but it was not common among the people of Israel or the faithful of the New Testament. The book mentions the burial of the dead in tombs, caves or underground (Genesis 19:23, 4:35, and Chronicles 14:16 and 60: 27-66). While burying the dead was the method used, the book is not mentioned as the only way allowed.

Is it permissible for a Christian believer to practice cremation after death? As mentioned earlier, there is no written principle that conflicts with this practice. But the objection of some believers to this practice is that they ignore that God will establish our bodies and unite them with our souls (1 Corinthians 35: 15-58 and 1 Thessalonians 16: 4). But we do not believe that the cremation of the corpse will obstruct God's creation of the body. We know that the bodies of believers who died thousands of years ago have turned into dust. And that this will not prevent God from establishing their bodies. The cremation of the corpse only accomplishes the process of turning the body into dust. Therefore, God is able to establish the body of the burial and burned his body. The question of burying or burning the dead is within Christian freedom. But the person and the family must think about this and ask for wisdom to make that decision from God by praying (Jame

This publication is more an empirical report, from an archaeological viewpoint, but delivers a lot of information for your question.

Yes, it presupposes the existence of cremation and inhumation in the ANE.