John Calvin Commentary Genesis 23:3

"And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spake unto the children of Heth, saying," — Genesis 23:3 (ASV)

And spake unto the sons of Heth. Moses is silent regarding the rite Abraham used in burying his wife's body: but he proceeds at great length to recount the purchase of the tomb. We will see shortly why he did this, when I will briefly allude to the custom of burial.

It is well known how religiously this has been observed in all ages and among all peoples. Ceremonies have indeed been different, and people have endeavored to outdo each other in various superstitions; meanwhile, burying the dead has been common to all.

This practice has not arisen from foolish curiosity, from the desire for fruitless consolation, or from superstition, but from the natural sense with which God has imbued human minds—a sense He has never allowed to perish, so that people might be witnesses to themselves of a future life.

It is also unbelievable that those who have spread certain outrageous expressions in contempt of burial could have spoken from the heart. Truly, it is fitting for us, with magnanimity, to disregard burial rites—as we would riches, honors, and the other comforts of life—to such an extent that we should calmly bear being deprived of them. Yet it cannot be denied that religion brings with it the care of burial.

And certainly (as I have said), it has been divinely engraved on the minds of all people from the beginning that they should bury the dead, from which they have also always regarded tombs as sacred.

I confess, it has not always entered the minds of pagans that souls survived death and that the hope of a resurrection remained even for their bodies; nor have they been accustomed to engage in such pious meditation whenever they laid their dead in the grave.

But their lack of consideration does not disprove the fact that they had such a representation of a future life placed before their eyes as left them inexcusable.

Abraham, however, since he had the hope of a resurrection deeply fixed in his heart, diligently cherished its visible symbol, as was fitting. The importance he attached to it is evident from the fact that he thought he would be guilty of defilement if he buried his wife's body among strangers after death.

For he bought a cave to possess a holy and pure tomb for himself and his family.

He did not desire to have a foot of earth on which to pitch his tent; he was only concerned about his grave. He especially wished to have his own family tomb in that land, which had been promised to him as an inheritance.

This was to bear witness to posterity that God's promise was not extinguished either by his own death or by that of his family, but that it instead then began to flourish. It was also to show that those who were deprived of sunlight and life-giving air yet always remained joint partakers of the promised inheritance.

For while they themselves were silent and speechless, the tomb cried aloud that death formed no obstacle to their taking possession of it.

Such a thought could not have existed unless Abraham by faith had looked up to heaven.

And when he calls his wife's corpse his dead, he intimates that death is a kind of divorce that still leaves some remaining connection.

Moreover, only a future restoration cherishes and preserves the principle of this altered connection between the living and the dead.

But it is better to briefly examine each detail in its order.