Author's Note: All previous volumes of this series are here. The first 56 volumes are compiled into the book "Bible Study For Those Who Don't Read The Bible." "Part Two," featuring volumes 57-113, was published in December 2022.
Thanks for joining today’s study about ashes, prompted this week by Ash Wednesday. If you are unfamiliar with Ash Wednesday, it marks the beginning of Lent — 40 days that ends on Palm Sunday when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the start of Holy Week. Why 40 days? That was the number of days when the devil directly tempted Jesus, a significant story recorded only in Matthew 4:1-11. It begins:
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Continue reading.
Christians from various Christ-centered denominations acknowledge Ash Wednesday in church, where ashes are placed on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. It represents mourning and repentance. Therefore, on Wednesday, you might see some foreheads with that sign.
Related is a true story from the “Young Myra Files.” I grew up Jewish (but not religious) in the Boston suburb of Needham, where there were many Catholics. However, I was raised entirely ignorant of anything having to do with Christianity and Jesus. As a teenager, I remember seeing people with ashes on their foreheads and thinking, “What is wrong with these people?”
Now, let’s explore what the Bible says about ashes. There is a “heap,” so this study serves only as a brief introduction.
The first time ashes are referenced in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible is in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah when Abraham was negotiating and pleading with God. Abraham exclaimed he was worth nothing compared to God. It reads:
“Abraham answered and said, ‘Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes’” Genesis 18:27. By mentioning dust and ashes, the humble Abraham knows where he stands compared to God. Moreover, one can surmise that Abraham would not have known that God had said to Adam and Eve:
“‘By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return’” (Genesis 3:19).
Ashes in the Bible serve as symbolic physical reminders of our short earthly lifespan compared to the heavenly eternity of God’s kingdom. This black/gray powdery substance left from the burnt remains of something physical — human, animal, or inanimate — was frequently used to publicly display mourning, grief, or repentance.
In the Old Testament, ashes were often paired with the wearing of sackcloth — an uncomfortable, scratchy fabric. Together, “sackcloth and ashes” represented several human conditions: frailty, mortality, expressing and asking for forgiveness, and worn as part of the mourning ritual.
Covering oneself with ashes was observed by all segments of society – rich, poor, and royalty. For context, here are some Old Testament verses in order of appearance:
“And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe that she wore. And she laid her hand on her head and went away, crying aloud as she went” (2 Samuel:13-19).
“And in every province, wherever the king's command and his decree reached, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and many of them lay in sackcloth and ashes” (Esther 4:3).
“Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6).
“So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes” (Daniel 9:3).
“The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes” (Jonah 3:6).
In the New Testament, there are only a handful of ash-related passages which refer to Old Testament events. Below, Jesus says the same verse in both Matthew 11:21 and Luke:
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes” (Luke 10:13).
We turn now to some unique uses of ashes. In Exodus, ashes were utilized in the “plague of the boils,” — the sixth of ten plagues that God miraculously inflicted upon the Egyptians through Moses to free the Israelites from bondage:
“So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast” (Exodus 9:10).
In the time of Moses, ashes played a role in the “law of the burnt offering,” a series of God-commanded offerings for sin that are recorded in the book of Leviticus, chapters 1-7. (See Vol 126 for interesting archeological evidence that supports biblical “burnt offerings.”) In Leviticus, God commanded that a fire be continuous and left specific instructions about how the high priests were to handle the ashes:
“And the priest shall put on his linen garment and put his linen undergarment on his body, and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar and put them beside the altar. Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place…. The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not go out.” Read the entire passage in Leviticus 6: 8-13.
We close with an excerpt from the New Testament book of Hebrews 9:11-14. This passage references the Old Testament ashes from the burnt offerings. Specifically, it is about when people needed to be sprinkled with ashes if they were unclean, for example, after touching a corpse. But that was only external purification, for ashes could not remove internal sin. See Numbers 19 for all the details. For our purposes, the go-to passages are Hebrews 9:13-14:
“The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God!”
There is no need for ashes anymore; the blood of Christ wiped away our sins and offered forgiveness. We remember what he did for us as the Lenten season begins, with wearing ashes on Ash Wednesday. Even if you don’t partake in this ritual, remember how, with His blood, he triumphed over death and negated the need to wear the ashes from burnt offerings. Jesus paid the price for our salvation! Amen to that!
Myra Kahn Adams is a conservative political and religious writer with numerous national credits. Her book, "Bible Study For Those Who Don't Read The Bible," reprints the first 56 volumes of this popular study. "Part 2,” with the same title, reprints Vols. 57-113. Order it here.
She is also the Executive Director of the National Shroud of Turin Exhibit, dedicated to building a future permanent Shroud of Turin exhibit in Washington, D.C. In July, the National Shroud of Turin Exhibit hosted a four-day exhibit (with a “Chosen” VIP guest) at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, IN. Some new news. Contact: <MyraAdams01@gmail.com>
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