Meaning of "Ashes to Ashes" ?

Question

what is that phrase supposed to mean? I mean it's in that bowie song i heard it used in an essay about a deceased mother and i mean i've heard it a million other places but i don't understand what it's supposed to elude to!! lol

Answer 1

According to the bible we were made from soil or "ashes" and someday we will return to "ashes" once we die.  

Answer 2

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

Meaning

We come from dust; we return to dust.

Origin

From the English Burial Service. Adapted from the Biblical text, Genesis 3:19 (King James Version):

"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."

Answer 3

genesis 3;19 you will find the answer

Answer 4

its usually said "ashes to ashes, dust to dust"

it implies the whole cycle of life. You came from the ground and at the end of your life you will return back to the ground.

Think about it, where does food come from? The ground. If its fruits or vegetables it grows from the ground. We eat the food to stay alive. Or we eat animals that eat the food from the ground.

All that we are made of comes from the ground. So we, in essence come from the ground. What happens to ashes? They fall to the ground. What is ground? Dust.

So the food we eat to stay alive comes from the ground, ashes from things burnt and dust. When we die, our bodies deteriorate and eventually also turn to dust, or become part of dust with our body's ashes.

So hence the saying "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" ...from being created until death

Answer 5

you started with ashes/dirt...cause god made you that way...and when you die you decinigrate into ashes...

Answer 6

used sometimes to denote total finality

Answer 7

it's a book about a mother who dies

Answer 8

Basically it means that when "God" created us he created us from ashes/nothingness/dirt, and then when we die we go back to that state from which we came, or at least that's what they said in bible class

Answer 9

It translates to mean, "made from dust and returned to dust"

According to Christian beliefs, God made Adam from a handful of dust or dirt. When we die, we turn back into dust or dirt.  

Answer 10

Genesis 3:19  

       By the sweat of your brow

       you will eat your food

       until you return to the ground,

       since from it you were taken;

       for dust you are

       and to dust you will return.

Answer 11

Means about the same as "Dust to Dust"