ashes to ashes

[3Styler]

i recently heard the line 'ashes to ashes, dust to dust' in a brilliant film called 'Michael Collins' and i've obviously also heard it famously said in 'Gladiator' by Proximo i think it was.  Anyway i was wondering where this line comes from? i would guess that it is possibly from a prayer? and if so which one and how does the rest of it go? i dont know that much about religeon but were many of the prayers we have today used as far back as roman times (though i presume in latin). So in short where does this line come from?

[Peter Pedant]

It is part of the burial service. I will let one of the prots track it down. The Romans - catholics that is - say something like : Dust thou are and to dust thou wilt return. I am sure they used to say it in Latin - I just didnt go to very many funerals when i was young and we had the tridentine (Latin) rite.

Whether or not the early Christians allowed various bits of other pagan worship (or jewish) to leak into their own rituals is an interesting question that I am not equipped to discuss. You have to start kicking something called the didache around.

The literary device for someone saying something before it was said - or doing something before it was invented is anachronism.

[THECORBYLOON]

It comes from the Book of Common Prayer, the Prayer for the Burial of the Dead, read at the graveside, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life."

[3Styler]

so this Book of Common Prayer dates back to roman times? interesting. Anyway you've both answered my actual question so thanks very much to the both of you.

[THECORBYLOON]

3Styler, in "Ben Hur" set in 1st Century Rome, one of the characters wears a watch so who knows, maybe you're right about the Book of Common Prayer and the Romans.....  

[jno]

poem on the death of Queen Victoria, said to have been written by someone in India:

Dust to dust, ashes to ashes
Into the tomb the Great Queen dashes.

Australian chant on the occasion of a bygone Ashes series (against England, for non-cricketers; Lillee and Thomson were Australian bowlers):

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
If Lillee don't get ya, Thommo must.

[pega]

 the answers given are correct from book of common prayer and used on Ash Wednesday when ashes are put on the head of people at the mass. but there are at least 70 references to dust in crudens concordance which is comment on new and old testament and Dust is first mentioned in story of gerden of Eden to the snake dust shalt thou eat, so from that it seems we are from dust and to that will return  also a number of references to ashes  Job in old testament I am become like dust and ashes. hope this is of some interest to you  its a saying that is used not often but in the context that everything is hopeless or at the end perhaps this was case in the film you mentioned I;ve not seen it.  

[Clanad]

Although the complete quote comes, as The Corbyloon and others have stated from the Church of England Book of Common Prayer, the origin is found in Genesis 3:19, when Elohim is pronouncing the curse on Adam for his disobedience...

BTW, the Book of Common Prayer was established in England 1662 and adopted by the Church of Ireland in 1666, so it is quite late in realtion to the Roman occupation of Britain...

[brachiopod]

First recorded use;

"Ashes to ashes,
Fun to funky,
We know Major Tom's a junkie"

From the David Bowie album 'Scary Monsters'  circa. 684 BC.

[Xollob]

I still remember (after all these years) the words from the Ash Wednesday service to mark the beginning of Lent:

"Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return."

The priest said these words as he made a cross on your forehead with the ashes of palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday.