“Sleep” is the euphemism that the New Testament most often uses to describe the death of believers. The early church called their burial grounds koimeteria, a word which means “sleeping places.” The word cemetery is taken from the Greek word koimeteria. In fact, the Bible describes death as “sleep” 54 times in both the Old and New Testaments. For example, Paul uses it in 1 Thess 4:13 when he writes “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.”