http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=11&article=1120
What Happened to the Body?
Q.
Christianity is based in its entirety on the claim that Jesus arose
from the dead. Is there any actual evidence to support such a claim?
A.
The unexpected happened. He told them it would; He even told them how.
They simply refused to believe. Thursday, Jesus walked the streets of
Jerusalem with His friends; Friday, He was dead. His battered, lifeless
body was removed from the cross and carried away. Friday night it was
there—undisturbed. All day Saturday it was there—under guard. Sunday
dawned. The tomb was empty. What happened to the body?
Jesus Christ met death face-to-face, and defeated it. The tomb was
empty Sunday morning because Jesus was alive. Tombs are for the dead—not
the living. By His resurrection, every claim Jesus made regarding His
deity was confirmed “with power” (Romans 1:4). He not only kept His word
that He would be raised, but He fulfilled a thousand-year-old prophecy
by David (cf. Psalm 16:1-2; Acts 2:24-36).
In an age devoid of active miracles, people often wonder if such a
claim can be proved. The answer is “yes!” A compelling case for the
resurrection can be made from the information contained in the Gospel
records. This article will present some of that material, and will
answer common alternative theories employed to explain away the
resurrection.
THE EMPTY TOMB
If Jesus was raised, His tomb
had to be emptied. His bodily
resurrection is indefensible if He remained in the tomb even one hour of
day four. If the tomb was occupied Monday, Jesus is less than divine,
and there is no hope in Him as Savior. This makes the witness of the
tomb all-important.
Before discussing the evidence from the tomb, however, two preliminary
points call for attention. First, was Jesus placed in a tomb? The Bible
is clear on this point. His interment was witnessed by at least four
individuals. Joseph of Arimathea received permission from Pilate to bury
Jesus (Mark 15:43-45). He and Nicodemus hurriedly prepared and entombed
the Lord’s body (John 19:38). Their activities were observed by Mary
Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph (Mark 15:46-47). Then, on the
next day, the chief priests and Pharisees requested of Pilate that a
guard be provided for the tomb (Matthew 27:62-65). They necessarily
believed Jesus’ body remained there at the time of their request. This
request was granted and a guard was sent. It is inconceivable that
Pilate (who was responsible for maintaining the body of Jesus) would
have sealed and set watch over a tomb that he did not believe was
occupied. Hence, at least four people saw Jesus’ body in the tomb on
Friday. The Jews, Pilate, and the guards acknowledged its presence on
Saturday.
Second, Jesus was not buried in just any tomb; it was a
new
tomb. This is significant when one remembers that a dead man was once
miraculously revived when his body was placed into the tomb that
contained Elisha’s bones (2 Kings 13:21). Instead, Jesus was put into a
tomb “in which no one had yet been laid” (John 19:41). The Lord’s
resurrection was a unique event that could not be attributed to such a
factor.
With these facts established, consider how the tomb offers powerful
evidence of the Lord’s resurrection. First, it was impossible for Jesus
to escape from the tomb without being detected. This is seen in various
ways.
-
All four of the Gospel records explicitly declare that the Lord was
dead prior to entering the tomb (Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:44-45; Luke
23:46; John 19:32-34).
-
The tomb was cut out of solid rock (Matthew 27:60). Tombs, like caskets, generally are not equipped with back doors!
-
The cave opening was blocked by a massive stone (Matthew 27:60).
-
The stone was affixed with a seal, and watched by soldiers (Matthew 27:66).
Obviously, it was impossible for Jesus to leave that tomb (apart from
the resurrection miracle), let alone to do so without detection.
Second, the tomb did not contain the body of Jesus after the dawning of
Sunday. This evidence is gleaned from those on both sides of the issue.
-
The empty tomb was seen by at least six of Jesus’ followers: Mary
Magdalene (Matthew 28:1-10), Mary (the mother of James) and Salome (Mark
16:1-8), Joanna (Luke 24:10), and Peter and John (John 20:2-8).
-
The empty tomb was probably seen by at least a few Roman guards (Matthew 28:2,11-15).
-
That the tomb was empty was not denied by the antagonistic Jews (they merely attempted to explain why it was empty).
-
That the tomb was empty was loudly proclaimed on the day of Pentecost
in the presence of literally thousands of Jews who most certainly would
have denied it if they could (Acts 2:24-36).
WHO MOVED THE STONE?
One of the tomb’s most impressive features was the immense stone that acted as its door. Matthew used the Greek phrase
lithon megan
to describe the stone (27:60). This two-word combination is the source
of our modern term, “megalith” (i.e., large stone). Mark and Luke report
that the four women who came to the tomb wondered who would move the
stone for them (Mark 16:2-4; Luke 24:10). Mark calls the stone “very
large.” How large is “very large”? While we may never know, it is safe
to assume that four women could move a fairly large stone without help;
yet, apparently the force needed to move this stone exceeded their
combined strength (Mark 16:3). If these women didn’t move it, who did?
Can we rationally conclude that it was moved by a brutally beaten,
crucified, and allegedly dead man? The record indicates that an angel of
the Lord was dispatched from heaven to accomplish the task (Matthew
28:2).
Someone might contend that the stone could not have been too heavy
since Joseph rolled it in place by himself (Matthew 27:60). But this is
only partially correct. The stones used for this purpose often were set
in a sloping groove with the low point in front of the tomb’s opening.
While it may have taken many men to move and scotch the stone up and
away from the doorway prior to burial, one man easily could have removed
the block and allowed gravity to draw the stone down the slope into its
proper resting position. Also, it is possible that the stone was set in
place by a number of men under the direction of Joseph. After all, when
we say that Alexander conquered the world, we do not mean that he did
so without the aid of an army!
Moreover, the stone was not just nudged aside to allow a single man to slip through, but it actually was moved
completely away
from the tomb (John 20:1). The moving of the great stone by the angel
was an event of such magnitude that Matthew tells us the soldiers “shook
for fear of him, and became as dead men” (28:4). It is no wonder they
left their post and returned to the city to make a report to the chief
priests! Adding to their fear of this supernatural sighting was the fact
that the tomb they were guarding was
opened and
empty.
Perhaps they reasoned that if the Jews knew the circumstances, they
would not press charges against them for losing custody of the body.
The impressive evidence from the tomb and stone may be summarized as
follows. On Friday, at least four witnesses saw Jesus’ dead body placed
into a previously empty tomb. The tomb was sealed with a stone too large
for four women to move. Jesus’ presence in the tomb was acknowledged by
friend and enemy alike on Saturday, when the stone was affixed with a
Roman seal (McDowell, 1981, p. 59). On Sunday the stone had been moved
and Jesus’ body was gone!
WHY BRIBE THE GUARDS?
The Jews’ primary effort to prevent the disciples of Jesus from making
any resurrection claims for their Master served as one of the strongest
evidences supporting those claims. Matthew recounts the incident:
The next day, after the Preparation, the chief priests and the
Pharisees were gathered together before Pilate, saying, “Sir, we
remember that the deceiver said, I will arise after three days. Command
therefore that the tomb be made secure until the third day to guard
against his disciples stealing the body and saying, He has been raised
from the dead. The last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate
replied to them, “Take guards and go and make the tomb as secure as you
can.” They departed and secured the tomb, sealing the stone, and
stationing the guards (Matthew 27:62-66; McCord, 1988).
Although they did not believe Christ, the Jews realized the importance
of His words. The passage implies that the Jews were obtaining a
Roman guard. Some scholars contend that Pilate told the Jews to take their
own
temple guard for the task. This seems unlikely. In the Greek, the
phrase, “Take a guard” is in the imperative. It was a “curt permission”
to take guards (Robertson, 1930, 1:239). Why would the Jews approach
Pilate to request a
Jewish guard? If they used their own guard,
they would have been open to criticisms should the body turn up missing.
Why would the temple guard fear Pilate’s reaction (Matthew 28:14)? It
seems more probable that the Jews wanted a Roman guard to prevent Jesus’
disciples from stealing their Lord’s body.
As noted above, the guards were terrified when the angel moved the
giant stone away from the tomb. They left their post and some of them
returned to the city to report the incredible event. No doubt fearful of
what would become of them, they went to the Jews (to plead for help?).
The record continues:
When they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a
large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, “Tell them, His disciples
came at night and stole Him away while we slept. And if this comes to
the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” So they
took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is
commonly reported among the Jews until this day (Matthew 28:12-15).
The guards were left with an empty tomb, and the Jews were faced with a
dilemma. They had to deal with not just an empty tomb, but also
eyewitness accounts (from
neutral witnesses) of the resurrection
of Jesus. What could they do? Three options were possible: they could
accept the testimony and believe in the One they crucified; they could
complain to Pilate about his incompetent soldiers; or, they could enact a
cover-up. They were not yet willing to accept this Jesus as the
Messiah. If they complained to Pilate, he might either believe or slay
the soldiers. If he believed them, the Jews would be defeated. If he
slew them, the Jews would be left with an inexplicably empty tomb. There
was really only one option for them—a cover-up. So they bought a false
report and circulated it in all directions. However, contrary to their
desire, everywhere that false report traveled, so went one important
fact—the tomb was empty!
ALTERNATIVE THEORIES
Some persist in doubt. They reject the possibility of Christ’s resurrection and offer various explanations for the data.
The Swoon Theory
Some have suggested that Jesus did not actually die. He just fainted
(“swooned”) and merely seemed to be dead. Thinking He was dead, His
friends buried Him according to custom. After resting upon that cold
stone slab, the Lord’s body naturally revived; thus revived, He moved
the stone and exited the tomb (carefully avoiding being spotted by the
guards). This view is utterly without foundation and collapses after
even the most cursory glance at the evidence.
First, the body was acknowledged as dead by all parties involved. The
Romans (who were experts at crucifixion) saw He was already dead and did
not need to have His legs broken (John 19:33). Pilate was surprised to
hear that Jesus had died so quickly, and investigated the matter (Mark
15:44-45). The followers of Jesus knew He was dead, for they began to
prepare Him for burial, and even anticipated the coming of Sunday so
they could finish the job. The Jews were sure He was dead, otherwise
they would not have been so concerned with keeping His disciples from
stealing His body (Matthew 27:62-66).
Second, no one who has been scourged, nailed to and hung upon a cross
for six hours, and has had a spear pierce his side, is going to wake up
capable of rolling away a stone that four women could not move!
Third, if this theory were true, the Jews would have been more
successful claiming that Jesus had only swooned than in manufacturing an
excuse for the empty tomb.
Fourth, where is Jesus now? The divine record has Him appearing for
only forty days after His alleged swoon—what of the rest of His life?
Fifth, can any clear-thinking person really believe that the apostles
lived persecuted lives and died as martyrs for a cause they
knew
to be false, or that Jesus would have been so cruel as to be the cause
of such (either directly or indirectly)? Everything we know of Jesus
mitigates against this thought.
The Wrong Tomb Theory
Some suggest that although Jesus was actually dead and buried, His
followers accidentally went to another tomb that was empty. This theory
hardly deserves mention; it defies nearly every detail of the
resurrection narratives and leads to the absurd conclusion that not only
His friends, but His enemies, and the Roman soldiers
all went to
the wrong tomb. On the contrary, the Gospel records mention that the
interred body was seen by at least four people. How long would it take
before someone recognized the mistake? After all, Joseph of Arimathea
surely knew how to locate his own tomb, and easily could have corrected
this error. Finally, Paul told of more than five hundred witnesses who
did not see the empty tomb, but who had seen the risen Lord (1
Corinthians 15:6).
Friends Stole the Body
The most common theory suggests that Jesus’ friends stole His body
while the guards slept. This was the story circulating when Matthew
wrote his history (Matthew 28:15). But, where is the evidence that the
guards slept? How could the disciples have moved the stone and kept from
waking the guards? Why would the Jews have paid the guards to say the
very thing that they tried to avoid in the first place? The whole reason
the Pharisees asked Pilate to grant them a guard was to keep the
disciples from stealing the body!
This view implies that the disciples knowingly devoted their lives to a
falsehood. But, J.P. Moreland points out, “the disciples had nothing to
gain by lying and starting a new religion. They faced hardship,
ridicule, hostility, and martyrs’ deaths. In light of this, they could
have never sustained such unwavering motivation if they knew what they
were preaching was a lie” (1987, pp. 171-172).
Enemies Stole the Body
Some might aver that Jesus’ body was stolen by the Jews to keep the
disciples from doing so. Hence, they took the body and hired a guard to
watch an already vacant tomb. But this is ridiculous. If they stole the
body, why did they not expose the disciples’ lie? Instead, they
maintained the unprovable position that it was really the disciples who
took the body. They never produced the body. What did they have to gain
by concealing the most powerful evidence conceivable against the
resurrection? Imagine how devastating it would have been for the
disciples, had the Jews paraded Jesus’ rotting corpse before the many
thousands on Pentecost. Such an act would have strangled the infant
church in its crib.
God Stole the Body
One of the most unusual theories regarding the resurrection of Jesus
was penned by Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses:
Our Lord’s human body was, however, supernaturally removed from the
tomb; because had it remained there it would have been an insurmountable
obstacle to the faith of the disciples, who were not yet instructed in
spiritual things—for “the spirit was not yet given.” (John 7:39.) We
know nothing about what became of it, except that it did not decay or
corrupt. (Acts 2:27,31.) Whether it was dissolved into gases or whether
it is still preserved somewhere as the grand memorial of God’s love, of
Christ’s obedience, and of our redemption, no one knows (1912, 2:129).
Obvious problems with this theory are numerous. Not only does it deny
the plain teachings of Scripture, but it implies that the disciples’
faith in the resurrection was based upon a falsehood. In other words,
they believed the Lord was raised, and had irrefutable proof of it—when
in fact He wasn’t. This makes God guilty of deliberate deception.
The Hallucination Theory
Another alternative theory is that the disciples never actually saw the
Lord’s risen body—they only imagined they did. However, the biggest
hindrance to this view is that many of these eyewitnesses were not
easily convinced. Thomas was hardly alone in his skepticism concerning
the resurrection. When the women went to the tomb on Sunday they found
it empty. Their first reaction was one of
bewilderment, not
belief
(Luke 24:4). Remember the disciples’ reaction to Mary’s incredible
report? They had been with Jesus and had no doubt heard Him say many
times that He would rise again, and yet Mark wrote: “And when they heard
that He was alive and had been seen by her,
they did not believe”
(Mark 16:11). Jesus later rebuked them for this unbelief (Mark 16:14).
They should have expected His resurrection, but obviously they did not.
Jesus was also disappointed in the two disciples from Emmaus for failing
to believe in the resurrection claims (Luke 24:25). Even at nightfall
of the resurrection day the disciples were still doubting (Luke 24:38).
The point is this: at first, these witnesses were unwilling to accept
the fact of the resurrection.
Had they been predisposed to believe the reports of the resurrection,
we might wonder if they simply believed what they wanted to about the
matter. On the contrary, here were people who initially were skeptical
and required evidence for belief. If they had believed all along that
they would see the Lord alive again, then isolated hallucinations might
have taken place among the mentally unstable disciples (if there were
any). But, hallucinations do not occur in people of stable mental
condition (unless artificially induced). Regardless, the empty tomb
remains unexplained by this theory.
CONCLUSION: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESURRECTION
If compelled by the evidence to believe the resurrection, what is its
relevance? First, the resurrection is the strongest single argument for
the deity of Jesus (Romans 1:4). If He was raised from the dead as David
prophesied, and as He so often promised, then He must have been deity!
If He was not raised, then David spoke of another, and Jesus was a liar.
Second, the resurrection is the foundational principle upon which
Christianity is built. Paul linked the reality of salvation to the fact
of the resurrection; refute that fact, and Christians are a truly
pathetic lot (1 Corinthians 15). Christianity is either the one true
religion of the one true God, or it is a farce—the reality of the
resurrection determines which.
Third, the fact of the resurrection is the greatest source of genuine
hope available in this transient and confusing world. If Christ was
raised, Christians will be raised (1 Corinthians 15). Since Christ was
raised, He took away the power of death. His resurrection made it
possible for Him to keep His promise to prepare a heavenly home for the
faithful (John 14:1-4). No one fact offers more hope or assurance than
does the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ!
REFERENCES
McCord, Hugo (1988),
McCord’s New Testament Translation of the Everlasting Gospel (Henderson, TN: Freed-Hardeman College).
McDowell, Josh (1981),
The Resurrection Factor (San Bernardino, CA: Here’s Life Publishers).
Moreland, J.P. (1987),
Scaling the Secular City (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker).
Robertson, A.T. (1930),
Word Pictures in the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker).
Russell, Charles Taze (1889),
Studies in the Scriptures (New York: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society).
