The Evidence for the Resurrection Part II

The second part of this series is one of the most compelling in the argument for the historicity of Christianity. The study of Jesus’ empty tomb has baffled skeptics for many reasons, but the interesting thing is that no skeptic can hold a firm, credible argument to discredit the Gospel accounts. Numerous attempts have been made to show how it’s impossible for a man to come back to life, yet there has never been a reasonable claim that natural science can sustain on the subject. I believe the reason is that it’s hard for the carnal mind to accept what it deems naturally impossible, so it’s willing to concoct ludicrous explanations to move away from the idea of the naturally impossible. Those natural suggestions all fall to pieces when they confront the facts that God gives us concerning the resurrection of Jesus.

Was the location of Jesus’ burial known?

This is a very important question to address. In order for people to claim that the tomb was empty, they would have to know where that tomb was. The first point to understand is that Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea. It was at one time questioned whether or not Joseph was fictional. This can be dismissed quickly. If Joseph was an invention, why would anyone choose this character to be a member of the Sanhedrin? It would make no sense for those that were trying to convince others of a lie to make that character a member of the group that tried and executed Jesus.

Another point that is worth being stated briefly is the old tradition that Paul quotes in I Corinthians 15:3-5. I Corinthians was written around 55 A.D. , so this tradition must be less than two decades later than Jesus’ burial. Therefore, those that started this tradition about the Resurrection must have known the location of the tomb or the tradition would have been challenged early in the beginning.

The last point to understand is that there are no other conflicting stories about the location of Jesus’ burial. No legend exists as to what happened to Jesus after His death. All we have is the undisputed consensus that Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea in his very own tomb.

Was the tomb really empty?

When investigating this question from a purely historical and logical stand point, we must conclude that it was empty and that what happened is what the Apostles said happened: Christ rose from the dead. No other explanation can support the evidence.

The biggest piece of evidence for this is that the Jews and Romans stated that the body was stolen. The impossibility of Jesus’ body being stolen will be covered shortly, but what this claim says is that they admitted that the tomb was empty. They did not attempt to place another body inside deceitfully, nor did they claim that it was the wrong tomb. They said that it was missing. It was gone. Now there is testimony of an opposing side’s knowledge of the empty tomb.

Another interesting fact to mention is the credibility of the women who first found the empty tomb. In Jewish culture, women had no credibility. Their testimonies would not be given any consideration for accuracy or relevance. Therefore, why would anyone who was trying to convince the masses of any specific deceitful invention choose the least respected person to be an eyewitness? This would be completely illogical.

What are other suggestions as to why the tomb was empty?

There have been scores of different theories as to what happened, but these two were the most popular:

The first is the claim that the body was stolen. This would not work for a few reasons. First, the tomb was guarded by a “guard.” Many scholars believe this was a Roman Guard which consisted of anywhere between 40 to 60 soldiers. It would have been impossible to for the apostles to sneak around them, move a massive stone without making a sound, grab the body, and dispose of it without anyone seeing or noticing anything. This sounds extremely unlikely. Also, it goes without saying that after the arrest and crucifixion, the apostles were in fear for their lives and hid. To accept this is to assume that they suddenly gained strength and courage to attempt a suicide mission to steal a dead body. This theory has been widely dismissed by scholars.

Another theory that is ridiculous yet carried interesting weight with skeptics in the past is the Swoon Theory. This asserts that Jesus only appeared to be dead on the cross, and he escaped the tomb without being noticed. This also has been rejected widely by scholars. Consider what this says: Jesus somehow made it through an execution which has a success rate of 100%, wasn’t smothered by the heavy burial linens and unwrapped himself from it, rolled the heavy stone away and crept by the guards, found the Apostles, and somehow was able to inspire them with his horribly beaten, malnourished body to go and die terrible deaths for the sake of His resurrection. We can all see why this theory fell short.

There are other outlandish theories but like these two, they all fall short. The only conclusion that we can reach when examining the evidence is that Jesus rose from the dead. No other explanations hold the historical and logical capacity. And so we say, “He is risen.”