Not quite two thousand years ago an extraordinary event occurred, an event that ultimately changed the course of human history to this day. The incident itself was not particularly noteworthy. I’m certain this was not the first time in human affairs that such a thing had occurred. What made it significant was the individual who was involved. What am I talking about? I’m talking about a tomb that was found empty.
Why should you or I care about this particular tomb? Because the man it once held was subsequently claimed by his followers to have been brought back from the dead by God, never to die again. This same man was both the Lord and Christ to whom we must submit as God’s appointed King. (See Acts 2:32-36). Wow. That is another audacious claim…if it is true.
This is where the Divine challenge is found: In that small word “if”. But how can we determine whether this story is really true, rather than just a myth perpetuated by the disillusioned disciples of Jesus? If it is just a myth, then even an atheist would agree “if in this life only we have hope in Christ [who has not be raised from the dead –v.17], we are of all men most pitiable” (1 Cor 15:19).
Center of conflict
There have been some who have argued from time to time that Jesus never died, but somehow managed to escape from the tomb. No serious historian believes this because there is sufficient evidence of Jesus’ existence and crucifixion by the Romans. There is only one question that has ever been seriously argued: How did the tomb become empty? This is the central question we must be able to answer for our young people and our friends and neighbors.
Abductive Inference
There is a scientific tool used by those seeking to examine an historical event, it is called “abductive inference”. This is not quite the same as the deductive or inductive reasoning used in most research. Abductive inferences are like this:
- Major Premise: If a mudslide occurred, we would expect to find felled trees.
- Minor Premise: We find evidence of felled trees.
- Conclusion: Therefore, we have reason to think that a mudslide may have occurred.
To move a conclusion from “may have” to “certainly did”, one must evaluate all competing hypotheses to eliminate all but the most likely cause, or, demonstrate there is only one known cause for the event.
Generally accepted evidence
Let’s review the evidence generally accepted by historians before examining the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus.
Messianic Expectations of Jewish People
The Jews in the first century were fervently expecting the fulfillment of OT messianic prophecies (e.g. Dan. 9).
Jesus Was a Real, Historical Person, Crucified by the Romans Around 30 AD
Wikipedia provides a succinct affirmation of this evidence: “Most modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed, but scholars differ on the historicity of specific episodes described in the Biblical accounts…(there is) almost universal assent that Jesus…was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus)
Roman Crucifixion Ensured Jesus Really Died
Crucifixion was a Roman form of punishment, carried out according to Roman law. It involved severe scourging prior to execution. Those entrusted with this responsibility did so knowing their own lives would be forfeit if they failed to complete the execution.
Burial According to Jewish Custom
Jesus’ body was taken from the execution site, anointed with costly spices, and tightly wound from head to foot with linen, all in accord with acknowledged Jewish custom.
Tomb Was Sealed
Jesus was buried in a rock-hewn tomb sealed by Jewish leaders to ensure no one would tamper with it (Matt 27:66). Sealing of a tomb was an official and legal Roman practice; disruption of seals carried a penalty under Roman law.
Tomb Guarded By Soldiers
Jewish leaders also put a guard in place to doubly secure the tomb. If these were Roman soldiers, their lives were at stake. If this was the Jewish temple guard, they would be even more diligent for racial and religious reasons, besides the discipline to which they were subject.
Tomb Was Empty
Three days later this same tomb was found empty. This one fact has never been seriously disputed, not even by the chief antagonists to Christian claims, the Jews. The dispute has always centered on how the tomb became empty.
Transformation of Disciples: Fearful to Fearless
Jesus’ disciples by their own accounts did not expect his death. Again, by their own accounts, they were completely disillusioned and demoralized when it happened. These disciples had to be convinced by both physical and Scriptural evidence that Jesus truly rose from dead. Fifty days later these same disciples began to preach the resurrection of Jesus with a strength and boldness that astonished their enemies. Almost all the Apostles (as well as some other disciples, e.g. Stephen) died violently for the conviction they had not only seen Jesus alive from the dead, but also talked to, ate with, handled, and watched him ascend. Others suffered life-long humiliation, deprivation, and loss of property and social status.
Conversion of Skeptical Witnesses
Paul, trained in the strictest sect of the Jewish religion, went from vigorous enemy to the most powerful defender of Christianity. He suffered many things for his new convictions about the risen Jesus. James, the half-brother of Jesus, was a strong skeptic throughout Jesus’ ministry (John 7:5). Even the care of Jesus’ mother was not committed to James. Yet, soon after Jesus ascended, James was counted among the believers, and became a leader in the Jerusalem ecclesia.
Moral Imperative of Christianity
The teaching of both Jesus and his Apostles called men to a highly moral life: honesty and integrity were fundamental virtues of this life. Lying, deceit, hypocrisy, and all forms of immorality were grounds for exclusion from the early Christian community. The virtuous and highly moral conduct of early Christians was well known even to their enemies. (Matt 15:18-20; 1 Pet 3:9-12; Eph 4:22-25; Gal 6:7-10; Letter of Pliny the Younger to Trajan, Epistle X.96; Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon, Ch.15, p.182 and others.)
Principle of Embarrassment
Would writers of history invent details that do not help their cause? While one might not expect the first eyewitness of a risen Jesus to be important dignitary like Caiaphas, Pilate, or King Herod, one would expect a disciple like Peter or John to be there. Instead, we find it was a woman of questionable background, Mary Magdalene, who first encountered Jesus. Why would the Gospel writers claim this Mary was first eyewitness? Either the writers were foolish, exceedingly clever, or they wrote precisely what happened.
Nazareth Inscription
The Nazareth Inscription is a marble tablet (24 by 15 inches) providing the earliest known written record that many scholars believe references the events concerning Jesus’ empty tomb. The Nazareth Inscription is almost certainly authentic and is a summary of an imperial edict issued by the Emperor Claudius in 41 AD.
The early date strongly suggests that this was written with the events surrounding Jesus’ empty tomb in mind. The details of the decree do indeed appear to fit Jewish burial practices as opposed to Roman or gentile practices: the reference to sepulcher stones in the edict is in line with Jewish burial practice of the first century A.D. and not with gentile burial practice of this period. Roman burial was generally in dug graves or cremation and not by entombment as implied in the decree. The Romans used coffins in which bodies or urns were buried in individual graves in cemeteries, while Jewish burial, as we know from the New Testament and surviving remains, was in tombs or sepulchers (see John 19:38-42).
It would appear the issue of Jesus’ empty tomb eventually came before Caesar who accepted the Jewish religious leaders’ explanation of what happened at the tomb and how Jesus’ body came to be missing. Given the Roman respect for the dead, it would appear that Caesar wanted to make sure the same event did not happen again. This is probably why he issued the edict and had the Nazareth stone created.
Attempted explanations for the empty tomb
Let us now look at the explanations that have been put forward to explain the empty tomb. Remember that in abductive reasoning to establish that only one explanation is possible, you must eliminate all other attempted explanations. In this case, only four basic explanations have been offered to explain the empty tomb over the past 1900 years. We will examine them to see how they hold up given the accepted evidence above.
Disciples Stole Body While Guards Slept
This is the best explanation contemporary enemies of Christians could provide for the empty tomb, which they had personally sealed and set a guard nearby to prevent any tampering with the tomb. But does this really explain the accepted facts? Consider:
- And why were they not severely punished by the Jewish or Roman authorities for failing in their duty?
- Tomb was sealed and zealously guarded by men who were charged to prevent the very thing they now said happened.
- If they “slept”, how did they know it was Jesus’ disciples who stole the body?
Most damaging of all: This deception runs completely counter to all that is acknowledged about early disciples and their teaching. Why didn’t one of the inner circle expose this sham, especially since most paid for their “deception” with their own blood?
Finally, this explanation completely fails to adequately account for the explosive growth and spread of Christianity in the face of Jewish and Gentile hostility. The facts concerning Jesus could be personally verified by many early Jewish converts.
Even more significantly, the conviction that the Jewish Messiah died and was raised on the third day was used to convert the Jews by appeal to Old Testament prophecies about these very things!
Recovery in The Tomb
It has been suggested that Jesus only appeared to die on the cross and later revived either naturally in the coolness of tomb or with help of drugs administered by those in on the “plot”. He later presented himself as having risen from the dead (or allowed his disciples to assume this), then quietly disappeared from the scene. This explanation fails to account for a number of accepted details:
- Roman soldiers were professionals in the business of death. Scourging prior to crucifixion was designed to expedite death. The spear thrust bringing forth blood and water is medically consistent with death. When asked by Pilate whether Jesus was dead, the soldiers literally staked their own lives on their answer.
- The method of Jewish burial argues against recovery. Tightly wrapped linen filled with ointment that secured limbs and blanketed the face would have ensured the death of a victim, rather than promoting a recovery.
This theory fails to account for the sealed tomb, the tomb guard, and Jesus’ physical condition. Does it really seem possible that Jesus unwrapped his tightly bound body, did the impossible by rolling back a sealed stone from the inside, terrified a large contingent of soldiers, walked several miles on severely wounded feet, and, presenting himself to his disciples, overcame their skepticism, then convinced them that the battered and bruised man before them was their risen and immortalized Lord? Does having an accomplice in this matter really make this more plausible?
This theory meets an insurmountable barrier when the character and teaching of Jesus is taken into consideration. A plot to deceive regarding the very foundation of Christianity is completely out of character for either Jesus or his disciples. Jesus’ teaching constantly inculcated the highest regard for integrity and truth, and constantly exposed human nature with its propensity for deception. The honesty and integrity of early Christians was well known even by their enemies.
Mass Hallucinations or Visions
It has been suggested that the shock and grief of Jesus’ death resulted in a kind of religious hysteria or mass hallucination in which the disciples thought they saw their risen Lord. Based on this experience they went on to hazard their lives by proclaiming the resurrection to the world. This theory also fails to account for a number of critical details:
The disciples by their own admission were demoralized and disillusioned by Jesus’ unexpected death and had to be convinced of the resurrection by hard physical evidence. Unlike the normal grief process wherein one thinks they see their loved one as still alive (because they see someone with a similar shape or build), these men and women not only saw him, but ate and drank and handled him until all doubts about his resurrection were dispelled. They refused to believe the report of the women, and when initially confronted with the risen Christ, they were skeptical and assumed they were seeing a phantom. (Luke 24:9-12, 36-43; John 20:19-29; 1 John 1:1-3). It is noteworthy that Mary mistook Jesus for a gardener; she clearly did not expect to see Jesus. (John 20:14-16).
The disciples on the way to Emmaus had to be convinced by Jesus “opening up the scriptures” to them — an appeal to reason and logic, not to emotion (Luke 24:13-27). The disciples’ subsequent preaching was based on careful reasoning from the Old Testament, as well as on their own personal experiences. (e.g. Acts 2:3,13). Since both Paul and James did not participate in this claimed emotional scene, how can the conversion of these two skeptics be explained?
Finally, and most significantly, why wouldn’t the enemies of the Christians simply have produced the body of Jesus in order to silence, once and for all, these foolish claims?
Wrong Tomb or Family Tomb
It is sometimes suggested that the disciples mistakenly went to the wrong tomb and when they found it empty, they assumed Jesus had risen from the dead. A recent (2007) alternative suggested Jesus was buried in a family tomb known to the early Christians. Again, this explanation fails to account for all the known evidence.
- The disciples’ extreme reluctance to believe Jesus actually was alive from the dead.
- The NT writers state that Jesus was put in a new tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea (Matt 27:60).
- If no one else knew where Jesus was put, surely this man would. And if he knew, why wouldn’t others know? The same would surely be true of a family tomb. Many would know its location.
Nor does this theory account for the tomb being sealed by the Jewish authorities and being watched by a contingent of soldiers. Others may have been mistaken, but these men would not have been. And worst of all, any claims that Jesus rose from the dead would have been quickly dispatched simply by producing the body from the “right” tomb.
Only alternative
The failure of all these explanations for the empty tomb leaves, by abductive reasoning, only one viable alternative: Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead as claimed. “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he is risen, as he said” (Matt 28:5-6).
Implications
Having looked closely at the evidence that the only viable explanation for the empty tomb is the resurrection of Jesus by God, we should not be shy in setting out the implications of this fact as well. First and foremost is that the God who raised Jesus now has another substantial witness to His existence. Peter and Paul make it clear that as a consequence all men everywhere must acknowledge the God of the Bible as the only true God (Acts 3:19-26; 17:30-31).
A risen Jesus also gives us a reasonable basis for believing all that Jesus spoke and all that the Scriptures say about him is true. Jesus appealed to the Scriptures as the genuine Word of God, revealing God’s purpose with man. The resurrection gives us reason to believe this is true. The resurrection was an act of Divine intervention in the affairs of men. God has promised He will intervene again, this time sending His Son to rule the world in righteousness and to establish God’s kingdom on earth. If Jesus did indeed rise from the dead, we can have confidence in this future event as well.
Finally, the resurrection is the historical fact on which the hope of Christianity, the hope of the resurrection from the dead, is founded. Because it happened once in fulfillment of God’s word, we have solid reasons to believe it can happen again… to us, if we are willing to join our lives to this man.
Bro L. G. Sargent summarized the implications well: “(It is) the crown in the arch of the whole structure of God’s revelation… It ties together the whole of the promises and prophecies of the past and their realization in the future… It is the crux of the working of God with men” (A Sound Mind, p.166).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One