Table of Contents
Introduction
The resurrection of the dead is the reason we as believers gather to celebrate. It’s the only reason we gather together.
If believers gather together because of something we already believe in, why study it—especially in such detail? There are a few reasons:
- Because some who gather among us do not yet believe.
- Because doing so strengthens our faith (makes us more confident in our belief).
- To equip you to share about Jesus with those who do not yet believe in Him.
What we have been going over—in the previous sermon and (soon) in this one—are arguments against the resurrection of the dead. You can put these theories in your tool chest, not to go out and become argumentative but to strengthen your faith so that you’ll be ready when someone asks you about the hope that you have in Christ.1See 1 Peter 3:15.
So let’s talk about the resurrection of the dead when approached with the claim that, “That did not happen.” It’s a reasonable response.
Given that Christians have staked everything on the fact that the resurrection from the dead did happen once, we owe it to ourselves and to our objectors to entertain all reasonable explanations so that we either rule out the resurrection explanation or we eliminate all the alternative explanations.
My last sermon dealt with the possibility that Jesus didn’t die on the cross (known as the swoon theory). With that argument put to the side, we consider three more alternative explanations. The first two will focus on the tomb of Jesus, and the other on the resurrection itself:
- The stolen body theory
- The wrong tomb theory
- The hallucination theory
The Stolen Body Theory
The Claim
This theory claims:
The body of Jesus was stolen out of the tomb.
This is a reasonable claim. So reasonable, in fact, that this initial reaction of “someone has taken the body” was the reaction of both those who were disciples of Jesus as well as those who were enemies of Jesus.
Look at the reaction of the first person to encounter the resurrected Jesus, His disciple Mary Magdalene:
So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” (John 20:2)
Then, a bit later, she returns to the tomb, and there are angels (though she doesn’t realize they’re angels yet):
And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” (John 20:13)
Now consider the response of His enemies:
Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.” And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day. (Matthew 28:11–15)
Stolen body theory, then, isn’t some new thought—it was the prevailing theory (excuse) of the day. You might call it the lie of the day—a lie that has been perpetuated ever since.
Stolen body theory … was the prevailing theory (excuse) of the day. … [It is] a lie that has been perpetuated ever since.
The Defense
This theory admits to the key fact of the resurrection: there is no body. Theologian, author, and historian N.T. Wright wrote:
A charge such as this would never have arisen unless it was already well known, or at the very least widely supposed, that there was an empty tomb, and/or missing body, requiring an explanation.2N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 638. I recommend his 600-plus-page book but caution that it’s a heavy read; also, I don’t agree with everything he says in it, but it’s still an excellent source historically speaking.
I would add to this that it also admits of the necessary facts: there was a crucified, dead man, and this man was in fact Jesus of Nazareth, and He was the one and same Jesus who was placed in the tomb.
We still must entertain, though, the possibility of the body being removed. However, problems arise regarding who might have removed the body. There are essentially two (viable) possibilities. Either (1) the authorities or (2) the disciples could have removed the body. What about random grave robbers? Highly unlikely, as this isn’t some abandoned cemetery that you can sneak into in the middle of the night; it’s a sealed and guarded tomb for which there is no advantage of going up against a Roman guard.
So let’s entertain the two real options—the authorities or the disciples. First, we’ll consider these theories (mostly) apart from Scriptural details, and then we’ll bring in the Gospels.
Option 1: The Authorities
A good detective or attorney needs to establish motive. The fact is, neither the Roman authorities nor the Jewish authorities would have had any motive for removing the body.
But let’s consider the possibility nevertheless. In this case, let’s go ahead and bring Matthew’s Gospel account into the picture:
Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone. (Matthew 27:62–66)
We see from this passage that both key authorities—the Roman and Jewish ones—had ordered a guard placed at the tomb to guard against this very purpose.
Option 2: The Disciples
This leaves us with only the second option: a heist by the disciples. But if the disciples stole the body out of the tomb, they did so with the odds stacked against them.
- The tomb was under guard by soldiers.
- The tomb was sealed under the authority of Rome.
- The disciples all fled just the night before when faced with the threat of authority. (Why would they react differently now that Jesus has actually been crucified?)
But let’s just suppose they did steal the body. If they did, why were they not punished? Given the ease with which the disciples were later thrown into jail and killed simply because of what they preached, does it make any sense that a direct assault on Roman authority of this nature would have been looked over? It does not.
The guards’ claim that the disciples stole the body while the guard slept is weak. It assumes that all military discipline was ignored while:
- A band of disciples snuck past the guard …
- … which means not just one guard, but the entirety of the guard …
- … which means that the entirety of the guard fell asleep at the same time.
- The disciples rolled away a heavy stone3You might wonder why it wasn’t likely that the disciples moved the stone, given that the text says that Joseph of Arimathea rolled the stone in front of the tomb. Well, the stone would have been rolled into a channel or groove in the entryway. But while it would have been easy to roll it into there, it would not have been easy to roll it out (remember, they sought to make the seal on the tomb “secure”—hard if not impossible to break into). …
- … and carried out a dead man without making a sound (because the guards would have to remain asleep for them to continue).
But let’s say the guards did stay asleep. Let’s put them on the witness stand:
What happened that night, guards?
Guard 1: “The disciples stole the body while we were asleep.”
Guard 2: “The disciples stole the body while we were asleep.”
(And so on with all of the guards.)
Okay, if you were all asleep, how do you know who it was who stole the body?
You see, the guards couldn’t know what happened while they were sleeping. If they weren’t asleep, then they failed to perform their (only) duty—to guard against theft. And as the Scottish theologian Alexander Balmain Bruce put it: “The lie for which the priests paid so much money is suicidal; one half destroys the other. Sleeping sentinels could not know what happened.”4Alexander Balmain Bruce “ΤΟ ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΤΘΑΙΟΝ ΑΓΙΟΝ ΕΥΑΓΓΕΛΙΟΝ” in Part I, The Synoptic Gospels in The Expositor’s Greek Testament, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll, vol. 1 (New York: George H. Doran, 1897), 338.
Additionally, let’s consider the lives of the apostles. Their lives were not easy. It’s possible and likely that the majority of them died as martyrs. The stolen body theory assumes that everything the disciples based their lives on and gave their lives for was a lie—and, furthermore, a lie that they originated. Yes, people will die for a lie, but only if the lie is unknown to them. People die for lies that they believe are true. People do not die for that which they know to be a lie. There was zero advantage at the time of Jesus’s death for claiming to be a Christian, and thus no reason for the disciples to forward such a lie.
The stolen body theory assumes that everything the disciples based their lives on and gave their lives for was a lie. … People do not die for that which they know to be a lie.
Details from Scripture
So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. (John 20:3–7)
The face-cloth detail may seem a little confusing. There are a couple of ways to read that verse. Sometimes crucified victims, after they were known to be dead, would have a cloth placed on their head while still on the cross (in the same way that today we cover someone’s face when we know he or she is dead).
Here’s the point about the linen grave clothes and why they were where they were. Imagine you’re a grave robber (I hope that’s a stretch for your imagination), and you’re going to go and steal a body from a tomb carved in the side of a rock. You’ve got to get past the guard, and then assuming you do, you have to be as stealthy and quick as possible. Are you going to take the time to unwrap the burial cloths from the body? No, you’re going to just steal the body and go.
John and Peter would have been familiar with the burial process of Jesus, and it’s apparent to them that the body was simply not in the burial cloths anymore—but neither has the body been stolen, because otherwise, the cloths would not be there (or at least not in the position they were left in).
Okay, so maybe there was nothing nefarious going on like theft. Maybe it was just an honest mistake. Maybe they went to the wrong tomb.
Wrong Tomb Theory
The Claim
Those who saw the empty tomb of Jesus went to the wrong tomb.
The Defense
Defending against this theory will sound silly because such a mistake could have easily been corrected by those who knew the location of the correct tomb. Upon arriving at the correct tomb, the body would have been found.
Still, this theory is sometimes put out there even in some academic circles as an argument against Christianity. And this theory was by far the weakest until recent claims that the tomb of Jesus had been found in Talpiot, Jerusalem, which has led to the positing of “the family tomb theory” (basically, a modern version of the wrong tomb theory).
A 2007 documentary (titled The Lost Tomb of Jesus) states that Jesus was reburied in a family tomb in Talpiot, a neighborhood in Jerusalem. Guests featured in the film included James Tabor, chair of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte5Dr. Tabor retired from his position at UNC Charlotte in 2022.; Simcha Jacobovici, a documentary filmmaker who had a History Channel show with the erudite tile The Naked Archaeologist (but hey, he’s won an Emmy Award—what do I know?!); and James Cameron, filmmaker (Avatar, Titanic, Terminator). The film boiled down to some Easter sensationalism—not an uncommon type of thing to unveil around Eastertime on cable (especially the History Channel).
I don’t want to go into all the details on this film and its theory. But, to summarize, I have 20 years of background working in archaeology. During the time of this documentary’s release, I was editing foremost archaeologists of this region, and I was privvy to both their professional work and private correspondence. I can tell you with confidence that this family tomb theory is junk archaeology, with suspicious circumstances surrounding the discoveries, questionable interpretations of inscriptions, and even possible forgeries involved. I can tell you more if you’re interested.
Details from Scripture
Let’s look, though, at some of the details from Scripture that will help us defend against this wrong tomb theory. (A lot of people who embrace these alternative theories against the resurrection, you’ll notice, come from those who are not familiar with the Scriptures. The professionals know them, but those who listen to and believe them do not.)
The book of Matthew says this:
And Joseph [of Arimathea] took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock. (Matthew 27:59–60 NASB, italics mine)
Given this information, to find the right tomb, the person to ask would have been Joseph of Arimathea. The tomb would have been easily identified by this man who:
- Placed the body there
- Owned the tomb
- Built the tomb
Here’s Mark’s Gospel:
Joseph [of Arimathea] bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses were looking on to see where He was laid.
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him. Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. (Mark 15:46–16:4)
Did the two Marys go to the wrong tomb? Well, both Marys witnessed the burial place of Jesus the day He was placed into the tomb. The women arrived at the tomb when the sun had risen, and therefore, the darkness hindered them in no way (knocking out the possibility that they were “fumbling around in the dark trying to find the right tomb”). The tomb the women return to has characteristics of the one they looked upon a day before. This was the tomb, but now the stone has been rolled away, the women notice.
Let’s be thorough and check the other two Gospels as well. Luke describes the scene this way:
And [Joseph] took [the body of Jesus] down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain. … [After Jesus had risen], Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened. (Luke 23:53; 24:12; italics mine)
So Luke further separates Jesus’s tomb from other possible tombs in the area, saying His body was laid in a new tomb in which no one else was buried. In what other tomb would there be no bodies, but the presence of burial clothes?
Finally, look at John’s account:
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. (John 19:41-42 NASB; italics mine)
John gives us the new information that not only was the tomb new and unused, but it was in close proximity to the crucifixion site. Were the women likely to forget where this was, too?
So far we have a very specific tomb: In the garden in the place Jesus was crucified there was a new tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea, which he had built himself, in which no one had ever lain other than Jesus, whom Joseph himself had laid there, which was witnessed by multiple women and Nicodemus, a tomb opening over which Joseph himself had placed a large stone, which was subsequently found rolled away to reveal a tomb in which there was no body, but there were burial clothes present, which Joseph himself had bought and others had seen him place around the body.
So, other than all those details … maybe they went to the wrong tomb!
Clearly, not a viable option.
So, let’s progress in our journey down the rabbit hole and get on to the business of the hallucination theory.
The Hallucination Theory
The Claim
Those who claimed to see the resurrected Christ were experiencing hallucinations.
The Defense
First, know that the hallucination theory is one that can’t stand on its own. Such a theory would have to be combined with one another theory, like one of the ones we’ve discussed. Because a body is still missing, and if it weren’t, then a body could’ve been produced.
This theory admits to the key fact of the resurrection, but it claims that people didn’t really see the risen Jesus.
We can’t outright dismiss hallucinations as things that don’t happen. People do hallucinate. But what’s proposed in this theory is both group hallucinations and corroborating hallucinations of multiple individuals. Collective hallucination poses more problems than it solves.6For a list, see Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics: Hundreds of Answers to Crucial Questions (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 186–188.
- There would need to be some common stimulant and circumstance to cause the hallucination; and
- The hallucinations would’ve needed to have been repeated to individuals and groups, as we will see in the details from Scripture.
Details from Scripture
In Matthew 28, the women have left the tomb and are on their way to reporting it to the disciples:
And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshipped Him. (Matthew 28:9 NASB; italics mine)
Groups do not hallucinate the same thing, but even if you dispute that, there is this issue: All members of a group do not all have physical contact with a hallucinated object—like in Luke 24:
And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. And while they [minimally, 15 people] still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them. (Luke 24:41–43, italics mine)
Again, we have a group hallucination, but this time the hallucinated object interacts with a real physical object and (in eating it) causes that object to permanently disappear.
In his second volume (as we can think of the book of Acts in relation to the Gospel of Luke), Luke says this:
The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:1–3)
If the hallucination theory is true, then you have multiple collective hallucination phenomena over a 40-day period! Some more evidence against this theory can be found in 1 Corinthians, written by Paul (whose traveling companion was Luke, remember):
Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. (1 Corinthians 15:1–8)
Once again, you have multiple people, over multiple occasions, and the numbers are just getting silly. The hallucination would have to happen to more than 500 people and written at a time—Paul makes sure to point out—in which you could just go ask one of them if they’re lying.
And that’s what all of these theories do have in common—you have to press on this question at some point: Was the story a hoax, made up by the Gospel writers?
Well, imagine you’ve been charged with writing the greatest story ever told. You want to write it in such a way that it’s convincing. You want to write it in a way such that people will believe what you’re writing. Would you say something like Luke says in the following passage?
And they remembered His words, and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them. (Luke 24:8–11 NASB; italics mine)
As many others have noted, the Gospel writers would not have made up a story in which women, whose testimony was virtually worthless at that time, were the first ones to arrive on the scene.
N.T. Wright, again, writes:
It is easy to imagine that, when a tradition was established for use in preaching to outsiders, stories of women running to the tomb in the half-light would quietly be dropped, and a list produced of solid witnesses who could be called upon to vouch for what they had seen. It is not easy at all—in fact, I suggest, it is virtually impossible—to imagine a solid and well-established tradition, such as that in 1 Corinthians 15, feeling itself in need of some extra stiffening in the first place, or, if such a need was felt (why?), coming up with a scatter of women on a dark spring morning. The stories may all have been written down late in the first century. We do not know (despite repeated scholarly assertions) exactly when the evangelists first put pen to paper. But we must affirm that the story they tell is one which goes back behind Paul, back to the very early period, before anyone had time to think, ‘It would be good to tell stories about Jesus rising from the dead; what will best serve our apologetic needs?’ It is far, far easier to assume that the women were there at the beginning, just as, three days earlier, they had been there at the end.7Wright, Resurrection of the Son of God, 608.
Here’s one more passage to consider, from the Gospel of John:
After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” (John 20:26–27)
This passage clearly tells of a physically resurrected Christ. If the disciples were going to make up a story of a resurrected Christ, why not make up a story of a “spiritually resurrected” Christ? After all, it’s easier to defend a spiritual resurrection—a missing body isn’t needed.
So let’s bring something uncontroversial into the picture: politics. I want to give you a quote from someone, who might be lesser known now than he was during his life, but he used to be a household name in America. His name is Charles (Chuck) Colson. Some may know and remember him for his Christian ministry Prison Fellowship or the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, but before that, he was special counsel to the U.S. president—President Richard Nixon, that is. Colson was known as President Nixon’s “hatchet man”; some called him the “evil genius” of an “evil administration.” He would serve a prison sentence for his role in the Watergate scandal.8That time in prison is the whole reason he founded a prison ministry. The prisoners there said to him (in essence), “Chuck, guys like you who are in high positions will get out of here one day and you’ll forget about us.” Not Colson. He spent every Easter morning in prison, ministering to prisoners. Alyson R. Quinn, “The Glorious Defeat of Chuck Colson,” Prison Fellowship, https://www.prisonfellowship.org/story/watergate-the-glorious-defeat-of-chuck-colson
Colson once said this:
I know the Resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, and then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned, and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.9Marty Angelo, “How Chuck Colson’s Legacy of Hope Lives On,” Prison Fellowship, https://www.prisonfellowship.org/2018/04/chuck-colsons-legacy-hope-lives.
Other Theories
There are other theories that I have not mentioned here, proposing things such as Jesus not having been buried at all, but eaten by wild animals; or not being crucified at all, but having someone else stand in His place at the last minute. The latter idea is a Muslim argument from the Koran, which says, “They denied the truth and uttered a monstrous falsehood against Mary. They declared: ‘We have put to death the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the apostle of God.’ They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but they thought they did” (Surah 4:156–157).
At some point, it is just as easy to accept the biblical narrative as it is to accept these alternatives; as such, the burden of proof lies with the theories that lack the historical support that the biblical narratives possess.
And when you examine these narratives, you must consider the details that are provided—particularly details or mistakes that are embarrassing for the person trying to pull off the hoax.
In his book Easter Enigma John Wenham’s comments regarding the stolen body theory sum up well the sort of ludicrous notions that must compete with the facts. He writes:
… it bristles with improbabilities at every point: the sabbath visit to the governor, the great earthquake, the flashing angel rolling back the stone, the reporting to the chief priests, the bribe to the soldiers to tell the tale that they were asleep on duty—everything invites, not belief, but incredulity. And how stupid, having introduced the useful apologetic idea of a closely guarded tomb, to give a handle to the opposition by even hinting that the guards did not do their job! It is a worthless piece of Christian apologetic at whatever date it was written, unless it happens to be undeniably true.10Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2017), 78–79; italicized text is in the original. John Wenham, Easter Enigma: Are the Resurrection Accounts in Conflict? (Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books, 1984).
It wasn’t a wrong turn. It wasn’t wily thieves. It wasn’t a wild trip.
But an empty tomb does not a resurrection make. There have certainly been empty graves before. Why conclude resurrection? Why didn’t the disciples immediately conclude resurrection? What does resurrection mean? What did they think resurrection meant?
We’ll answer these questions and more in the sermons to come.