Evidence that Demands a Verdict: Chapter 10, part 2

This section deals with circumstances at the tomb of Christ.

Pre-Resurrection scenario

• Jesus was dead. Crucifixion was the worst means of death. See, again, the JAMA article (PDF).
• Tomb: plenty of textual evidence locating and describing it. Consider the events - why would each (e.g. Joseph of Arimathea asking for the body) have happened if there had been no tomb?
• Burial. Prof. Edersheim tells of burial customs.
• Stone: needed several men to move.
• Seal: a cord secured at both ends by sealing wax.
• Guard: faithful soldiers to Rome; neglecting their job meant death; probably 4 men total; no other dead prisoner was guarded like this!
• Disciples: scattered because they didn't expect a resurrection at all.

Post-Resurrection scenario

• The tomb was irrefutably empty.
• Grave clothes were neatly folded in two piles.
• The seal was broken.
• A Roman guard wouldn't have intentionally deserted or slept at its post.
• Post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus alive backed up apostolic witness. Over 500 people (see 1 Corinthians 15) saw Him.
• Silence of enemies - they couldn't produce the body, no matter how much they wanted to.

Established historical fact

• No one could refute the Resurrection by producing the body - because it wasn't there!
• Yet many still refused to believe.

Established psychological facts

• Disciples' lives were transformed; their accounts stand under cross-inspection.
• 1900 years of history; see chapter 12 in particular.
• Verdict: these facts count as subjective evidence for the truth of the Resurrection.

Established sociological facts

• Christian Church: founded on the Resurrection (see many passages in Acts).
• Worship: Sunday, not Saturday (a huge change from Judaism).
• Sacraments: Communion (celebrating His death - yet joyful because of the Resurrection) and Baptism (vs. circumcision - see Romans 6:1-6).
• Persistence of the Church through many centuries.

Next up (the final section of this chapter!): hypotheses cooked up to explain away the Resurrection as presented in the Scriptures, and why and how each fails to consider all of the evidence.