(This posting is part of a book in progress, tentatively titled
What Really Happened to Jesus? A Lawyer Reexamines the Evidence,
and What It Means for Christians and Christianity.) Why was
Jesus’s tomb empty? - The classic Christian account is that
Jesus was raised from the dead. But that explanation is
problematic in view of the evidence, as discussed in Chapter(s)
__ [in progress — ed.]. - At the time, some claimed that Jesus’s
disciples had simply moved the body, and that he was as dead as
ever. But if that were true, it’d be difficult to explain why so
many of the disciples later died willingly for their belief that
in fact Jesus returned to the living. On close examination, the
evidence suggests still another possibility: After the Sabbath,
someone other than the disciples secretly moved Jesus’s body to
an undisclosed location, without deigning to inform the
disciples or anyone else. An obvious suspect is Joseph of
Arimathea. He had motive. He had opportunity. And he had already
demonstrated the self-con