re did he really rise in article apr athos rutgers edu gene gross lambada oit unc edu gene gross writes of course they knew where it was don t forget that jesus was seen by both the jews and the romans as a troublemaker pilate was no fool and didn t need the additional headaches of some fishermen stealing jesus body to make it appear he had arisen since jesus was buried in the grave of a man well know to the sanhedrin to say that they didn t know where he was buried begs the question here again the problem with most of the individuals posting here you take the biblical account as though it were some sort of historical recounting in the modern sense i would refer you to john dominic crossans book the cross that spoke pub harper and row the earliest texts which we have make no reference to an empty tomb nor is an empty tomb necessary for a claim of resurrection modern evangelicals fundamentalists have completely missed what the point of resurrection is here the work of george nickelsburg s work resurrection immortality and eternal life in intertestamental judaism publ cambridge havard univ press is most helpful look at rom paul here has no need of an empty tomb additionally in cor here again there is no mention of an empty tomb he was raised note the passive he appeared no ascension either resurrection could be accomplished without ever disturbing the bones in the grave the whole idea of an empty tomb isn t broached in any of our texts until well after the fall of jerusalem by that time the idea of coming up with a body would have been ludicrious moreover mack has argued convicingly i think that the empty tomb story first appears in mark we have no texts before this which mention the tomb now you say that you think that the disciples stole the body but think on this a moment would you die to maintain something you knew to be a deliberate lie if not then why do you think the disciples would now i m not talking about dying for something you firmly believe to be the truth but unbeknown to you it is a lie many have done this no i m talking about dying by beheading stoning crucifixion etc for something you know to be a lie thus you position with regards to the disciples stealing the body seems rather lightweight to me as for graverobbers why risk the severe penalties for grave robbing over the body of jesus he wasn t buried with great riches so again this is an argument that can be discounted that leaves you back on square one what happened to the body again let me comment that the most plausible non christian scenario and the one typically suggested by sceptics who are knowledgeable about the nt is that the resurrection was a subjective event and the empty tomb stories are a result of accounts growing in the telling clh you are quite right here even the idea of a subjective mystical event as the foundation of the resurrection narratives is currently becoming more untenable see b mack a myth of innocence randy
