re did he really rise in article apr athos rutgers edu mcovingt aisun ai uga edu michael covington writes the two historic facts that i think the most important are these if jesus didn t rise from the dead then he must have done something else equally impressive in order to create the observed amount of impact nobody ever displayed the dead body of jesus even though both the jewish and the roman authorities would have gained a lot by doing so it would have discredited the christians michael a covington internet mcovingt ai uga edu artificial intelligence programs phone the university of georgia fax athens georgia u s a amateur radio n tmi and the two simplest refutations are these what impact the only record of impact comes from the new testament i have no guarantee that its books are in the least accurate and that the recorded impact actually happened i find it interesting that no other contemporary source records an eclipse an earthquake a temple curtain being torn etc the earliest written claim we have of jesus resurrection is from the pauline epistles none of which were written sooner than years after the supposed event it seems probable that no one displayed the body of jesus because no one knew where it was i personally believe that the most likely explanation was that the body was stolen by disciples or by graverobbers don t bother with the point about the guards it only appears in one gospel and seems like exactly the sort of thing early christians might make up in order to counter the grave robbing charge the new testament does record that jews believed the body had been stolen if there were really guards they could not have effectively made this claim as they did scott o
