Possibility #2 from the previous post is that "Jesus did die, but did not rise again." This seems like the most natural option, since death is the natural end to all human life as far as we know. And, even if option #1, that Jesus did not actually die on the cross, is true, then he still would have died eventually.
This option is also closer to the Bible's take on things since the Bible does profess that Jesus died and then rose again. In other words, everyone who accepts that Jesus exists accepts that he did at some point die, whether it was on the cross or some time afterwards. To fully accept possibility #2, however, we must accept that it was on the cross specifically that Jesus died and then we must explain what happened to his body after it was taken down from the cross.
As discussed in the previous post, Roman crucifixion when intended to be lethal was indeed lethal. Even in the one-of-a-kind case where the crucifixion was halted and people in the midst of crucifixion taken down from their crosses, some of those being crucified still died later and when they were taken down still alive, they were known to be still alive. All the reasons we might not believe Jesus survived death on the cross are the reasons for us to believe that He really did die on the cross. Accepting that Jesus really did die on the cross is not that difficult and seems the most logical and likely thing to have happened. So then, what happened afterwards?
According to the Bible, what happened in the short term was that a man named Joseph of Arimathea asked for Jesus's body and then placed it in a tomb that he (Joseph) owned. Now, if Jesus did not rise from the dead and walk out of that tomb, it must be that his body either remained in that tomb or was taken somewhere else. If it remained in the tomb, it would have been easy enough to simply show the body to all those who soon started claiming Jesus had been risen from the dead. The stories of his resurrection seemed to have started soon enough after his death that it would have been very easy to disprove if the body had still been in the tomb. Since this didn't happen, it seems most likely that the body was moved, but who moved it?
The only people who would have lasting motivation to move Jesus' body would be his followers. It wouldn't have to be his immediate disciples; it could have been others who believed in Jesus' message and wanted hope in Him to live on even after He was dead. I suppose there is a remote possibility that it also may have been someone playing a prank who moved Jesus' body, but it seems highly likely to me that the truth would have come out if the whole thing was intended simply as a joke. But whoever would have moved Jesus', it seems there is no historical record of that person or group ever owning up to what they did. They took the secret to their grave. If this person or group was among Jesus' most devoted followers and most vocal witnesses, then they suffered being imprisoned, tortured, and killed rather than reveal the truth. They must have really strongly believed in Jesus' message and been farsighted enough to realize how important it would be to the world to propagate the lie of Jesus' resurrection.
With this in mind, it is a rather peculiar thought that Jesus' closest followers would have been this farsighted. These were ordinary men. According to the Bible, they often didn't really understand what Jesus was talking about. In fact, His real purpose didn't seem to be fully understood by them until after they saw him risen from the dead. Now of course, this is all according to the words of the Bible. It is possible that Jesus' followers were actually quite clever or that Jesus had planned things out with them before His death. The "resurrection" could have been an elaborate ploy carried off by Jesus' closest followers who were then willing to suffer all, even their own death, to keep what they had done a secret. The descriptions of Jesus' followers given in the Bible do not seem to make this very likely, but what if we don't trust the Bible's depiction of the disciples? What other historical information do we have about them? I will attempt to explore this in my next post.
Now if Jesus' closest followers didn't take His body themselves, or at least did not know who did take the body, that means someone else took the body AND managed to trick Jesus' closest followers into believing Jesus was still alive. Think about what it would take to make you believe someone was risen from the dead. You would probably demand to see them with your own eyes, and may even ask for some sort of proof that they still had the fatal wounds that had originally done them in. This was exactly what the Bible says Thomas asked for and received. The Gospel of Matthew even claims that some of the disciples doubted Jesus was really risen even after they had seen Him and as He was giving them final instructions before ascending into heaven (Matthew 28). So if it wasn't the disciples themselves who took Jesus' body or knew who took it, it had to have been a person or group that was very clever and resourceful.
Personally, my first thought would be Joseph of Arimathea. It makes sense that the person who requested Jesus' body in the first place would be the one to do something with the body. He was the one who provided the tomb for Jesus' body, so surely he had access to the spot where Jesus' body lay. Could he have been part of a conspiracy that hid the body elsewhere and somehow tricked the disciples into thinking Jesus was still alive? Well, what do we know about this Joseph apart from what is written in the Bible? I will research that for my next post as well.
So we have at least a few seemingly likely possibilities for who would have taken Jesus' body. For my next post, I hope to do some research into what we know about these suspects apart from what the Bible tells us and think through in more detail what it would take for them to pull off the heist and cover-up involved in hiding Jesus' body.
No comments:
Post a Comment