WAS JESUS REALLY BURIED?

INDEX FOR THIS SITE

The Christians believe that Jesus rose physically from the dead. They say that he was entombed and vanished from the tomb and appeared alive soon after. The tomb was found empty. But was he really buried? The man who buried him Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin and the gospels say the whole Sanhedrin plotted to get Jesus put to death and succeeded. Was Joseph of Arimathea part of the conspiracy to destroy and condemn Jesus? Maybe he joined the Pharisees after this condemnation in the hope of reforming them. But though he is called a secret disciple of Jesus the fact remains he was a hypocrite and had joined the Pharisees under false pretences and was presumably silent whenever Jesus was condemned by them. He was perhaps a disciple but not a good one. With a deceiver like that handling the body of Jesus anything could have happened.

Joseph had been a secret disciple and so a deceiver. What else did he deceive us about? He supposedly put Jesus in a fancy tomb he had for he was very rich. Perhaps he didn't bury him in it at all? The gospels never actually say that the witnesses could prove Jesus was put in it. It may have only looked that way. Perhaps Joseph regretted putting Jesus in the tomb for we are told he was afraid of Jesus' enemies and took him out and dumped him? What did he do with the thieves who died with Jesus? Perhaps he put them and Jesus in the tomb and it was one of them who left the tomb alive somehow and it was guessed that it was magic man Jesus who rose?

Another problem is that the story is unreliable if Joseph of Arimathea never existed. Nobody knows where Arimathea is.

NO EVIDENCE FOR BURIAL

Let us assume with the Christians for the sake of argument that we can depend on the gospels.

Was Jesus really buried?

The Christian Church tells you that the corpse of Jesus was taken down from the cross and buried nearby in a new tomb owned by a rich man from which he inexplicably disappeared and subsequently he started appearing to people claiming to have been raised from the dead. How much of this can we listen to? We must go back to the only sources we have, the four gospels to see if they can help us.

According to the gospels, Jesus was taken off the cross by Jews who seem to have intended to bury him in a tomb. The tomb may well have been already prepared and left open in readiness.

The gospels say that Jesus was buried on the Sabbath day, the Sabbath was thought to start on Friday evening. The Rabbis at the time allowed full burials on the Sabbath and the stricter ones required that bodies be covered in sand to make them keep for the real burial when the Sabbath was past (page 235, The Jesus Conspiracy). Perhaps the tomb was opened and because they didn’t want to do a full burial on the Sabbath they just put him in the sand outside and closed the door of the tomb. Some of them thought they saw Jesus being buried properly and the whole empty tomb thing was a mistake. Those who knew chose to say nothing and let a new religion come to birth.

The gospels say that the stone was rolled back on Sunday morning but it doesn’t confirm that the witnesses said they saw the tomb closed. One thing is for sure, if Jesus rose miraculously from the dead in the tomb it would have been better for him to have left the stone alone instead of having it rolled back by angels as if he needed to get out! It would have been a bigger miracle if Jesus had been put in the tomb and sealed in and still disappeared. He could have told the disciples later to have the tomb checked.

Jesus could have been temporarily laid in the tomb. If so there was nothing the Jews or Romans could have done if somebody stole him from it provided the relations had no objection to the body being taken. If they thought disciples or relations of his stole him they would have wanted to forget the affair to keep them out of trouble. The Rabbinical writings said a body could only be moved if it was in a temporary grave (www.bib-arch.org/barso99/roll1.html Did a Rolling Stone Close Jesus’ Tomb by Amos Kloner). There is nothing in the gospels that indicates that Jesus was intended to be buried in Joseph’s tomb permanently. It may have been that he was intended to stay there forever and when the body was stolen that Joseph of Arimathea who owned the tomb lied about it being a temporary place. This meant there was no reason for the authorities to hunt down the body or the thieves and then some people started saying Jesus rose. Joseph could not tell the truth and be found out to be a liar.

Jesus was allegedly interred on Friday and on Sunday the tomb was found empty and wide open.

But was the body put in the tomb in the first place? The Gospels never indicate that Joseph of Arimathea or anybody else ever said that Jesus was buried. They just take it for granted that they were there and buried him. What if the body had been snatched off the cross for a secret burial and the women made up the story of the burial and the tomb to cover this up and throw the investigators off the track until the body was safe in its grave? The gospels never give any proof that the women were honest which is a sign that the gospels were hidden for readers would have asked for proof and if there was proof it would have to be inserted in later editions.

When you look at the Gospels you read what the writers assumed happened. They say that some people saw where Jesus was laid which need not mean they saw what they should have been sure was the body inside it. We are not told if they said they saw it and there was no mistake about it.

Joseph who arranged the whole thing was a dodgy character. It was only people who were unreasonably biased towards the cause of Jesus who were there – no impartial observers. The witnesses to the body being put inside should all have been named. Somebody was afraid of secrets slipping out or maybe there were no witnesses.

We must remember that since Joseph owned the tomb he could have legally removed the body or not even put the body in the tomb (page 173, Who Moved the Stone?). This would have had to have been done discreetly for underhand tactics would have brought shame on him. There is the legend from early Christianity that Joseph disappeared when the authorities wanted to question him about the mystery of the tomb (page 173, Who Moved the Stone?) which would eliminate the argument that fear would have stopped Joseph for he could have been planning to go abroad for a while. He had already shamed himself by coming out as a disciple of Jesus after deceiving the Sanhedrin that he wasn’t.

There is no reason to think that the Jews and Romans would have supervised the burial on the basis that they were afraid of plans to create a fake resurrection. Even Matthew stupidly says that they did not worry about that until after the burial. Also, they would have expected the body to have been stolen after interment not before or at it. The Jews would not come for it was near the Sabbath so it must have been the Romans if it was anybody. And it would have been the ones that had come to see Jesus as the salvation of the world (Mark 15:39) at that for they would have liked to have been there and do what they could to restore their idol to favour in the land.

Matthew says there was an earthquake before the burial. Earthquakes mean crime and looting so maybe there were no Roman guards there at the funeral for they had bigger duties to attend to. It depends on the rota and on where they were and how many there were. The crowd that gloated as Jesus died would have left if there was an earthquake to check on family and friends. Joseph of Arimathea would not have come out of the woodwork to help Jesus if they were about. And John says Jesus was crucified in a garden and buried in one for Mary saw what she thought was the Gardener. So, not many could have been allowed in to spoil the garden.

The funeral party just vanish from the New Testament like the ground opened up and swallowed them. This is extraordinary because their testimony to having placed Jesus in the tomb was important for many would have surmised that the tomb was empty for nobody had been buried in it. Their words could have been kept for posterity no matter where they went. Either they did not exist which was why they had to be eliminated from the story or they were found to have been up to something and really had to get away.

There were all sorts of ways to make it look like you were burying somebody and not do it. The shrouded body might have been hidden in bushes and replaced with a shroud full of straw. The straw could then have been shaken out inside the tomb and the cloths folded making the empty tomb seem inexplicable. We must also remember that the gospel of John only mentions the cloths that were seen in the tomb which does not rule out there being other cloths – so Jesus could have been removed in a shroud while the other cloths were left behind. The gospel says that Joseph wrapped Jesus in a shroud which need not necessarily mean he did it all himself. Perhaps he did the same for the other two men who were crucified with Jesus out of kindness though they would be thrown on the dump and ended up taking the wrong body to the tomb. Perhaps the real Jesus climbed out of the dump. Perhaps Joseph noticed signs of life in Jesus and took the wrong man on purpose and had this body stolen from the tomb for the broken legs would prove it was not Jesus. This was a cover so that they could attend to Jesus and hopefully save his life as quickly as possible. If they put him in the tomb he would have been harder to rescue. The gospels only say that no other body was in the tomb when Jesus was laid there but what if it was pretended that both Jesus and one of the thieves was buried there and when only one body the thief’s was found there they could still say the tomb was empty meaning empty of Jesus’ body whereas in fact there was only ever one body in it? Perhaps somebody came to steal the thief and took Jesus by mistake.

If they had been seen to lay Jesus in the tomb perhaps the body went down into a secret compartment of the bier or there was a secret opening in the tomb from which the body could be removed when all was quiet. The tomb would have been left open when the body was removed if there was a secret exit so that it would not be found. We don’t even know for sure where the tomb is to examine it. Remember, if Matthew is right that the leading Jews knew Jesus vowed to resurrect then Joseph of Arimathea may have seen to it that this promise would be fulfilled one way or another.

Perhaps Jesus was alive and was smuggled out when the mourners had gone for it is not said they saw the tomb being sealed. If he was disguised well enough and helped out they would have paid no attention to him even if they had stayed until the end.

Sadly it is not necessary to believe that the tomb was empty for a supernatural reason to believe in the resurrection.

The Jews would not have let it be known where Jesus was buried. Putting guards at the tomb would only draw attention. Yet Matthew asks us to believe they got guards posted there. The Jews would not have let the women watch the burial if they thought he could rise again or could become an explosive political martyr. The gospels say the women did watch the burial. In reality, nobody knew what was going on during the burial. There was nobody allowed to be there.

Jesus would not have been permitted the burial the Bible describes. Criminals were thrown into a pit.

Joseph may have pretended he got the body while the real one had been incinerated at the dump. Perhaps the man that was buried was found not to have been Jesus and it was explained that this was somebody who was laid there about the time Jesus was and that Jesus had gone. This fits the Bible which simply says that Jesus was put in a tomb that had never been used. If Jesus was in a big cavern and the tomb referred to one of many alcoves in the cavern then the tomb on which nobody was laid could have just been an alcove. The Jews removed bodies that had disintegrated into ashes and bones.

Jesus could have sneaked out when somebody came into the tomb or just between his burial and the closure of the tomb. There is evidence that the crucifixion of Jesus wasn’t as bad as Christians are led to think. He could have survived his crucifixion.

Why listen to the gospels if Jesus might not have been buried at all even if they are true?

Evidence for the burial not having happened is that myrrh and aloes are light materials yet one hundred pounds of them were brought to the tomb according to John (19:39). A large pallet of bags was necessary. This only makes sense if they were going to embalm but the Jews abominated embalming for it involved removing the entrails. The pallet seems to have been a cover for getting Jesus out of the tomb before the tomb was sealed. You could throw off the spices and hide Jesus in their wrap and smuggle him out.

The spices were so expensive that it would be no wonder if the tomb was opened on Sunday morning to get them but we don’t know if they were left there. They probably were when they were so heavy. Nobody carries such a load without apparent need and then takes them home again. Some would be stupid enough to suggest that guards were posted to watch the spices! If nobody shifty knew about them they would have been safe inside. If there had been spices in the tomb that were still there when the body was gone the guards would not have left the tomb despite what the Matthew gospel says that they did abandon it.

The body was possibly stolen from the cross itself by Jesus’ followers for Pilate did not want to risk Jesus being paraded through the streets to incite the people to rebellion if Jesus was as popular as the gospels would pretend. If Jesus had royal blood as the gospels say, even if he was hated as a person he could still have been used as a trophy by those who sought an independent Jewish monarchy and who wanted the Roman occupation out. This thinking would suggest that nobody knew where the tomb was and could know and the women just deliberately went to an empty tomb and let on they had seen Jesus buried there. The guards could have been around for another reason that was unclear and the followers of Jesus made out that they had been watching the tomb of Jesus.

Top of the Document

YOHANAN

When people were crucified, most (if not all) were not buried. They were left on the crosses for birds and animals and wild dogs to feast on. This was the norm. There is much archaeological evidence and evidence from texts that this was so. The epitaph for a person murdered in the second century says that the murderer was hung from a tree while alive for the feeding of the beasts and the birds. It is impossible to find the bodies of crucified people because all that is left is what was dragged away the dogs. Only one heel bone from a crucified man has been found, the bone of a Jew called Yohanan (John). This was found in an ossuary.

The crucifixion victim, Yohanan Ben Ha’Galgal’s remains were found in a tomb in 1968. He is held to back up the Bible’s claim that Jesus was put into a tomb (page 98, The Resurrection Factor). But it is possible that Yohanan was thought to be as bad as Jesus. Jesus was a super-criminal in the sight of the Jews and Rome. And Yohanan might have been exonerated when it was too late so Rome let him be buried properly for he never should have been put to death. But we do not even know for sure if Yohanan was crucified under Roman law (Still Standing on Sinking Sand).

Perhaps Yohanan's body was stolen and buried. Or perhaps somebody stole what they thought were his bones so that he could be buried. Yohanan's heel bone being found in an ossuary does not indicate that he was buried but only that pieces of him may have been gathered up and put into the tomb. That he is all that can be found shows that it was very unlikely for Jesus to have been buried. If Yohanan was buried that does not make it likely that Jesus was buried.

We don’t even know if Yohanan died because of Roman crucifixion. Sometimes fanatics nailed corpses up as a warning. That a piece of the cross was attached to his heel does not sound like a professional Roman crucifixion.

Read Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography, John Dominic Crossan, HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1994.

If Yohanan having been buried proves that Jesus was buried, then why is he the only example of a crucified skeleton that we have? Page 141 says that he was nailed through the heelbones. And his arms were tied to the cross and wrapped behind the t bar. His plaque was nailed on on top of his heel, on each side, to prevent him tearing his foot free. A piece of his cross is attached to the nail going through his heel bone. His legs were not broken - the gospels say that the Romans broke legs to kill the victims faster.

The bodies of crucified men were guarded until death and then left on their crosses for scavengers as a warning to those who would break Roman law (Conspiracies and the Cross, page 155). Jesus committed a very serious breach - even more serious than any other crucified man. He claimed to be king and rode into Jerusalem in kingly style to the acclaim of the people - major treason. Jesus more than anyone would not have got any burial.

Top of the Document

EATEN BY DOGS?

The earliest Christian writer, top apostle, Paul, wrote in Galatians 3 that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us on the cross for it is written, "Cursed be the person who hangs on a tree". He misquotes God in Deuteronomy 21:22, 23 which say nothing of the sort. The verses only say that the bodies of hanged criminals must be taken down and buried to prevent the land being defiled. It says nothing about a curse. Granted the misquote comes from the Septuagint which was a tarnished translation of the Hebrew Bible but Paul knowing the Hebrew Bible had no excuse. Some say that Paul was saying that because God is fair, he was cursing Christ for Christ was a great sinner. They believe that Jesus died as evil and rotten and was raised as good and holy and as saviour and Christ. There is another possibility. Did Paul mean by curse that Jesus was left on the cross? Did he mean that Jesus was left to rot on the cross and so defiled the land and was cursed that way? Does he mean that Jesus was not cursed by God but by those who left him to rot? He says elsewhere that Jesus was buried - perhaps this is referring to when there was nothing left but bones! Three days after burial he rose again according to Paul.

This is an examination of the argument that Jesus was left on the cross and eaten by animals. A counter to this argument is to be found in Conspiracies and the Cross, Timothy Paul Jones, Front Line, A Strang Company, Florida, 2008.

My reply is,

The claim of the book that the Jews insisted on burial is very weak for the Jews hated Jesus and wanted him nailed to show he was cursed. The assertion of Josephus that the Jews got crucified men buried before sunset is not backed up by the evidence. Joseph of Arimathea is supposed to have gone in secret to get the body of Jesus to bury it. The Jews did not want to bury Jesus and they were not exactly queuing up to do it.

The book says that Pilate allowed Jesus to be buried for he was crucified outside of war time. It says it was only during war that the burial of crucifixion victims did not take place. Philo wrote of cases where burials were allowed by the Romans. In those cases the family wanted the body buried before the religious feasts and their wish was granted. For all Rome knew, it could have been wartime with the death of a descendant of David at their hands.

The book with typical Christian illogic, provides texts from Roman law that speak only of releasing the body to relative to support the gospel claim that Joseph of Arimathea received the body of Jesus. This law would in fact prove different for Joseph and Jesus were not related. It is also foolish how the book says that Pilate gave the body to Joseph because he wanted to keep the peace with the Jews (page 157). This contradicts the gospels in which Jesus is hated so much by the Jews that they didn't care what they did to get rid of him and the more he was mistreated the happier they were. The Roman law text says that bodies of people guilty of high treason were not to be given for burial. Jesus' treason was extremely high - he claimed to have supernatural powers and be protected in a way the godlike Roman emperor was not and to be the true King of Israel.

There is no reason at all to believe that if Jesus died on the cross that he was buried after.

Top of the Document

MISSING BEFORE THE MARYS CAME?

Christians habitually claim that the women who came to the tomb found it empty. This is an assumption that is unwarranted even by the Bible itself so it is heresy to insist it is right.

The women were told to look into the tomb by the men who shocked them with the news that Jesus had vanished and risen. They were startled to find the tomb open. If there had been an earthquake as Matthew says they would have been afraid to enter the tomb for long or to go deep inside it. It was dim outside and the women were in a state so they might have not looked in right and thought that the body was away though it was still there. Jesus could have escaped from the tomb or been stolen after the women went away. The gospels are careful to avoid saying that the women did look on the place where Jesus had been laid or that they could see it even if they did enter the tomb a bit. The Gospels never say that the women went all the way in or that anybody did. Anybody who sees a tomb open will automatically assume the body has been stolen.

Perhaps the men in white concealed the body inside the tomb when the ladies were seen coming and removed it after they had gone. The men had been in the tomb according to John.

Some think that the body of Jesus disappeared at the earthquake that happened on Sunday morning so he was swallowed up into the earth. Reasons for Hope says the fact that no cracks were mentioned proves that this never happened and that the cloths were left behind is another disproof (page 100). But there still could have been cracks – and why would the gospels pay any attention to them and the authors of the book know fine well the gospels were not too detailed? - and one of the cloths was found, according to John, lying on the ground while the head one was rolled up by itself. (What does it mean by rolled up, by the way? Was it neatly rolled up as if somebody had tidied up after the body had gone or was the cloth meant to have been rolled up loosely and put on the corpse’s face? These questions are important and show that there is no room in the gospel for the Christian suggestion that Jesus was not stolen because nobody would have tidied up the tomb and earthquakes do not tidy up after gobbling bodies. Do they think the risen Jesus was more likely to tidy up than thieves would be?) Jesus could have rolled out of the wrappings into the ground or even got out of the tomb alive and got away himself or somebody saved him. The cloths lying on the ground might also suggest that whoever robbed the tomb was disturbed and was in the process of tidying up the cloths when he had to make a getaway or that he threw new shrouds down as false clues while he made off with Jesus in the shroud. There might have been another cloth that was rolled and forgotten about and this was the one that the people at the tomb thought covered the head. The gospel of John never says how many cloths were used so Jesus could have been swallowed in the shroud next his skin while the other cloths simply came off and were left behind. Aftershocks could have taken place that moved the stone later to expose the empty tomb.

Top of the Document

BURIED BY TRUSTWORTHIES?

If we could show that Jesus Christ was buried by people whose honesty was not up to scratch the evidence for a resurrection would be considerably weakened. It would make it most probable that there was an earthly and not heavenly reason for the disappearance of the corpse.

The gospels claim that a man named Joseph of Arimathea who was a leading light in the Sanhedrin removed Christ from the cross, wrapped him up and buried him in a tomb which only Matthew says was Joseph’s.

Joseph could have got a relative of Jesus to do that instead of showing himself up by seeking to bury a criminal hated by his people. Joseph must have deceitfully told Pilate that he was a relative. Pilate would have been unlikely to have granted a relative the body and even more unlikely to grant a stranger the body. Joseph lied so what else did he lie about? Did Joseph lie about being in the Sanhedrin too for he would have got somebody else to take control of the funeral on his behalf?

John 19:38 says that Joseph was a secret disciple of Jesus and a member of the corrupt and malign Sanhedrin which the gospels blame for Jesus being put to death. Joseph must have been as bad as the rest for he pretended to hate Jesus as they did. You do not stay in a murderous organisation when you deplore its activities. You resign.

Joseph did not convert between the trial and the death of Jesus for then he had no time to be a secret follower of Jesus.

He pretended to be a Jew and supported the doctrines of Jesus that were considered to be heretical by his people.

This man was callous and devious enough to engineer the fraudulent miracle of a vanishing corpse.

The Gospel claims that Joseph was decent and good. That does not prove that he might not have done this for it does not mean he was decent and good in they way a person would not carry out such a hoax would be.

There is no first-hand evidence for everything being as it should have been under Joseph’s supervision.

Top of the Document

CONCLUSION

The gospels give no evidence that Jesus was buried, they only assume it. This exposes the Christian claim that the tomb was empty indicating Jesus rose as incorrect.

The Resurrection Stands Firm, A Response to Farrell Till

www.infidels.org/library/mazagines/tsr/1996/6/6stand96.htm

This gives another case for holding that Jesus was temporarily buried in the tomb which could mean that the thieves would not have been sought by the authorities unless the relatives complained for taking bodies from temporary tombs was legal. It replies against the Christian argument that when the Jewish leaders were saying, according to the Matthew gospel, that Jesus was stolen from the tomb that it was a powerful evidence for the empty tomb. I would back up its reply by adding that Matthew only says that the Jewish leaders made up that story and it was circulating among the Jews to his own day. But it is possible that the leaders decided to say that and didn’t and the rumour was not started by them but other people thought of creating the rumour and put it out without having any connection with them. It could have risen independently. In the bizarre commotion at the tomb the panicky guards who told the Jews that the tomb was empty might have made a mistake and the body could have been stolen after they ran off to the Jews.

FURTHER READING

Christianity for the Tough-Minded, Ed John Warwick Montgomery, Bethany Fellowship Inc, Minneapolis, 1973

Conspiracies and the Cross, Timothy Paul Jones, Front Line, A Strang Company, Florida, 2008

Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Vol 1, Josh McDowell, Alpha, Scripture Press Foundation, Bucks, 1995

He Walked Among Us, Josh McDowell and Bill Wilson, Alpha, Cumbria, 2000

Jesus: The Evidence, Ian Wilson, Pan, London, 1985

The First Easter, What Really Happened? HJ Richards, Collins/Fount Glasgow, 1980

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, Corgi, London, 1982

The Jesus Conspiracy, Holger Kersten amd Elmar R Gruber, Element, Dorset, 1995

The Jesus Event, Martin R Tripole SJ, Alba House, New York, 1980

The Jesus Inquest, Charles Foster, Monarch Books, Oxford, 2006

The Passover Plot, Hugh Schonfield, Element, Dorset, 1996

The Resurrection Factor, Josh McDowell, Alpha, Scripture Press Foundation, Bucks, 1993

The Resurrection of Jesus, Pinchas Lapide, SPCK, London, 1984

The Unauthorised Version, Robin Lane Fox, Penguin, Middlesex, 1992

The Second Messiah, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, Arrow, London, 1998

The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, Raymond E Brown, Paulist Press, New York, 1973

The Womb and the Tomb, Hugh Montifiore, Fount – HarperCollins, London, 1992

Verdict on the Empty Tomb, Val Grieve Falcon, London, 1976

Who Moved the Stone? Frank Morison, OM Publishing, Cumbria, 1997

THE WWW

Still Standing on Sinking Sand, Farrell Till,

www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/1997/1/1sink97.html

Why I Don’t Buy the Resurrection Story by Richard Carrier

www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/resurrection/index.shtml

A Naturalistic Account of the Resurrection, Brian Marston

http://www.phlab.missouri.edu/~c570529/PhilosoStop/resurrection.html

This site argues that somebody unknown stole the body to stop the apostles stealing it or venerating it and lost it and argues that the witnesses of the risen Jesus were lying because no effort was made by them to preserve first hand reports of what was seen and how and when. It argues that since the apostles had followed Jesus at great personal sacrifice and now he was dead they invented the resurrection to save face. Also the inclination of people at the time to believe in dying and rising gods may have overwhelmed them and made them lie to themselves that Jesus had risen. He answers the objection that a lie like that would need a large-scale conspiracy for lots of lies start off with a small group of people and if the lies are attractive other people will believe them. Plus he says that Jesus could have rigged events to make sure he would fulfil Old Testament prophecy so the Christians should not be saying the gospel story is true for it fits old prophecy. I would add that owing to the total absence of evidence that Jesus was nailed to the cross and the fact that the gospels never say any of his friends were close to the cross that Jesus might have been tied to it and the Christians later assumed he was nailed because the psalm seemed to say so.

The Case For Christianity Examined: Truth or Lies?

www.askwhy.co.uk/awstruth/ChristianCase.html

Historical Evidence and the Empty Tomb Story, A Reply to William Lane Craig by Jeffrey Jay Lowder

www.infidels.org/library/modern/jeff_lowder/empty.html

The Resurrection, Steven Carr

www.bowness.demon/co.uk/resr.htm

Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? Dan Barker versus Mike Horner

www.ffrf.org/debates/barker_horner.html

Craig’s Empty Tomb and Habermas on the Post-Resurrection Appearances of Jesus

www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/indef/4e.html

Did a Rolling Stone Close Jesus’ Tomb by Amos Kloner

www.bib-arch.org/barso99/roll1.html

Who Moved the Stone? Review by Steven Carr,

www.bowness.demon.co.uk/stone.htm This tells us that if you assume that two contradictory books are true in all they say and try to make them fit you will manage it but the result will be contrived. You are really still assuming they are true and have no proof for it. This observation should be a warning to the fundamentalist Christians who say there are no contradictions in the Bible. They have no faith in the Bible at all for they are only assuming it is right. If they really believed, they would not need to work out and produce laughable far-fetched ways of reconciling Bible contradictions. They wouldn’t do that with anything else but the Bible.

Morison claims that Peter’s clever and unbiased mind was behind the first Gospel, that of Mark. But Morison only assumes this for there is no evidence that the gospel is clever and unbiased or that Peter had much if anything at all to do with it. Morison then tries to make out that the claim of Luke that the apostles waited seven weeks before saying Jesus had risen from the dead is too detrimental to the evidence for the resurrection to be true. In other words, the evidence for the resurrection is right and any evidence against it is wrong! That is bias if I ever seen it. He then makes out that these things which undermine the pro-resurrection evidence prove it happened. So the evidence against the resurrection makes the evidence for it stronger! How ridiculous.

26 September 2007