The tomb is cut into the rock and belongs to Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the council. Friends and the authorities alike know the place. Go through the days.
According to the Gospels of Matthew 27–28, Mark 15–16, Luke 23–24 and John 19–20. Matthew is the one who reports the guard and the seal.
We do not take the whole Gospel on trust. We take what several independent sources confirm, and what historians far from the faith accept.
How many years separate the event from the earliest account of it that has reached us:
Historians trust the biographies of Alexander, though they were written four centuries later. The news of the resurrection was written down while the witnesses and the opponents were still alive: anyone could go and check. That is just how Paul writes of the five hundred who saw him: “most of them are still alive”.
The dates are approximate, by the estimates historians usually accept. 1 Corinthians was written about the year 55.
Women were the first to find the empty tomb: Mary Magdalene and the others. In that world the word of a woman carried little weight. Josephus wrote that it should not be accepted in court.
Anyone composing a convincing story would name respected men as the witnesses. The women are left in the account for one reason only: that is how it was.
And the apostles themselves look bad in these accounts: they ran, they locked the door, they did not believe the women, Thomas demanded proof. People who are making up a legend do not write about themselves this way. People who are telling what happened do.
Tap a name. Each one has a “before” and an “after”, and between them a single event.
People die for what they have come to believe. But nobody goes to his death for something he made up himself. And these men were not saying “we believe”. They were saying “we saw”.
They do not rise by themselves, and nobody is saying they do. The question is whether God raised Him. “Miracles do not happen” is not a conclusion drawn from the clues. It is a ban laid down before the investigation. An investigator who has already crossed one version out is not investigating.
The person who has been convinced by the event is the one who becomes a believer. But among the witnesses are former enemies: Paul and James. Tacitus and Josephus write about the execution. And the opponents themselves admitted the main point: the body is not in the tomb.
They do disagree: how many women there were, how many angels. That is what the testimony of independent witnesses looks like. Testimony that matches word for word points to a plot. On the main point all four agree: he was crucified, buried, the tomb was empty, he appeared alive.
They die for what they heard from others and accepted on trust. The apostles died for what they said they had seen themselves. A man who has been deceived can give his life for a lie. A deceiver will not give his life for a story he invented.
Six facts, five natural versions, and not one of them explains all of it. What remains is what the witnesses said from the first day. And if Jesus rose, then everything He said about Himself is true as well: He is the Son of God, He died for your sins, and death is not the end.
“He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”
Matthew 28:6
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”
John 11:25
He is alive now, and you can turn to Him today: confess your sin before Him and trust Him with your life.
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