Guard or no guard, no critic today believes that the disciples could have robbed the tomb and faked the resurrection. Rather the real value of Matthew's story is the incidental -- and for that reason all the more reliable -- information that Jewish polemic never denied that the tomb was empty, but instead tried to explain it away. Thus the early opponents of the Christians themselves bear witness to the fact of the empty tomb.
This does not commit one to Johnson's view that this was an appearance tradition. Putnam's Sons, , p. For discussion see I. On the independence of Matthew from Mark see E. Ruckstuhl and J.
The stone which had been laid against the entrance to the sepulcher started of itself to roll and gave way to the side, and the sepulcher was opened, and both the young men entered in.
When now those soldiers saw this, they awakened the centurion and the elders - for they also were there to assist at the watch. And whilst they were relating what they had seen, they saw again three men come out from the sepulcher, and two of them sustaining the other, and a cross following them, and the heads of the two reaching to heaven, but that of him who was led of them by the hand overpassing the heavens.
And they heard a voice out of the heavens crying "Thou hast preached to them that sleep? Thus, Grass says that besides the particularities, the guard story is unbelievable because heathen guards would see the resurrection.
Hans Grass, Ostergeschehen und Osterberichte, 4th ed. Von Campenhausen also states the story implies pagan guards would be witnesses of the resurrection and we cannot agree that this should be. Similarly O'Collins makes the astounding assertion that had Annas and Caiaphas been with the disciples when Jesus appeared, they would not have seen anything.
This, despite what Grass repeatedly describes as the 'massive realism' of the gospels! Koch, Auferstehung, pp. On the agreement between Paul and the gospels on the nature of the resurrection body, see Robert H. Davies and W. Daube Cambridge University Press, , pp. Lake, Evidence, p. Orr thinks that the guard's accepting the bribe is not so far-fetched, since their fleeing was already a breach of duty.
Von Campenhausen brings forth other absurdities, such as the fact that the guard reported to Jews and that Christians, despite the guards' lie, know everything. Von Campenhausen, 'Ablauf', p. But the former is evidence the guard was Jewish; the latter should not surprise us, since secret conspiracies almost always come to light. In any case the Jews' conversation with Pilate is probably an imaginative Christian re-construction of what they inferred took place, which would explain the third day motif and kerygmatic language employed.
Perry regards the placement of a Jewish guard at the tomb by the Jews, without knowledge of Jesus' prediction, as historically defensible. Though the doctrine of resurrection is attested in the Old Testament and flowered in the intertestamental period, the Jewish conception of resurrection was always of a general and eschatological resurrection.
Nowhere do we find any notion of the resurrection of an isolated individual or of a resurrection before the end of the world. Hence, the disciples' misunderstanding has a historical ring.
Even if one agrees with Lehmann that the third day motif is a theological expression, drawn from the LXX and later elaborated in Rabbinic exegesis, meaning the day of God's deliverance, victory, and taking control Karl Lehmann, Auferweckt am dritten Tag nach der Schrift, QD 38 [Freiburg: Herder, ], pp. Hooke also reminds us that all of Jesus' eschatological sayings presuppose his resurrection, as do his statements at the Last Supper.
The proclamation may have been in the words repeated twice in Mt. The Jewish response need not presuppose the Christians were using the empty tomb itself as an apologetic argument. The argument presupposes either that the underlying tradition is pre-Matthean or that the gospel itself was written prior to AD 70, for after that time the people in a position to know the truth would have been killed or dispersed.
That the tradition is pre-Matthean is clear: 1 The Jewish polemic behind the story most probably came out of Jerusalem itself in response to the apostolic proclamation of Jesus' resurrection. That he did not invent the guard de novo to counteract a simple Jewish theft charge is evident from the additional elements of the guards' sleeping and the bribe.
That the Gospel of Peter knows a non-Matthean tradition of the guard story also indicates that the story did not originate with Matthew.
Since the controversy thus ante-dates the destruction of Jerusalem, it is very difficult to construe it as a heated exchange over an imaginary entity. Aune Leiden: E. Brill, , pp. Mahoney objects that the Jews argued as they did only because it would have been 'colorless' to say the tomb was unknown or lost.
But here Grass is right: if the grave were unknown or lost, then the preachers of the resurrection would have been met by the reaction of Acts 2.
And if the burial place of Jesus was known, as is probable Blinzler, 'Grablegung', pp. The fact that the enemies of Christianity felt obligated to explain away the empty tomb shows not only that the tomb was known confirmation of the burial story , but also that it was empty.
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As we examine the events leading up to Easter Sunday, we discover that certain precautions taken by Jesus' enemies actually give circumstantial evidence to His resurrection. The Bible says the following things about the burial site of Jesus. And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain Luke Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock Matthew The precautions taken at the tomb consisted of three things - the large stone, the Roman seal, and the guard.
Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away Matthew , This stone, not only sealed the tomb, it also would have made it difficult for someone to come right in and steal the body.
And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone Matthew The seal was sign of authentication that the tomb was occupied and the power and authority of Rome stood behind the seal.
Anyone found breaking the Roman seal would suffer the punishment of an unpleasant death. A guard watched Jesus' tomb. This was either the Roman guard or the Jewish temple police.
Pilate said to them, "You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how. There is a question as to which one of the two groups was watching over it. The context seems to favor the Roman guard. The Roman guard was a sixteen-man unit that was governed by very strict rules. Each member was responsible for six square feet of space. The guard members could not sit down or lean against anything while they were on duty. If a guard member fell asleep, he was beaten and burned with his own clothes.
But he was not the only one executed, the entire sixteen-man guard unit was executed if only one of the members fell asleep while on duty. These precautions made the religious rulers feel secure that the excitement around Jesus would soon go away.
Jesus lay dead in the tomb, and His frightened disciples had scattered and gone into hiding. They thought that they had won. But the story was not over. The Bible says that early Sunday morning certain women came to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus.
The stone had been removed, the seal had been broken, and the body was gone. An angel at the tomb asked:. Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen Luke , 6. And these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them Luke However, they were persuaded to look for themselves, and they also found the tomb empty. This caused them confusion. The confusion vanished as the resurrected Christ first appeared to Mary Magdalene, then to some other women, and finally to the disciples.
After being with the disciples for forty days, Jesus ascended into heaven. Ten days later, the disciples publicly proclaimed to all Jerusalem, and to the world, the fact that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. Although the religious leaders felt satisfied when they handed Jesus over to Pontius Pilate to be crucified they remembered Jesus' words that He would come back from the dead. Consequently they asked Pilate to make the tomb as secure as possible. This consisted of a guard, either Roman or Jewish, a large stone rolled at the entrance of the tomb, and the Roman seal.
However these precautions were worthless when it came to stopping the tomb from being empty on Easter Sunday.
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