Explaining the Empty Tomb

Was the tomb of Christ actually found empty? Are there other theories to explain this besides the resurrection? According to the Gospel narratives, the tomb of Christ was found empty early Sunday morning. From a textual criticism standpoint, this factually accepted detail of the Gospels leads to a “criterion of embarrassment.” In the first century Jewish world, women were not viewed as credible witnesses or testimony. For the first witnesses of the empty tomb to be recorded as women would not make sense to the Jewish mind of that time if the account was fictional. The women telling the apostles about the empty tomb only makes sense as a factual event of history. 

 
The empty tomb causes serious problems. While a resurrection event is not the only logical conclusion, the empty tomb must be explained. There are various attempts at doing so. The first explanation is that the apostles stole the body. If that were the case, how did they do that? The tomb was being guarded by Roman soldiers. Rome did not establish the world’s most ruthless empire through compassion and kindness. If a body was stolen under a soldier’s watch, that soldier would be brutally put to death. Another explanation is that the apostles went to the wrong tomb and therefore found it empty. The major flaw of this conclusion is that the resurrection claims of Christ’s followers created major unrest in Jerusalem and beyond. All the Jewish or Roman authorities had to do was produce the dead body of Christ at any time to squash that unrest. The authorities could not produce the body because the body was resurrected and no longer entombed.

There are other theories that try to explain the empty tomb as well, such as “swoon theory.” Swoon theory states that it appeared that Jesus was dead on the cross, but was actually still alive. The theory purports that he was given a massive amount of salve to help him heal and that explains why the body is not there and he was recorded as being seen by so many others. There are flaws in this theory as well. The American Medical Association already confirmed that Jesus was dead simply by the Gospel descriptions. Secondly, the beating and torture Christ received is unimaginable. The scourging alone tore his flesh to pieces and he had stakes driven through his hands and feet on a Friday. The swoon theory suggests that by Sunday He could have healed to such an extent that his followers would believe and profess and be put to their own deaths proclaiming that Christ is risen as God even though He would be in a near-dead state. Also, we do not have the medical capability to revive someone so quickly today who would have received the same treatment that Christ did, so how could first century medicine miraculously get Jesus into a state that would convince his disciples into thinking he was divine?

The Apostles and hundreds of others are documented as encountering the risen Christ numerous times after His resurrection for up to seven weeks. They did not just imagine or see Him, but they touched Him, ate with Him, and had full conversations with Him in groups. The group part is crucial because it puts to rest the claim that the Apostles merely had a hallucination. Individual hallucination could be one theory, but we do not have any medically confirmed experiences of group hallucinations all imagining the same illusion. The Apostles genuinely believed that they had encountered the risen Christ. We can say that with certainty because the majority of the Apostles, tradition holds that 11 out of 12, were put to death in horrific ways proclaiming the risen Christ. None of them recanted, even though we can read how when Christ was arrested and being put to trial and crucifixion, 11 out of 12 departed from Him and even rejected knowing Him. What possible gain would the Apostles have for lying and losing their lives for testifying that they have seen and interacted with the risen Christ? 

Saul of Tarsus is another important example to defend the Christian understanding of the empty tomb. Saul, who became Paul after his conversion event, was a Jew who worked for the Romans in the persecution of Christians. Paul wrote that he was actively hunting and even killing people who claimed that Christ rose from the dead. On his famous “road to Damascus” event, he encountered the risen Christ, who asked Paul, “why are you persecuting me?” Saul changed his name to Paul and then became one of the most zealous and passionate Christian apostles in history. The letters of Paul to the established churches make up a large amount of New Testament documentation. What can best explain how a man goes from killing people who claim to have seen Christ risen to one of the most outspoken evangelists for the risen Christ in human history? It is important to note that Paul did not embrace Christianity at a time of billions of professed followers. His conversion came at a time of extreme hostility and death to those who aligned themselves with that message.

The best explaination of the empty tomb is what Christian's profess: it because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.