Resurrection Evidence: Some Alternative Theories Part 1

Unwilling to face the obvious consequences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on their lives and persons which Saul confronted, men for centuries have sought to propose theories to explain away the Resurrection. In this part we will examine several of them and judge their credibility based upon the facts and evidence available to us. From that examination we will then draw a conclusion as to their reasonableness.

The Swoon Theory

This theory basically says that Jesus did not die on the cross, but merely fainted under the strain of the torture He underwent. Later He was removed from the cross, recovered, got out of the Tomb, and showed Himself to his disciples pretending to have risen from the dead. He went on to live a full life in another part of the world and died a natural death.

This theory was originally stated by a man named Venturini a couple of centuries ago, but most recently has been revived by both Muslims and liberals seeking to discount the testimony of the witnesses. There are several shortcomings to this theory from both a historical and logical perspective.

Prime among these is that it ignores that historical fact of the efficiency of the Romans legions in carrying out the sentence of crucifixion. As pointed out earlier in the section on “The Empty Tomb”, any Roman soldier who would allow a victim removed from the cross without verification of death stood the chance of suffering the same fate. This was not the first crucifixion that these troops had carried nor the first time that they had seen death to be able to verify it. These were hardened men well acquainted with the look and evidences of death.

Furthermore, even if Jesus had merely fainted He would not have survived the spear thrust in the side that tore into the sac around His heart and brought forth the blood and water. The testimony of the soldiers at the cross, and of their Centurion in his report given to Pontius Pilate was that Jesus was quite dead before removed from the cross. Thus, the “Swoon Theory” is nothing more than a fantasy without basis in fact or in the testimony of eye witnesses.

The Passover Plot

The next theory we’ll examine is similar to the “Swoon Theory” in nature, but not only impugns the Resurrection but also the integrity of the witnesses themselves and even of Jesus Christ personally. Howard Casteel in his book “Beyond A Reasonable Doubt” (College Press, Joplin, MO (1990), Page 171-172) describes “The Passover Plot” as:

“Jesus conspired with a few close friends to stage the sacrificial death on the cross. A co-conspirator was ready at the cross with a spongeful of some narcotic to dull the pain and induce unconsciousness. The Nicodemus and his helpers were to take the apparently lifeless body and revive Him and pretend that He had arisen. Although the Plot was foiled by the spear thrust to His side, Jesus lived long enough for the conspirators to convince the disciples that He had risen from the tomb, after which he was secretly buried.”

This theory is one of the most insidious of them all. It essentially makes Jesus, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea out to be completely without moral character and the Roman legionnaires to be incompetent in carrying out their task. It has no basis whatsoever in fact. Were the principals (Nicodemus and Joseph) alive today they would be able to sue the originator of such a tale for defamation of character… and win.

Furthermore, as has been previously demonstrated, no Roman soldier would let anyone off of a cross unless they were 100% sure they were indeed dead, lest they themselves should take their place there. Could Jesus have medically fooled the disciples? Absolutely! Could He have fooled the Centurion and his veteran troops? Not a chance! Thus, this theory too must be rejected and relegated to the ash heap of fantasy.

The Mistaken Women Theory

This theory basically is someone’s conjecture that the women who went the Tomb were “out of towners” and didn’t know their way around the myriad of tombs which litter the Jerusalem countryside. They simply went to the wrong tomb in their confusion, and finding it empty assumed Jesus had risen from the dead and spread their mistaken belief. The flaws in this theory are legion. First: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome were no strangers to Jerusalem even though they lived outside of the area. They had been coming to Jerusalem for various holy days their entire life. There is no evidence extant that tells us that they didn’t know where they were going. Second: when Mary and Salome looked into the Tomb they saw the very grave clothes in which they had wound Jesus on Friday night laying on the table. They had partial prepared Jesus and the spices would still be visible on the cloth… and wouldn’t be present on unused grave clothes. There was no doubt that this was the right Tomb. The most obvious refutation to this theory, of course, comes from the Sanhedrin themselves. If it were the case of mistaken identification of the burial Tomb of Jesus they simply would have gone to the right tomb and produced the body. Such evidence would have made short work of any resurrection talk. But they didn’t do so because they couldn’t do so. The women were at the right Tomb and Jesus wasn’t there.

In the final part we’ll conclude our look at the Resurrection by examining remaining theories that deny the biblical account.