All four Gospel accounts of Christ’s resurrection begin the same way: the tomb was discovered empty. Found so first by women, who said they’d encountered angels telling them Christ was risen, and second by those guarding it (Matt 28:11-15).

Taken by itself, an empty tomb is a fairly ordinary claim. The subsequent claim — that Jesus rose from the dead — is totally extraordinary.

If Jesus remained dead, there’s the question of what happened to his body.

Ordinarily dead people stay dead and tombs stay occupied. So anyone denying the resurrection has a serious problem to resolve: what became of the corpse? It was never produced. It disappeared and stayed absent.

He Definitely Died

The idea that Jesus didn’t really die — the teaching of the Koran — can’t be sustained.

That he was definitely dead, not merely appearing or seeming so, is double-underlined by the carefully constructed narratives detailing his burial. Pilate himself verified the death with the centurion who’d overseen the crucifixion and watched Jesus ‘breathe his last’ (Mark 15:39, 44-45).

Mark’s report is unique in using ptōma, ‘corpse,’ and by concentrated repetition of language — ‘body of Jesus,’ ‘died,’ ‘dead’ twice, ‘corpse’ (15:43-45) — places particular emphasis on the fact. Jesus didn’t just die. His dead body was buried because he had died.

Athanasius noticed something about the timing. The resurrection didn’t happen instantly but was deferred to the third day — roughly 36 hours after burial — so that the reality of the death couldn’t reasonably be doubted. ‘His body was really dead.’¹Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 26; ed. St. Vladimir’s, 56. Had he risen sooner, people might not have been ‘fully convinced that he had truly died.’²Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 627.

But the delay had a limit too. Had he been raised much later than three days, those who witnessed the death would have dispersed, and people would have ‘grown doubtful whether it were in truth the same body.’³Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 26; ed. St. Vladimir’s, 56. The timing was designed for maximum impact:

‘While the affair was still ringing in their ears and their eyes were still straining and their minds in turmoil, and while those who had put him to death were still on the spot and themselves witnessing to the fact of it, the Son of God after three days showed his once dead body immortal and incorruptible.’⁴Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 26; ed. St. Vladimir’s, 56-57.

He Definitely Was Buried

That he was buried is confirmed by every resurrection account containing reports of what happened to his body once brought down from the cross and taken by Joseph of Arimathea (Matt 27:57-61; Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-56; John 20:38-42).

Burial of the dead — including those convicted of serious crimes — mattered enormously to Jews of the period.⁵Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels?, 133. Preparing a body for interment was a complex undertaking (John 19:39-40), and the burial itself was carried out with special care and considerable expense; a rock tomb near Jerusalem would have been costly.

And it wasn’t done quietly. The burial was carried out in public, by agreement between Joseph — a follower of Christ with wealth and influence — and Pilate, the governor.

The Tomb Was Under Military Guard

The tomb was closed the usual way, Joseph having ‘rolled a big stone to the door.’ We don’t know how many soldiers were detailed to it, but we know it was sealed and the site secured by military force at Pilate’s command, ‘until the third day.’

Every precaution was taken to ensure the body couldn’t be removed. Sealed, and an armed guard set (Matt 27:62-66). The burial site was made as secure as humanly possible — and made so by Christ’s own opponents.

Which produces a considerable irony. The Jewish leaders, having taken such great measures against theft of the body, were then the ones who — when it couldn’t be found — bribed the Roman guards to spread a story that the disciples had taken it overnight while the guards slept at their post (Matt 28:11-15).

In that respect the resurrection ‘was confirmed by the very testimony of his enemies.’⁶The Scotch Confession of Faith (A.D. 1560), 10; ed. Schaff, Creeds, 3:448.

What the Grave Clothes Looked Like

The Fourth Gospel relates something specific about the sight inside. No body — but the linen there, and the burial cloth used to wrap Christ’s head folded by itself, still retaining the shape in which the head would have lain. As if the body had passed right through them.

It was remarkable enough that the Beloved Disciple ‘saw and believed’ instantly (John 20:8).

Consider what that detail rules out. A thief wouldn’t have taken the care to assemble grave cloths neatly.

The Evidence Summarised

‘1. The historical reliability of the story of Jesus’ burial supports the empty tomb.

• The story of Jesus’ empty tomb is independently reported in very early sources. …
• The tomb was discovered empty by women.
• The earliest Jewish response to the disciples presupposes the empty tomb.’⁷Craig, On Guard, 263; slightly amended.

The empty tomb isn’t in itself decisive proof. But it’s immensely important, because ‘it is hard to imagine a belief in a risen Jesus getting very far if one could easily point to the grave in which he was still present.’⁸Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels?, 133-34.

Think about how easily the whole thing could have been shut down. Had the authorities produced Christ’s body in the face of claims that he had risen, the falsity of those claims would have been plain within days.

Why the Alternatives Don’t Work

Various theories have been proposed. That he didn’t really die. That the disciples looked in the wrong place and mistook some other empty tomb for his. That the body was stolen by enemies, or by graverobbers, or taken by the disciples themselves.

All are implausible on two counts.

Either they fail to reckon adequately with the extensive, detailed, independently reported appearances of the previously dead Jesus. Or they suppose wholescale deceit — that the early disciples were prepared to die for what they knew to be a lie.

That second option deserves a moment. A deliberate and fraudulent conspiracy would almost certainly have been exposed by the pressure and persecution that followed. Sane, competent people don’t voluntarily suffer persecution and death for something they know to be false. The apostles’ willingness to die for their conviction that the resurrection was objective and real is itself a strong argument for its historical truth.⁹An extended scholarly argument on this point is Sean McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles: Examining the Martyrdom Accounts of the Closest Followers of Jesus (Ashgate, 2015).

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• 1
  Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 26; ed. St. Vladimir’s, 56. ↩︎
• 2
  Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 627. ↩︎
• 3
  Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 26; ed. St. Vladimir’s, 56. ↩︎
• 4
  Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 26; ed. St. Vladimir’s, 56-57. ↩︎
• 5
  Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels?, 133. ↩︎
• 6
  The Scotch Confession of Faith (A.D. 1560), 10; ed. Schaff, Creeds, 3:448. ↩︎
• 7
  Craig, On Guard, 263; slightly amended. ↩︎
• 8
  Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels?, 133-34. ↩︎
• 9
  An extended scholarly argument on this point is Sean McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles: Examining the Martyrdom Accounts of the Closest Followers of Jesus (Ashgate, 2015). ↩︎