The Jesus Delusion by Heinz-Werner Kubitza

Author:Heinz-Werner Kubitza
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783828865143
Publisher: Tectum Verlag
Published: 2016-07-14T00:00:00+00:00

We see all too clearly that the story of the empty tomb has been added to and restructured again and again. But where were the causes, what was there at the beginning? There are New Testament scholars who deny any historical core to the story. According to Lüdemann for example, the whole story was created by the evangelist Mark. “We probably have to deny that a tomb story existed before Mark’s gospel. The text is marked by Mark’s editing” (Lüdemann, The Resurrection of Jesus from the Dead, p. 73). An argument in support of that thesis is the lack of any direct reference to the empty tomb in the much older statements of belief in a resurrection in the New Testament. Paul, for example, nowhere mentions an empty tomb. Did he not know the story? Did he know only about apparitions? That would presuppose that Jesus was in reality buried anonymously or that the place of his tomb had been forgotten. In fact the burial of an executed person in an elaborate tomb is unusual and was certainly not to the taste of the Romans and pious Jews. Hence according to a tradition in Acts 13:29, Jesus was simply placed in a grave by unknown Jews.

So the apparition legends would have arisen before the story of the empty tomb. It is also curious that before Constantine’s time the tomb of Jesus was obviously not honored. We would expect the first Christians to take special care of that memorial. That too leads us to think that nothing was known about a tomb of Jesus. Hence Gerd Theißen does not dare to decide whether the empty tomb is historical or not. At any rate, an empty tomb is not proof of a resurrection.

Advocates of the historicity of the empty tomb object that the belief in the resurrection would certainly not have persisted in Jerusalem had there been no empty tomb to point to. In addition, the rumor of a stolen body presupposes an empty tomb. On top of that, two historical persons are probably inseparably linked with the tradition, namely Mary Magdalene and Joseph of Arimathea, who according to the gospels provided a tomb for Jesus.

According to all four gospels, Joseph of Arimathea took charge of the burial of Jesus. Since he is named by name but appears nowhere else, it is generally assumed that we are dealing with a historical person. However, here too tradition has increasingly obfuscated our gaze. In Mark, Joseph is a member of the high council; in Matthew he becomes a disciple of Jesus (the councilor title is omitted); in John, he is a secret disciple for fear of the Jews; in the later gospel of Peter, he is a friend of Jesus and of Pilate. There is a clear tendency to depict him more and more positively over time. In John, even before the death of Jesus, he, together with Nicodemus, a conversation partner of Jesus in John’s gospel, makes sure that Jesus gets the usual anointing of the dead.

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