Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?: A Surgeon-Scientist Examines the Evidence by Thomas A. Miller MD

Author:Thomas A. Miller MD [Miller MD, Thomas A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781433533099
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2013-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

Efforts to Refute Its Very Existence

In addition to the arguments just discussed that have been offered to explain the empty tomb, a number of unique challenges have surfaced in recent years. Each of these challenges hinges on the notion that there never was an empty tomb. I say these challenges are “unique” because incredible fanfare has accompanied them despite there being almost no solid evidence to support them. Three in particular deserve comment because they have been given much media attention, as though they were firmly accepted by contemporary New Testament scholarship, even though quite the opposite is true.

The first is the notion that Jesus wasn’t buried at all, as the Gospel accounts allege, but that his body was tossed into some common grave along with other victims of crucifixion, to decompose and never be seen again. Any discussion then of an empty tomb would therefore be irrelevant. Proponents of this argument, popularized by John Dominic Crossan6 of the Jesus Seminar and by the Episcopalian Bishop John Shelby Spong,7 contend that, because of the egregious nature of their crimes, it was commonplace throughout the Roman empire during the first century for those executed by crucifixion not to be allowed private burials. As such, the Gospel stories purporting that Jesus was buried in Joseph’s tomb are nothing more than myth.

Is there any truth in this theory? While it is true that many victims of crucifixion in Roman times were left hanging on their crosses to be eaten by the birds, or were tossed into a shallow grave to have their corpses ravaged by animals,8 this did not appear to be the practice with the Jews in Roman-occupied Palestine during the time of Jesus. In a comprehensive review of Roman interactions with the Jewish people during this era in ancient history, New Testament scholar Craig A. Evans found that leaving the bodies of executed Jews unburied was clearly the exception rather than the rule.9 In fact, Jewish burial customs were nearly always respected by the Romans. Not only were these sensitivities detailed in various Roman ordinances but they were also articulated in the writings of Josephus and Philo, two important historians of that era. Thus, Evans concludes that the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s burial are indeed accurate, and he vigorously debates those who would argue otherwise.10

A second challenge concerns the so-called “Jesus Family Tomb.” Discovered in Talpiot (a suburb of Jerusalem) in 1980, this tomb was found to contain nine burial bone boxes called ossuaries (a tenth one was supposedly stolen) on which were inscribed a number of names such as Yeshua bar Yoseph (Jesus son of Joseph), Marya (Mary), Mariamenou e Mara (thought to mean Mary or Miriam), Matya (short for Matthew), Yehuda bar Yeshua (Judah son of Jesus), and Yose (short for Joseph). Because these names were similar to those of the biblical Jesus and his family, various scholars have proposed that this was the tomb where Jesus and his family were buried. Film editor and journalist Simcha Jacobovici (who

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