So, what's the big deal with the empty tomb?

I am always struck by what is written in Acts 2:29-36: "²⁹  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. ³⁰  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; ³¹  He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. ³²  This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. ³³  Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. ³⁴  For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, ³⁵  Until I make thy foes thy footstool. ³⁶  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."

Here, Peter is preaching what many refer to as the first gospel sermon.  Peter is preaching in Jerusalem, where he and the other disciples were told by Jesus to "tarry," Luke 24:49.

After Jesus was crucified, his body was taken and placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. The location of this tomb would have been known by the Jews because it was their tomb and the tomb was known by the Romans because they placed guards there (Turek, 302).  Thus, the belief that anyone would have gone to the wrong tomb can be dismissed.

Further, the words of Peter in become even more striking because again, Peter is delivering this first gospel sermon in Jerusalem.  In his discourse, Peter gives the hearers in Jerusalem a little history lesson in order to provide context for what he's saying.

Peter moves on and says that the soul of Jesus was not left in hell (actually, hades, the unseen world of the dead), which is a quote from the Psalmist, David (Psalms 16:10).  Peter is tying the prophetic words of David to the reality of Jesus Christ.  Peter says that the one who was resurrected, the one who was not left in hades, the one they crucified--Jesus--God has made both Lord and Christ.

This is striking because, again, Peter is speaking in Jerusalem.  The well-known place of the burial of Jesus was in Jerusalem, so all those who heard Peter speaking would have to do in order to prove him wrong would be to go to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and produce the body of Jesus.

But they didn't because they couldn't.  The tomb was empty.

Jesus and Fulfilled Prophecy

Now, about Jesus...

Among the greatest of the proofs that the Scriptures came from God is the fulfillment of prophecy.  The prophecies regarding Jesus, in particular, predict things pertaining to the life of Jesus.  Scholars have concluded that Jesus fulfilled at least four dozen major prophecies which were written three centuries before his birth.  Among them are prophecies like the one found in Psalms 22:16 which states, “…they pierced my hands and my feet.”  This prophecy is an obvious reference to the crucifixion, however, it was written about three hundred years before crucifixion was invented.  How would David, the man who penned the psalm, have known about a form of capital punishment that had yet to be invented? 

Doctor Peter Stoner, a professor of math and science, and author of the book Science Speaks, took just eight of the prophecies of Jesus and calculated the odds of them being fulfilled by one person in history.  Stoner employed the help of over 600 of his students, and investigated these odds over the course of about 10 years.  They concluded that the odds of one man fulfilling just eight of the prophecies was on in 100 quadrillion, or 100 to the 17^th power (Powell, 252).   This supports the notion that the Scriptures are a product of the mind of God because limited human beings could not accurately predict the future and write down future events centuries before the events occurred.  It is unfathomable to believe that one human being could have pulled off predicting and then fulfilling just 8 of the prophecies in the Old Testament.  Human beings are too limited to do that.  However, if God, who is unlimited, exists, then such prophecy is possible and if the Scriptures contain such prophecy, then the Scriptures support the fact that they are inspired by God. 

  

Just a few examples of prophecies and their fulfillment.

Prophecy	Fulfillment of the Prophecy
Born of a virgin. Isaiah 7:14: “14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”	Matthew 1:18-25: “18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost…”
Born in Bethlehem Micah 5:2: “2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”	Matthew 2:1: “1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.”
Teaches in Parables Psalm 78:2: “2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old.”	Matthew 13:34: “34 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them.”
Hated Without a Cause Psalm 69:4: “4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.”	John 15:23-25: “23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.”
Betrayed by a Friend Psalm 41:9: “9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.”	Mark 14:10: “10 And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them.”
He Would be Pierced Zechariah 12:10: “10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”	John 19:34: “34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.”
Committed Himself to God Psalm 31:5: “5 Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.”	Luke 23:46: “46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”

Often, when people realize they cannot successully argue against the proofs of the gospel of Christ, they resort to saying that you can't trust the Bible. What do you do when people question the Word of God?

         

Since the Word of God is authoritative, it must follow that the Word of God is reliable and worthy of our submission and trust and defense.  In light of this, we must be able to defend the word against those who are skeptical, which entails knowing why the Bible is both reliable and authoritative.

The book that we refer to as the Bible is actually a collection books, a gathering of 66 ancient manuscripts written over the course of about 1500 years. The Scriptures were penned by men of all walks of life the rich, the poor, poets, historians, evangelists, apostles, and kings. The Scriptures contain a single consistent theme of the spiritual redemption of humankind, or the spiritual renovation, the spiritual restoration of people, to God; the drawing of people to God and the meaning that this redemption has on the life that now is and the life that is to come. 

In order to determine whether a collection of ancient manuscripts is trustworthy, we must look at the contents of the manuscripts and the date and the distance between the actual events and the time the manuscripts were written.  The Bible as a whole is the most precisely copied collection of books from the ancient world.  There is no other book in the world that has as many manuscripts, as early, and as accurately copied as the Bible (Geisler).  The Bible is authentic among other ancient literary works in terms of the number of ancient manuscripts found and the small gap of time scale between when the work was first written and the oldest surviving copy, thus minimizing the possibility of alteration from the original (Lisle).   

We only have a few copies of various other written works from the ancient world.  For example, there are only seven surviving copies of the works of the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder.  There are only ten surviving copies of the works of Caesar.  There are only seven surviving copies of the works of Plato.  There are only 643 surviving copies of Homer’s work entitled The Iliad.  There are, however, about 5,686 copies of the ancient manuscripts that make up the New Testament, which have survived to this day and the space of time between the original copy and the first surviving copies is only 25 years.  The amount of time between the copies of the Iliad by Homer and the original is 500 years and the amount of time between the original copy and the first surviving copy of Plato is 1200 years.  The distance of time between the original and the earlies surviving copies of the works of Caesar is 1,000 years.  However, no really questions how historically reliable these works are.  People study the works of Caesar, Homer, and Plato in schools and universities and seldom, if ever, do they raise any doubt about their trustworthiness.  When it comes to the Scriptures, we have an abundance of copies—over 10,000 ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament and there are around 6,000 manuscripts of the New Testament, which are written close to the events they speak of.   The number of surviving manuscripts is important because a wealth of manuscripts allows for the reconstruction of the original text and clear translation into English and other languages without losing meaning.  However, those who might fully accept the works of Plato and Homer, which have few manuscripts to strengthen their reliability, are skeptical when it comes to the Bible, even in the face of its multiplicity of ancient manuscripts.  No one can doubt the reliability or accuracy of the Bible without also doubting, or being skeptical of every other ancient literary work because every other ancient literary work has far fewer ancient manuscripts supporting their authenticity. 

It is the careful copying of the ancient manuscripts that has enabled the Bible to be accurately translated, which preserves the content, or the message, of the text.  Princeton Professor, Bruce Metzger, compared the Iliad by Homer with the New Testament and concluded that the Iliad is 95 percent pure.  The New Testament, according to Professor Metzger, is 99.5 percent pure; 99.5 percent error free (Geisler, Turek, 229).  The .5 percent was due to textual variants such as differences in spelling and word order, none of which harm the message or meaning of the text.  The New Testament alone is the best attested book from ancient times because of the overwhelming number of manuscripts and the closeness of those manuscripts to the date of the originals.  This means that when you pick up a Greek New Testament today, you can be confident that you are reading the text as it was originally written (Craig).        

An observation by John Rittenhouse of Biola University, illustrates how seriously ancient writers engaged in the copying of the Bible.  According to Rittenhouse, the ancient writers did not copy phrase for phrase or word for word, but letter for letter, in order to ensure that what they were copying was precise.  Additionally, Rittenhouse points out that when ancient copyists got to the name of God in the text, they would put their regular writing pen down, wash their hands, pick up a different pen which was only used to write the name of God, with this pen, they would write God’s name, put the pen down, wash their hands, and pick up the old pen and proceed with the copying of the text letter for letter.  This illustrates how reverently and meticulously those of the ancient world copied the Scriptures. 

We can trust the contents of the Bible not only because of the multiple number of accurate copies, but also because the Bible’s contents are supported by history and archeology. For example, in the nineteenth century, some scholars questioned whether the biblical people known as the Israelites existed.  Many came to the conclusion that such a people never lived.  However, in 1896 in Thebes, Egypt, a seven foot piece of black granite was discovered.  The piece of granite is called a “stela,” which is a vertical stone column that usually displays an inscription.  The inscription on this column of ancient black granite spoke of Merneptah, an Egyptian pharaoh.  The inscription contained a reference to pharaoh’s conquest of the Israelites (Hutchinson, 24).  According to Robert Hutchinson, “Archeologists have precisely dated the stela to year 1209/1208 BC.  This is definitive proof that, not only did a people known as Israel exist in the 1200s BC, but they were known in Egypt.” 

It was believed by those who refuse to accept the Bible that no such figure as Abraham existed.  However, during the early 1920s to the Mid-1930s, archeologist Leonard Wooley excavated the city of Ur, Abraham’s city, Genesis 11:28, 31.  It was also believed that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah was a myth.  But in 1964, archeologists from the University of Rome discovered a palace in the northern part of Syria called Tell Mardikh. Within the palace they discovered 15,000 tablets dated around 2300 BC.  The tablets recorded laws, activities, and events of the day.  The tablets also mentioned the five cities on the plain… “⁸ And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar;) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim,” Genesis 14:8.  It was believed that these cities, and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah never existed.  The discovered cities were geographically arranged just as the Old Testament depicts them.  Archeologist Clifford Wilson, who wrote Rocks, Relics, and Biblical Reliability, stated that there is enduring evidence in this location, of the great inferno that took place in the long distant past (Strobel, 408).  For example, constructions that housed the dead and buried members of this society were destroyed by fires that started on the rooftops, which implies that the fire was “rained down.” 

Skeptics once questioned Isaiah 20:1, “¹ In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it,” because they could find no proof that King Sargon existed.  However, in 1843, the palace of King Sargon was discovered at the Assyrian capitol, Khorsabad.  The discovery of the palace also included a discovery of both an inscription on a wall and documentation in a library confirming the battle with Ashdod, which is the city mentioned in Isaiah 20:1.

A smart guy named Thomas L. Thompson at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark stated that King David never existed.  However, in 1993, archeologists working at Tel Dan in northern Israel discovered a basalt stone which had an inscription on it written in Old Aramaic language.  The inscription contained the words, “The House of David.”  The rest of the inscription referred to events mentioned in the Old Testament book of 2 Kings.  The stone was dated between the end of the ninth or the beginning of the eighth century BC.  Also, a stone known as the Moabite stone, which contained several lines of text, stated in line 31, “…And the house of David dwelt in Hauranen…”  The Moabite is dated 930 BC (Hutchinson, 25).   

The biblical and classical scholar, Sir Frederick Kenyon stated, regarding the New Testament, “No other ancient book has anything like such early and plentiful testimony to its text, and no unbiased scholar would deny that the text that has come down to us is substantially sound.”

Skeptics asserted that there was no evidence that Pontius Pilate existed.  Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect, or governor, of the province of Judah, to whom Jesus Christ was delivered to be tried.  Pontius Pilate served under the rule of Tiberius Caesar.  In 1962, an Italian archaeologist working at Caesarea Maritima discovered an inscription which read, “Tiberius/Pontius Pilate/Prefect of Judea” (Hutchinson, 28). 

Sir William Ramsay, a scholar who served as professor of humanities at Aberdeen University in Scotland, who had received the Nobel Peace Prize, and was a specialist when it came to the history and geography of ancient Asia Minor.  William Ramsay has been called “one of the greatest archaeologists ever to have lived” (McDowell, 93).  Despite Sir William Ramsay’s skepticism of the Bible, he began to investigate the writings of Luke, who was known as the Apostle Paul’s great physician.  After Sir William Ramsay’s intensive investigation of the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, the two biblical books written by Luke, Ramsay concluded that, “Luke’s history is unsurpassed in regards to its trustworthiness.  You may press the words of Luke in a degree beyond any other historian, and they will stand the keenest scrutiny and the hardest treatment.  Luke is a historian of the first rank.  This author should be laced along with the very greatest of historians…not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy…this author should be placed along with the greatest of historians” (Ramsay, 222).   It has been noted that Luke names 32 countries, 54 cities, and nine islands without error (Geisler, 47).

The historical reliability of the Scriptures (much more could be said here) supports the view that the Bible is trustworthy.  But the Bible claims to be “inspired of God,” which means that it is “God breathed,” which is the definition of the word “inspiration,” in 2 Timothy 3:16, 17: “¹⁶ All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: ¹⁷ That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

 

I have been told that the facts of the gospel are that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. Is this true? Are the facts of the gospel true? Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Did Jesus even exist?

There are many people who have said that Jesus Christ never existed.  The well-known comedian and television personality, Bill Maher, said that Jesus probably never existed.  Bertrand Russell, the famous author, mathematician, and philosopher from England has famously said that “it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if he did we do not know anything about him.”  However, according to Bart Ehrman, who is not a Christian but is both a well-known New Testament scholar and a skeptic of religion, “There are several points on which virtually all scholars of antiquity agree.  Jesus was a Jewish man, known to be a preacher and teacher, who was crucified (a Roman form of execution) in Jerusalem during the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was the governor of Judea...”  This view is, according to Bart Ehrman, “The view of nearly every trained scholar on the planet.”  No one who is serious about the truth is able to seriously doubt that Jesus lived on the earth.  Those who do doubt that Jesus existed have not looked into the matter thoroughly.

For example, the Roman historian Tacitus, who is said to have lived during the rule of about six Roman emperors, wrote two famous works, the Annals and the Histories.  In A.D. 64, there was a large fire that overwhelmed Rome and in A.D. 115, Nero persecuted Christians because he said that they were to blame for the fire.  Tacitus wrote that Nero, “Falsely charged with guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities.  Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius” (McDowell, 120).  

Tacitus, the leading Roman historian of his time, connects with what the scriptures have said about Christ, that those who follow him are called Christians and that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate (Mark 15:15), procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius (Luke 3:1).  This statement from the top Roman historian gives us confirmation that Jesus existed and that he was put to death.  This is important because this writing comes from someone who had nothing to gain from his testimony—he’s simply stating historical fact.  Tacitus was not seeking to prove that Jesus Christ existed.  In one section of his writings, Tacitus calls Christianity a disease.  If anyone had a desire to expose Christianity as false, it was Tacitus, but he didn’t. 

Also, the first-century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, mentions Jesus twice: “Jesus who was called Christ,” in his written work called Jewish Antiquities.  Josephus also speaks of the death of Jesus’ brother James.  Like Tacitus, Josephus also writes about an incident that took place during the rule of Pontius Pilate:

“At this time there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous.  Many people among the Jews and other nations became his disciples.  Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die.  But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship.  They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive.  Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have reported wonders.  And the tribe of the Christians, so named after him, has not disappeared to this day” (Dembski, Licona, 168).  

Lucian, a Greek writer of the 2^nd Century spoke of Jesus’ crucifixion in his writings, Mara Bar Serapion, who wrote sometime after 70 AD, spoke of the deaths of Socrates, Pythagoras, and Jesus, in a letter to his son, thus placing two other well-known historical figures, in conversation with Christ.  Mara Bar Serapion was also a pagan and, like Tacitus, would have had no reason to promote Christianity.  Additionally, Suetonius, who was also a Roman historian, wrote in a work entitled the Life of Claudius, “As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus (Christus/Christ), Claudius expelled them from Rome.”  Interestingly, this occurrence is spoken of in Acts 18:2 and it took place in AD 49.  With each of these writers, especially Tacitus and Suetonius, we see a connection between history written by men outside of Christianity, and the Scriptures.  These men who documented history, had no doubt that Jesus existed and that he was crucified under Roman rule just as the scriptures say.  The connection between the Scriptures and writings of men who had no interest in promoting Christianity, supports the notion that the Scriptures are historically reliable.  Jesus, indeed, lived. 

The word of God also asserts that Jesus died.  It has already been pointed out that the Scriptures and secular history agree with one another regarding the life and the death of Jesus Christ.  It should also be pointed out that while Jesus was suffering on the cross, the scriptures say in Matthew 27:45: “⁴⁵Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.”  In AD 52, Thallus, who wrote, “a history of the Eastern Mediterranean world from the Trojan War to this own time,” was quoted by Julius Africanus, stating that during the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, in the late afternoon hours, darkness covered the land.  Phlegon an Ancient Greek who wrote a history entitled, Chronicles, confirmed that darkness blanketed the earth at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, saying that it was the result of a solar eclipse which took place during full moon in the time of Tiberius Caesar.  However, this is not plausible seeing that a solar eclipse wouldn’t have taken place during a full moon and this is said to be the time of the full moon at the season of Paschal full moon that Christ died (McDowell, 173).  Additionally, Origen, a third-century writer mentions this along with a later writer, Philopon (174). 

Furthermore, we can confirm that Jesus was buried.  The place of Christ’s burial would have been known by those in the area because he was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy member of the high court of the Jews, the Jewish Sanhedrin.  This would be similar to being buried in the tomb of one of our national dignitaries today.  In such an expensive tomb, a round stone slab would have been rolled across the opening of the tomb to secure it.  The stone would be rolled into a trench-like groove to lock it in place.  This would have made it so that moving the stone would have required the work of several people. 

The place where Jesus was buried, the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, wouldn’t have been something that followers of Jesus would have made up when they were writing the narrative because they wouldn’t have favorably spoken a member of the Sanhedrin Court, since it was the court that voted to put Jesus to death.  Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the court that helped to engineer the crucifixion, sought to do right by Jesus.  This would not have been a comfortable fact, but it is included in the gospels by the followers of Christ.  It is also state that Joseph was not present when the Jewish Sanhedrin decided to deliver Jesus to be executed, Luke 23:50-53: “⁵⁰ And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just: ⁵¹ (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. ⁵² This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. ⁵³ And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.” 

Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, that he delivered what he received.  Scholars conclude that Paul received this material around AD 35, when he made a journey to Jerusalem after he had been baptized.  According to the Scriptures, Paul received the gospel by the revelation of God, and he was able to certify that the gospel he preached was from God (Galatians 1:11-12).  The time that Paul spent with the apostles in Jerusalem around 35 AD, would have further confirmed the gospel he preached as the certified gospel (Galatians 1:18; 23). 

Scholars also point out that 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 is an early form of Christian preaching that dates back to within at least two years of the crucifixion.  Paul himself preached in line with this pattern in Acts 13:28-31: “²⁸ And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. ²⁹ And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. ³⁰ But God raised him from the dead: ³¹ And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.” 

Further confirmation that Jesus had been raised from the dead is found in Matthew 28:11-15: “¹¹ Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. ¹² And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, ¹³ Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. ¹⁴ And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. ¹⁵ So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.”  First, if the body was still present, why say that it was stolen? Second, the crucifixion took place between 30 and 33 AD, and the Scripture says that this saying, this statement about the disciples stealing the body, was commonly reported “to this day.” So for at least 20 years, this statement was being made.  Indeed, both Justin Martyr, and Tertullian, reported that for two hundred years after the resurrection, people were still saying that the tomb was empty because Jesus’s followers had stolen the body.  This reinforces the fact that the tomb was empty and the body was not found. 

Stolen bodies don’t transform lives.  People don’t put their lives on the line for stolen bodies.  Now, someone might say that people die for their religion all the time.  People may die for something they believe to be true.  People don’t die for something they know to be untrue because they had a hand in creating the untruth—such a conclusion is preposterous.  Disciples wouldn’t die for the cause of Christ if they had stolen the body of Christ.   

Secondly, not only were the lives of the disciples transformed but also, the disciples went from being fearful and in hiding to preaching the gospel of Christ in Jerusalem, the very city where Jesus was persecuted and the city where the tomb that Jesus was buried in was located.  All anyone would have to do is go and get the body of Jesus in order to prove the disciples wrong.  If any body was found in the tomb, it would have proven the disciples wrong because they preached that the tomb was EMPTY.  Therefore, the condition of the body wouldn’t have mattered.

Did Jesus really die by crucifixion?

Well, in 1 Corinthians 15:3, we read, "...Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures."  

Jesus Christ died. 

Why would anyone question this? One reason is, of course, that on the third day after Christ's death and burial, his body was absent from the tomb in which he was buried.  Skeptics who resist the notion that a dead man came back to life have worked to create some other theory in an effort to explain what may have actually happened to the body of Jesus Christ. 

One theory regarding the death of Jesus is the "Swoon Theory," also referred to as the "Apparent Death Theory."  Honestly, I don't see how this theory was able to gain traction.  

The Swoon Theory asserts that Jesus never really died on the cross, but fainted, or became comatose and was placed in a tomb.  He later got up and presented himself alive before his disciples and others, thus convincing them that he had risen from the dead.  

Is it logical to believe that Jesus didn't die by crucifixion, but only swooned on the cross? 

Listen, the Swoon Theory overlooks the fact that the Roman soldiers who were involved putting people to death were not a bunch of guys randomly called to do this job whenever the need occurred.  Rather, they were trained killers who crucified people according to the laws of Rome, and carried out their morbid task to completion.  We know from other passages of scripture, Acts 12:3-9 and Acts 16:27, that the penalty a Roman soldier faced for losing a body that was kept in his charge, was death.  Thus, it would have behooved every soldier to ensure the decease of a crucifixion victim.

The Swoon Theory overlooks the exquisite tortures that took place prior to Jesus being nailed to a cross.  The tortures that Jesus underwent, are historically provable and they highlight the kind of cruel professionals the Roman soldiers were.  Prior to reaching the cross, Jesus was taken to be scourged.  Matthew 27:26: Mark 15:15; John 19:1. 


Scourging, according to John Mattingly, author of Crucifixion: Its Origin and Application to Christ, required that “The adjudged criminal was usually first forcefully stripped of his clothes and then tied to a post or pillar in the tribunal.  Then the awful and cruel scourging was administered by the lictors or scourgers.  Although the Hebrews limited by their law the number of strokes in a scourging to forty, the Romans set no such limitation; and the victim was at the mercy of his scourgers.  The brutal instrument used to scourge the victim was called a flagrum…it can readily be seen that the long, lashing pieces of bone and metal would greatly lacerate human flesh.”  Further, it has been stated by Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, a third century church historian, that the victim of a Roman scourging would have been ripped up so severely that, “veins were laid bare, and the very muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victim were open to exposure” (McDowell, 269).  


Author of, Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead, Surgeon-Scientist, Thomas A. Miller, MD says that the unfortunate victim of a scourging, “Was stripped of any clothing and secured to a post or frame with the hands tied around it, allowing the exposed back, buttocks, and legs to be repeatedly beaten.  The instrument of torture was a rod or whip, the thongs (straps) of which were weighted with pieces of bone or metal fragments to make the resultant blow as excruciatingly painful as possible.  The severity of the flogging and the number of blows administered was generally left to the whim of the soldier (called lictor) performing the torture.  Often two lictors would alternate the flogging.  The intention of this type of torture was to weaken the victim to the point of fainting, just short of actual death…Appreciating the method and purpose of flogging, it should come as no surprise that the resultant lacerations and deep contusions induced by the bone and metal fragments would have a ripping effect that would cut deeply into the skin and subcutaneous (internal) tissues.  Not infrequently, the torn tissues would extend to the level of the muscles.  The net effect of this severe wounding would be horrendous pain and considerable blood loss involving substantial areas of the back, buttocks, and legs” (69-70).  

After the scourging, Jesus is further mocked.  A robe is placed on him, a crown of thorns is placed on his head, and he smacked over the head with a reed.  

Jesus is then assigned to carry his cross to Golgotha, where he is nailed to the cross by spikes measuring 5 to 7 inches in length.  According to physicians who have investigated the crucifixion, after being elevated on the cross, Jesus would have, found it difficult to breathe.  According to Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, “Once on the cross, the victim would want to take pressure off his nailed feet.  To do this, he would allow the weight of his body to be held up by his nailed hands.  However, in this “down” position, certain muscles would be in the inhalation position, making it difficult to exhale.  Thus, the victim would have to push up on his pierced feet in order to exhale.  However, the first several times he did this would cause intense pain, since it would cause the nail to tear through the flesh in the feet until it enlodged itself against one of the bones.  Thus, the crucifixion victim would be seen pushing up quite often and returning to the down position.” 

Often, the victim of a crucifixion would hang on the cross, struggling for breath, for three or four days.  However, if the Romans wanted to hurry death along, they would break the legs of the condemned person.  


By the time of we get to the crucifixion of Christ, the Romans had been engaged in the practice of crucifixion for two hundred years.  This is plenty of time to perfect this method of killing.  It is obvious that the Romans made sure that there would be no doubt that Jesus was dead.  There would be no swooning.  


Further, a man in the condition that Jesus would have been in after the scourging, and being hammered to a cross, would have been in no condition to, after three days of being wrapped in nearly one hundred pounds of cloth and spices, and placed in a tomb sealed by a massive stone, disengage himself from his burial wrappings, roll the stone away, and slip past the Roman guards who were posted outside of the tomb.