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The Historicity of the Empty Tomb of Jesus1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
Extract
Until recently the empty tomb has been widely regarded as both an offence to modern intelligence and an embarrassment for Christian faith; an offence because it implies a nature miracle akin to the resuscitation of a corpse and an embarrassment because it is nevertheless almost inextricably bound up with Jesus's resurrection, which lies at the very heart of the Christian faith. But in the last several years, a remarkable change seems to have taken place, and the scepticism that so characterized earlier treatments of this problem appears to be fast receding. Though some theologians still insist with Bultmann that the resurrection is not a historical event, this incident is certainly presented in the gospels as a historical event, one of the manifestations of which was that the tomb of Jesus was reputedly found empty on the first day of the week by several of his women followers; this fact, at least, is therefore in principle historically verifiable. But how credible is the evidence for the historicity of Jesus's empty tomb?
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References
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[2] Gutwenger, E., ‘Auferstehung and Auferstehungsleib Jesu’, ZKT 9 (1969) 32.Google Scholar
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[53] Thus Wilckens argues that 16. 1 is a later addition designed to protect the women against the charge of breaking the Sabbath. Originally 16. 2–6a was the close of the Passion story. (Wilckens, , Auferstehung, 56–63Google Scholar.) For a critique of Wilckens' hypothesis see Blinzler, Josef, ‘Die Grablegung Jesu in historischer Sicht’, in Resurrexit, ed. Dhanis, , 65–6Google Scholar. Blinzler argues that all the lists are old and unchanged. (Ibid., 65–8.)
[54] Wilckens, , Auferstehung, 61Google Scholar. The passion story could not have ended with the death and burial of Jesus without assurance of victory; the discovery of the empty tomb by the wofnen was part of the passion story. (Brown, , John, 978Google Scholar; Blinzler, , ‘Grablegung’, 76Google Scholar; Schnackenburg, Rudolf, Das Johannesevangelium, 3 vols., 2nd ed., HTKNT 4 [Freiburg: Herder, 1976] 3: 353.)Google Scholar
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[63] On νεανίσκος; as an angel, cf. 2 Macc 3. 26, 33; Lk 24. 4; Gospel of Peter 9; Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 5.277. The white robe is traditional for angels (cf. Rev 9. 13; 10.1). In Mark fear and awe is the typical response to the divine. The other gospels understood Mark's figure as an angel.
[64] It is highly unlikely that the pre-Markan tradition lacked the angel, for the climax of the story comes with his words in vs. 5–6 and without him the tomb is ambiguous in its meaning. (Wilckens, Ulrich, ‘Die Perikope vom leeren Grabe Jesu in der nachmarkinischen Traditionsgeschichte’, in Festschrift für Friedrich Smend [Berlin: Merseburger, 1963] 32Google Scholar; Schenke, , Grab, 69–71Google Scholar; Alsup, John E., The Post-Resurrection Appearance Stories of the Gospel Tradition, CTM A5 [Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1975] 92–3Google Scholar; Kremer, , Osterevangelien, 45–7.)Google Scholar
[65] Bultmann, Rudolf, Das Evangelium des Johannes, 19th ed., KEKNT (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1968) 529Google Scholar; Mahoney, , Disciples, 216Google Scholar; Schnackenburg, , Johannesevangelium, 3: 373.Google Scholar
[66] Gardner-Smith, P., The Narratives of the Resurrection (London: Methuen, 1926) 136Google Scholar; Bultmann, , Geschichte, 308–9Google Scholar; Michaelis, Wilhelm, Die Erscheinungen des Auferstandenen (Basel: Heinrich Majer, 1944) 19–20Google Scholar; Marxsen, Willi, Der Evangelist Markus (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1956) 51, 75–6Google Scholar; Grass, , Ostergeschehen, 21, 120Google Scholar; Gutwenger, E., ‘Auferstehung and Auferstehungsleib Jesu’, ZKT 91 (1969) 274Google Scholar; Schenke, , Grab, 43–7Google Scholar; Evans, , Resurrection, 78Google Scholar; Bode, , Easter, 35–7Google Scholar; Kremer, , ‘Grab’, 151Google Scholar; Fuller, , Formation, 53, 60–1.Google Scholar
[67] For example, Schenke's troop of objections against v. 7: (1) it introduces a thought independent of v. 6; (2) ήγέρθη is not mentioned further; (3) 14. 28 is an insertion; (4) v. 7 does not correspond with the women's reaction; (5) v. 7 introduces the apostles and switches to direct speech. (Schenke, , Grab, 43–7.) Except for (3) these hardly merit refutation. V. 7 introduces a thought no more independent of v. 6 than v. 6b of v. 6a. There is no need to mention further the resurrection; having been raised, Jesus is going before the disciples to Galilee. Given Mark's theology, the women's reaction is typical. The introduction of the apostles says nothing for v. 7's being an insertion, nor does direct or indirect speech.Google Scholar
[68] It is sometimes urged that the Fayum Gospel Fragment, a third century compilation from the gospels which omits v. 28, testifies to a tradition lacking this verse. (Grundmann, Walter, Das Evangelium nach Markus, 7th rev. ed., THKNT 2 [Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1977] 395Google Scholar.) But as a compilation the fragment by its very nature omits material and is no evidence for the absence of v. 28 in the passion tradition. See Lagrange, M.-J., Évangile selon saint Marc (Paris: Librairie Lecoffre, 1966) 383Google Scholar; Lane, , Mark, 510Google Scholar; Pesch, , Markusevangelium, 2: 381.Google Scholar
[69] See Jeremias, Joachim, Neutestamentliche Theologie, 2nd ed. (Gütersloh: Gerd Mohn, 1973) 282Google Scholar; Pesch, , Markusevangelium, 2: 381–2.Google Scholar
[70] If there is an insertion, it is all of vs. 27–31; cf. Lk 22. 31–34; Jn 13. 36–38. (Lagrange, , Marc, 383Google Scholar; Lane, , Mark, 510.)Google Scholar
[71] See helpful chart and discussion in Bode, , Easter, 37–9.Google Scholar
[72] So Moule, C. F. D., ‘St. Mark xvi.8 once more’, NTS 2 (1955–1956) 58–9Google Scholar; Dhanis, , ‘Ensevelissement’, 389Google Scholar; Cranfield, C. E. B., The Gospel according to Saint Mark, CGTC (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963) 469Google Scholar; Lagrange, , Marc, 448Google Scholar; Marshall, I. Howard, The Gospel of Luke, NIGTC (Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1978) 887Google Scholar. See the helpful discussion of the women's silence in Bode, , Easter, 39–44Google Scholar. He distinguishes five possible interpretations: (1) The silence explains why the legend of the empty tomb remained so long unknown. (2) The silence is an instance of Mark's Messianic secret motif. (3) The silence was temporary. (4) The silence served the apologetic purpose of separating the apostles from the empty tomb. (5) The silence is the paradoxical human reaction to divine commands as understood by Mark. But (1) is now widely rejected as implausible, since the empty tomb story is a pre-Markan tradition. (2) is inappropriate in the post-resurrection period when Jesus may be proclaimed as the Messiah. As for (4), there is no evidence that the silence was designed to separate the apostles from the tomb. Mark does not hold that the disciples had fled back to Galilee independently of the women. So there is no implication that the disciples saw Jesus without having heard of the empty tomb. It is pointless to speak of ‘apologetics’ when Mark does not even imply that the disciples went to Galilee and saw Jesus without hearing the women's message, much less draw some triumphant apologetic conclusion as a result of this. In fact there were also traditions that the disciples did visit the tomb, after the women told them of their discovery, but Mark breaks off his story before that point. As for (5) this solution is entirely too subtle, drawing the conclusion that because people talked when Jesus told them not to, therefore, the women, having been told to talk, did not. Therefore (3) is most probable. The fear and silence are Markan motifs of divine encounter and were not meant to imply an enduring silence.
[73] See Mahoney, , Disciples, 209.Google Scholar
[74] See Brown, , John, 1119–20.Google Scholar
[75] Morris, Leon, The Gospel according to John, NICNT (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Erdmans, 1971) 10.Google Scholar
[76] Schnackenburg, , Johannesevangelium, 3: 359–60.Google Scholar
[77] I find it implausible either that the Beloved Disciple should have lied to his students that he was there when he was not or that the entire Johannine community should lie in asserting that their master had taken part in certain historical events when they knew he had not. See excellent comments by Brown, , John, 1127–9.Google Scholar
[78] So Brown, , John, 840–1; 983Google Scholar; Kremer, , ‘“Grab”’, 158Google Scholar. Von Campenhausen, , Ablauf, 44–5Google Scholar, also maintains the presence of disciples in Jerusalem, but his view that Peter, inspired by the empty tomb, led the disciples back to Galilee to see Jesus fails in light of the traditions that the empty tomb did not awaken faith and is predicated on a doubtful interpretation of Lk 22. 31, which says nothing about Peter's convincing the others to believe that Jesus was risen.
[79] Pesch, , Markusevangelium, 2: 21; cf. 2: 364–77.Google Scholar
[80] Ibid., 2: 522–36. Pesch thinks the stone's being rolled away is the product of door-opening miracle stories. When it is pointed out that no such door-opening is narrated in Mark, Pesch gives away his case by asserting that it is a ‘latent’ door-opening miracle! The angelic appearance he attributes to epiphany stories, though without showing the parallels. Finally, he appeals to a Gattung for seeking, but not finding someone for the search for Jesus's body, adducing several unclear OT texts (e.g. 2 Kings 2. 16–18; Ps 37. 36; Ez 26. 21) plus a spate of post-Christian or Christian-influenced sources (Gospel of Nicodemus 16. 6; Testament of Job 39–40) and even question-begging texts from the New Testament itself. He uncritically accepts Lehmann and MacArthur's analysis of the third day motif, which he equates with Mark's phrase ‘on the first day!’ His assertion that the fact that the women were known in the Urgemeinde cannot prevent legend since many legends are attested about the disciples is a petitio principii. He fails to come to grips with his own early dating and never shows how legend could develop in so short a span in the presence of those who knew better. For a critique of Pesch's position as well as a timely warning against New Testament exegesis's falling into the fallacies of the old history of religions school, see Stuhlmacher, Peter, ‘“Kritischer müssten mir die Historisch-Kritischen sein!”‘, TQ 153 (1973) 244–51.Google Scholar
[81] Bode, , Easter, 161Google Scholar; Brown agrees: ‘… the basic time indication of the finding of the tomb was fixed in Christian memory before the possible symbolism in the three-day reckoning had yet been perceived.’ (Brown, , John, 980Google Scholar.) The fact that τ⋯ μιᾷ τ⋯ν σαββάτων is probably a Semitism (Barrett, , John, 467Google Scholar; Bode, , Easter, 6Google Scholar; Kremer, , ‘Grab’, 152Google Scholar, contra Moulton, J. H. and Howard, W. F., A Grammar of New Testament Greek, vol.: 1 Prolegomena, 3rd ed. (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1908) 95–6) also points to the early origin of the phrase.Google Scholar
[82] Wilckens, , Auferstehung, 64.Google Scholar
[83] On the low rung of the social ladder occupied by women in Jewish society see J Sot 19a; B Kidd 82b. On their lack of qualification to serve as legal witnesses, see M Rosh Ha-Shanah 1.8.
[84] Bode, , Easter, 162–3.Google Scholar
[85] Mahoney, , Disciples, 159. His further objection that this admission by the Jews is found only in a Christian document also misses the point; the course of the argument in the polemic presupposes the empty tomb. The Christians were doing their best to refute the charge of theft, an allegation which tacitly presupposes the tomb was empty.Google Scholar
[86] Mahoney, , Disciples, 243.Google Scholar
[87] van Daalen, D. H., The Real Resurrection (London: Collins, 1972) 41Google Scholar. So also O'Collins, , Easter, 91.Google Scholar
[88] Kremer comments that ‘By far, most exegetes hold firmly … to the reliability of the biblical statements over the empty tomb. …’ (Kremer, , Osterevangelien, 49–50Google Scholar) and he furnishes this list, to which his own name may be added: Blank, Blinzler, Bode, von Campenhausen, Delorme, Dhanis, Grundmann, Hengel, Lehmann, Léon-Dufour, Lichtenstein, Mánek, Martini, Mussner, Nauck, Rengstorf, Ruckstuhl, Schenke, Schmitt, K. Schubert, Schwank, Schweizer, Seidensticker, Strobel, Stuhlmacher, Trilling, Vögtle, Wilckens. He should also have mentioned Benoit, Brown, Clark, Dunn, Ellis, Gundry, Hooke, Jeremias, Klappert, Ladd, Lane, Marshall, Moule, Perry, J. A. T. Robinson, and Schnackenburg, as well as the Jewish scholars Lapide and Vermes.
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