Christ's tomb

sign on the door

empty tomb

empty tomb - different angle

Evidence For the Resurrection

  1. Jesus was crucified when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea.
  2. The Tomb was guarded.
  3. On the third day the tomb was empty and many claimed to see Him for a forty day period at the end of which he ascended into Heaven.

Possible explanations:

  1. The disciples stole the body and pretended he was alive.
    2. Problem: no motive (they were defeated and discouraged); no means (Roman guard units were highly disciplined fighting units); no later recantations (even though most died tortuous deaths).

  2. Jesus only swooned on the cross and later revived in the tomb.
    3. Problem: With this logic we would also assume that He somehow rolled aside a 2.5 ton stone and convinced people He was risen from the dead. The Romans, however, knew how to kill a man and they made sure a victims was dead when they took him off the cross. Furthermore, the standard burial practices (body wrapped in cloth and spices) would probably suffocate a healthy person, let alone a severely wounded one.

  3. The authorities removed the body for safe keeping.
    4. Problem: when Peter preached in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, all the authorities had to do was to produce the body. They didn't, because they themselves didn't know where it was.

  4. The women (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, et.. al .) went to the wrong tomb on Sunday morning.
    5. Problem: to continue this thought, they looked into an empty tomb and falsely concluded that he was risen from the dead. Apparently also, the disciples, the soldiers and the priests all forgot where the tomb was (even though it belonged to a prominent Sanhedrin member, Joseph of Arimathea).

  5. People only hallucinated about seeing the Risen Christ .
    6. Problem: the varied times of day, the different personalities involved, the different geographical locations and the fact that all the appearances stopped after the forty-day period makes this virtually impossible. Furthermore, the body would still be in the tomb and the authorities could simply show it to the skeptical multitudes.

  6. One explanation fits the evidence: Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day, showed Himself alive by many convincing proofs and then ascended into heaven. Ten days after the ascension the Holy Spirit descended on the Day of Pentecost and the good news began to spread throughout the world! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
- Dr. F.G. Humphrey


Ancient Manuscripts

Works Date Written Earliest Copy Number of Manuscripts
Aristotle's poetics 384-322 B.C 1100 A.D 49
Plato's tetralogies 427-347 B.C 900 A.D. 7
Herodotus 488-428 B.C. 900 A.D. 8
Tacitus 100 A.D. 1100 A.D. 20
Thucydides 460-400 B.C. 900 A.D. 8
Homer's lliad 800 B.C. 400 B.C. 643
Caesar's Gallic War 58-50 B.C. 900 A.D. 10
Livy Roman History 59 B.C.-17 A.D. 900 A.D. 20
New Testament 48-95 A.D. 200 A.D 5,500+
Old Testament 1500-200 B.C. 125 B.C. 1,000+
The information for this chart is taken from Josh McDowell: Evidence that Demands a Verdict 1972 p.48 and The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict 1999 p.38. For the classical writers he was citing F.W. Hall, MS Authorities for the Text of the Chief Classical Writers, Companion to Classical Text (Oxford, Clarendon Press,1913)
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