Claim 4 of 5 · Case 02 · Resurrection of Christ
The tomb of Jesus was reported empty.
One claim from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
The accounts also report that the tomb was found empty. This is presented as the least agreed of the four core facts. A large share of scholars accept it, but it does not have the near total agreement that the crucifixion has.
Backed by 2 pieces of evidence
The empty tomb across the accounts
A report that shows up in more than one strand of the tradition is stronger than one that appears only once. One honest caution: critics argue the Synoptic accounts depend on Mark, so how independent the strands really are is itself debated. Defenders count John, and likely pre-Markan tradition, as separate witnesses. Either way, as noted above, the empty tomb is less certain than the crucifixion or the appearances.
Women as the first witnesses
A detail that would have been awkward to make up is usually treated by historians as more likely to be real, which is why this detail counts in favor of the empty tomb being genuine.