Evidence · Case 02 · Resurrection of Christ
The wrong tomb
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
The claim here is that the women and disciples simply went to the wrong grave, found it empty, and jumped to the conclusion that Jesus had risen. The strongest form of this view is that a mistake in the confusion after the burial is possible.
A wrong grave might account for an empty tomb, but it does nothing to explain the appearances or the conversions of Paul and James. Opponents who knew where Jesus was buried could also have gone to the right tomb and produced the body, and they did not.
Sources
Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, “The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus” (Kregel, 2004)
Objections & responses
- Jerusalem had many rock-cut tombs and the women visited at dawn in distress. Confusion is plausible, and saying opponents could have produced the body assumes anyone cared enough to look.
The Gospels say the women watched the burial and knew the location, and Joseph of Arimathea, who owned the tomb, knew where he had put the body. But grant the confusion anyway. The theory explains only an empty tomb, not appearances to individuals and groups, not Paul, not James. And the authorities did care: they had executed Jesus to end a movement that within weeks was announcing his resurrection in their own city. Walking to the right tomb was the cheapest refutation available.