Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus I: Demonstratio Christiana

Denying the miracle of the resurrection, unbelievers account for the empty tomb in this way: either Jesus, overcome by a mere swoon, left the tomb; or the disciples stole the body of Jesus; or, finally, the Jews removed it. The falsity of these hypotheses is manifest.¹

1. That Jesus, awakened from a swoon, left the tomb is set forth by the older rationalists and certain recent ones as follows: Jesus on the cross, having suffered only a fainting fit from the lance-thrust, was greatly revived by the spices. When an unexpected storm with a great crash of thunder arose, he was fully roused from his syncope, and the tomb was opened, so that the soldiers guarding the sepulcher fled in terror. With these put to flight, Jesus crept out of the tomb, was discovered by the pious women, and was cared for by the disciples, until, after 40 days had elapsed, worn out by his wounds, he died. Such is the hypothesis of apparent death.²

They were wont to refute this hypothesis with many historical and medical arguments, proving that Jesus had truly died. Yet it is not worth the trouble to expend so much fruitless labor. For Jesus himself demonstrated the hypothesis of apparent death to be absurd: by impressing upon the disciples the appearance of his true resurrection, and by requiring of the disciples faith in his true resurrection.

By impressing upon the disciples the appearance of his true resurrection. The Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the epistles of St. Paul describe Jesus from the day of Easter as perfectly healthy, indeed as the prince of life, the victor over death and the tomb. But this conviction could certainly not have been impressed upon the minds of the disciples by a half-dead man creeping out of the sepulcher, in need of and using medical care, lying in weak and even sickly health, and at length succumbing to the fever of his wounds.³

By requiring of the disciples faith in his true resurrection. Jesus had foretold to his disciples his death and his resurrection.

Already now he announces to them that he has truly risen; he convinces them by many arguments of his return to life; entering and going out with closed doors, he reminds them of his glorious body assumed in the resurrection; finally ascending into heaven, he bears witness to them that, death overcome, he enters into his glory. In a word, he constantly inculcates and demands faith in his true resurrection. Therefore he truly died and truly rose again, not merely in appearance. Otherwise we should have to call Jesus a most base impostor.

2. That Jesus was carried off by the disciples by stealth was spread abroad by the rulers of the Jews. For when the terrified guards had hurried from the tomb into the city, the chief priests with the elders, having called a council together, "gave the soldiers a large sum of money, saying: 'Say, "His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep." And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.' So they took the money and did as they were instructed. And this saying," says Matthew the evangelist, "has been spread abroad among the Jews to this very day."⁴ Indeed, later Jews, on the testimony of St. Justin,⁵ repeated the same fable, which finally Reimarus in the eighteenth century served up anew, to the very ridicule of the rationalists.

In truth this hypothesis of theft and deceit is refuted by the manner of acting of both the Jews and the disciples.

By the manner of acting of the Jews. The Jews had left nothing untried to forestall deceit; they had sealed the tomb with a seal and fortified it with a military guard, saying: „Lest his disciples come and steal him away and say to the people: 'He is risen from the dead', and the last error will be worse than the first."⁶ Nevertheless, when the tomb was found open and the body removed, the Sanhedrin took care to have the legend of the theft spread abroad. Yet it does not inquire into the guilt of the disciples and the soldiers of the guard, nor does it punish them for the horrible crime imputed to them. Indeed, it suffers the disciples to go about freely and to preach the resurrection of Jesus before the people and before the council itself,⁷ without even charging them with bearing false witness. By this manner of acting the Sanhedrin of the Jews⁸ openly shows how falsely it accuses the apostles of theft. The same appears a fortiori from the manner of acting of the disciples.

By the manner of acting of the disciples. Supposing a theft, the disciples would from the first morning of Easter have simulated Jesus risen again. On the contrary, they were incredulous; they thought the news of the resurrection brought by the women to be a delusion; beholding the empty tomb they remained skeptical, and they did not believe Jesus risen until compelled by the evidence of the arguments. From this, however, they were changed into other men, who, spurning fear and doubt, boldly profess the resurrection of Jesus before Jews and Gentiles, demand faith in the resurrection of all, and moreover bravely pour out their blood and their life, in order to adore and proclaim Jesus risen from the dead. Would they have so acted, or could they have so acted, if they had stolen away their dead master and shamefully buried him elsewhere? No one fails to see that by this manner of acting of the disciples the hypothesis of theft charged against them collapses.

3. That Jesus was removed by the Jews with foresight is maintained by the most recent adversaries of the resurrection. And indeed:

Some contend that the Sanhedrin itself removed the body of Jesus and buried it in another place, lest the honored tomb of Christ become a sanctuary of the Christians.⁹ But what then? Did not the Sanhedrin, in acting thus, foresee that it was fostering the resurrection hope of the disciples and the „last error worse than the first"? But if it did not foresee it, why does the Sanhedrin not resist that error already arising? Why does it not confound the preachers of the resurrection by pointing out and exhibiting the body of Jesus buried in another place? Why does it not accuse the apostles of lying as they spread abroad the resurrection, but only threatens them, „that they speak henceforth to no man in this name [Jesus]"?¹⁰ What biting irony: the Sanhedrin of the Jews stole away the body of Jesus for the benefit of the resurrection preached by the Christians!

Others contend that Joseph of Arimathea himself transferred the body of Jesus elsewhere, lest "that malefactor" be forever associated with the dead of his own family in the tomb.¹¹¹² But that opinion not only contradicts the Gospels of Matthew and John, eyewitnesses of the event, but is in itself swollen with absurdities. For why does Joseph bury the body of Jesus with the greatest honors in his own new tomb, if he is ashamed to keep it longer in that same tomb? Why does he remove the body immediately at the great days of Easter, when nevertheless to be mingled with the dead was forbidden under penalty of defilement? Why do the members of the Sanhedrin not call Joseph, their colleague, to account concerning the body of Jesus hidden by him? Why do they not compel him to produce the dead body, so as to confound the disciples preaching Jesus risen? Why does not Joseph himself, of his own accord, convict the preachers of the resurrection of error and fraud, by exhibiting the "corpus delicti"? Manifestly, because he had not taken Jesus out of the tomb.

Therefore all natural explanations of the empty tomb of Jesus vanish: the disciples did not secretly steal Jesus away; the Jews did not remove him with foresight; Jesus himself did not, as one apparently dead, abandon the tomb. Therefore he rose from the tomb gloriously and miraculously.