Skepticism regarding the burial of Jesus is ill-founded, in the light of Roman law and Jewish law, custom, and practice. The present essay will review both of these elements. Roman law regarding the burial of the executed is far more nuanced —and lenient — than many suppose.
In the Digesta , compiled by Romanemperor Justinian in the sixth century AD — but comprising a great deal of law from the first and second centuries, we find important and relevant material in chapter 24 of book What Josephus says here is especially relevant for the question of the burial of the crucified Jesus.
Josephus is speaking of his own time, that is, from the time of Pontius Pilate, prefect of Samaria and Judea, to the time of the Jewish revolt.
Though executed by the Romans, those crucified were buried. If condemned by the Jewish council, it was incumbent on the council to arrange for the burial of the executed m. Sanhedrin 6. This was done out of concern for the purity of the land, not out of pity for the executed or his family Deut There is also archaeological evidence that corroborates the literary evidence.
One thinks of the crucified remains of one Yehohanan, crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilate. Though crucified, he was nevertheless properly buried with an iron spike still embedded in his right heel. The skeletal remains of at least three other executed persons have been recovered from tombs and ossuaries, as well as dozens of nails and spikes, many of which had been used in crucifixion. The evidence in hand probably represents only a small fraction of what existed at one time.
This is because the small bones hands and feet , which provide evidence of crucifixion, rarely survive intact. Moreover, we should assume that the remains of most of those crucified were from the lower classes and so would not have been placed in ossuaries in secure tombs, as were the remains of Yehohanan, who evidently belonged to a family of means. The archaeological evidence, as limited as it is, supports the literary evidence in suggesting that in Palestine in the time of Jesus the crucified were in fact buried.
The legal opinions provided in the sixth-century Digesta This equally applies in an eschatological setting ; see 4Q frag.
Every source we have indicates that the practice in Israel, especially in the vicinity of Jerusalem, in peacetime, was to bury the executed before nightfall. This was a practice that Roman authority permitted.
Upon this, Varus sent a part of his army into the country, to seek out those that had been the authors of the revolt; and when they were discovered, he punished some of them that were most guilty, and some he dismissed: now the number of those that were crucified on this account were two thousand.
After which he disbanded his army, which he found no way useful to him in the affairs he came about; for they behaved themselves very disorderly, and disobeyed his orders, and what Varus desired them to do, and this out of regard to that gain which they made by the mischief they did.
As for himself, when he was informed that ten thousand Jews had gotten together, he made haste to catch them; but they did not proceed so far as to fight him, but, by the advice of Achiabus, they came together, and delivered themselves up to him: hereupon Varus forgave the crime of revolting to the multitude, but sent their several commanders to Caesar, many of whom Caesar dismissed; but for the several relations of Herod who had been among these men in this war, they were the only persons whom he punished, who, without the least regard to justice, fought against their own kindred.
Josephus mentions the crucifixion of Jesus in passing. The passage is judged authentic by most scholars once the obvious Christian additions marked here in brackets and italics are removed:.
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, [ if it be lawful to call him a man; ] for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher [ of such men as receive the truth with pleasure, ] He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles.
In the very next paragraph Josephus recounts the crucifixion in Rome of the priests of Isis, ordered by the Emperor Tiberius himself, for their misdeeds in arranging the sexual seduction of a virtuous women. About the same time also another sad calamity put the Jews into disorder, and certain shameful practices happened about the temple of Isis that was at Rome.
When he had said this, he went his way. But now she began to come to the sense of the grossness of what she had done, and rent her garments, and told her husband of the horrid nature of this wicked contrivance, and prayed him not to neglect to assist her in this case. So he discovered the fact to the emperor; whereupon Tiberius inquired into the matter thoroughly by examining the priests about it, and ordered them to be crucified, as well as Ide , who was the occasion of their perdition, and who had contrived the whole matter, which was so injurious to the woman.
He also demolished the temple of Isis, and gave order that her statue should be thrown into the river Tiber; while he only banished Mundus, but did no more to him, because he supposed that what crime he had committed was done out of the passion of love.
And these were the circumstances which concerned the temple of Isis, and the injuries occasioned by her priests. I now return to the relation of what happened about this time to the Jews at Rome, as I formerly told you I would. The sons of Judas the Galilean, who had led a revolt in 6 C. Then came Tiberius Alexander as successor to Fadus; he was the son of Alexander the alabarch of Alexandria, which Alexander was a principal person among all his contemporaries, both for his family and wealth: he was also more eminent for his piety than this his son Alexander, for he did not continue in the religion of his country.
Under these procurators that great famine happened in Judea, in which queen Helena bought corn in Egypt at a great expense, and distributed it to those that were in want, as I have related already. And besides this, the sons of Judas of Galilee were now slain; I mean of that Judas who caused the people to revolt, when Cyrenius came to take an account of the estates of the Jews, as we have showed in a foregoing book.
Josephus clearly made up this speech, since by his own telling, all those who would have heard the speech would have killed themselves. We must conclude that Josephus had no problem making stuff up. This is not surprising. It was the norm among ancient historians to sacrifice truth and accuracy for beauty and rhetoric. Indeed, the decision of vanquished warriors to kill themselves rather than fall into the hands of their enemies was rather a recurring motif among ancient historians, appearing in many histories Prof.
Shaye Cohen of the Harvard Divinity School compiled a list of 16 examples in an article published in It is not a stretch to imagine that Josephus would borrow this theme from one of these other histories and apply it to the Sacarrii in order to make them, and by extension Jews, seem more noble and praiseworthy in the eyes of the Romans.
After all, this is clearly the goal of his books. It is likely then that the mass suicide atop Masada was made up by Josephus. Indeed, at least some of the details of the story provided by Josephus have not been supported by archaeological excavation at Masada.
Even if Josephus is evidently not completely reliable, this does not mean we should disregard everything he tells us as mere fabrication. Like all other texts from antiquity, the facts stated therein need to be evaluated critically. Some are surely false, but some are well likely to be true. Take for example the person of John of Giscala, one of the leaders in the Jewish revolt, of whom we know only through the writings of Josephus. But surely we can believe Josephus that this man existed, that he led forces against the Romans, and that he was supported by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.
Would he say the Sanhedrin supported his rival just in order to fool future historians? Even though the reported appearances are not consistent between Gospels, and absent from the original version of Mark , a resurrection belief was held by disciples from the earliest days Aslan , pp. The key detail in Gospel reports of a risen Jesus is that many include initial misidentifications.
This is odd on the face of it. But it makes perfect sense if the disciples reported visions or impressions of the voice and likeness of Jesus in others, which later became interpreted as a physical resurrection. Gospel reports of misidentifications are significant, in that they are not likely to be later insertions, because they could be read to cast doubt on the claim of a bodily risen Jesus.
People of the first century commonly believed in possession by demons or spirits, visitations by gods, and the transmigration of souls, and the Old and New Testaments are full of references to such things Smith ; Carrier c , p.
The disciples walk with an unrecognized Jesus, and prevail upon him to eat and spend the evening with them, all the while being harangued by Jesus for not believing! Luke —30 In Luke they recognize the stranger as Jesus, even as he vanishes from their sight. Finally, Luke describes the apostles reminding themselves of how their hearts burned while the stranger talked to them. This episode in Luke is plausibly explained as a memory of seeing and feeling the presence of Jesus in others soon after the crucifixion.
Modern studies clearly document how intense grief can result in the hallucination of a loved one, and mass hallucinations are a well-documented phenomenon Parsons , pp. There are several other examples in the Gospels. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
No suggestion is made that Jesus was in disguise. Mary Magdalene thought it was the gardener because, probably, it was the gardener, and she came to feel, in her distressed state, that there was something of her master in the person before her. And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked into the country.
The Gospels and 1 Corinthians —8 report several appearances of a post-crucifixion Jesus to his followers. The Gospels depict Jesus as resurrected in the body that was buried, but Paul in 1 Corinthians —54 implies that the risen Jesus left his old body behind and appeared in a glorious new body. Notably, the words Paul uses are neutral with respect to either version Parsons , p.
This contradiction can be reconciled by concluding that the first Christians, including Paul, thought Jesus was resurrected in a new body, and that the appearances were visions and dreams.
The belief in a physical resurrection of the body that was buried, and appearances in the flesh, as reported in the Gospels, evolved later Carrier c , pp.
Paul says little about the crucifixion of Jesus, perhaps because the Roman world thought it abominable to worship a crucified god, and this was a major impediment to proselytization Hengel , pp. Some Bible scholars point to this difference in the nature of a risen Jesus as supporting a view that he was just a composite of mythical figures, not a real person Fitzgerald , pp. Clues in the Gospels, evidence from the Jewish historian Josephus, belief in the transmigration of souls, and well-documented examples of erroneous declarations of death, combine to support a natural explanation for the resurrection and appearance stories on which Christian faith rests: 1 Jesus survives his short stay on the cross, and 2 is discovered to be barely alive by the few followers who retrieve him.
Christianity accepts a supernatural interpretation of the empty tomb and appearance stories, but compared to other historical claims of the supernatural, the evidence is extremely thin. A voluminous record of the Salem witch trials is preserved in original court transcripts, depositions, diaries, and letters, yet despite this excellent record from the relatively recent past, few modern people think there was an epidemic of witchcraft.
Instead it only required a confluence of natural events and superstition to bring about the execution of 20 people, and two dogs, on charges of witchcraft McCormick , pp. Further, if one believes witchcraft was afoot in Salem, then one also should accept that Joseph Smith really recovered divine golden plates, because Mormons have statements from eleven contemporaries testifying to their existence Fitzgerald , p.
In these, and many more cases, the overwhelming majority of observers accept a natural explanation for claimed supernatural events. The resurrection and appearance stories about Jesus should be seen the same way. Although the probability of the chain of events proposed in this paper is low, it is surely far larger than the supernatural model.
It does not require Jesus to survive his crucifixion and meet his followers Joyce , or to have his body stolen Carrier b , or be removed from the tomb after the Sabbath and reburied in a pauper or criminal graveyard Lowder , pp. One only need propose that Jesus was still alive barely when recovered and envision how events most likely would unfold from there.
Aslan, R. Zealot, the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. Google Scholar. Bondeson, J. Buried alive: The terrifying history of our most primal fear. New York: W. Carrier, R. The burial of Jesus in light of jewish Law. Lowder Eds. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. The plausibility of theft. The spiritual body of christ and the legend of the empty Tomb.
Craig, W. Reasonable faith: Christian truth and apologetics. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. On guard: Defending your faith with reason and precision. Cook, Publisher. Crossan, J. Excavating Jesus: Beneath the stones, behind the texts—the key discoveries for understanding Jesus in his world. Davies, R. The Lazarus syndrome: Burial alive and other horrors of the undead.
Derrett, J. Financial aspects of the resurrection. Fitzgerald, D. Nailed ten christian myths that show Jesus never existed at all. Lulu Press, Inc. Self-published by David Fitzgerald www. Habermas, G.
The case for the resurrection of Jesus. Hengel, M. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. Josephus, F. The life of Flavius Josephus.
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