We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
A New Natural Interpretation of the Empty Tomb.
- Authors
Eisenberg, Leonard
- Abstract
Clues in the Gospels, evidence from 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 Easter story: (1) Jesus survives his short stay on the cross, and (2) is discovered to be barely alive by the few followers who retrieve him. (3) Fearful because they have illegally retrieved a condemned man, they carry out a decoy burial in a tomb. (4) Jesus expires soon after, and is buried quietly in an anonymous grave, but (5) rumor of his survival reaches his followers, as well as the Romans, who (6) open the tomb and find it empty, except for burial linen used in the decoy. (7) To sooth their grief the disciples seize on the rumor of Jesus' survival and encourage each other to hear the voice and see the image of their master in others. Although the probability of the scenario proposed herein is low, it is surely far larger than the supernatural one. It also is arguably more likely than other non-supernatural hypotheses. It does not require Jesus to survive his crucifixion and meet his followers, or, if Jesus died, to have his body stolen, or be removed from the tomb after the Sabbath and reburied in a lower class graveyard. One only need propose that Jesus was still alive (barely) when taken down from the cross and envision how events most likely would unfold from there.
- Subjects
BIBLE. Gospels; JEWISH historians; CRUCIFIXION of Jesus Christ; IMMORTALITY of the soul; CHRISTIAN apologetics; RESURRECTION
- Publication
International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 2016, Vol 80, Issue 2, p133
- ISSN
0020-7047
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11153-015-9551-0