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Text: Acts
17:30-31
Eye-Witnesses to Empty Tomb:
appearances and testimony (1
Cor. 15)
Sunday (in and around Jerusalem): Mary, the
women, those on Road to Emmaus, Simon Peter, all apostles except
Thomas.
Sunday one week after resurrection: apostles
including Thomas
Next forty days: appeared in Galilee, 500 at one
time, James
Jerusalem (before ascension):
apostles
Paul (later)
Was It a Myth (legend)?
Myths arise over centuries; this did not.
The witnesses present this as factual. Even Jews
did not claim it as myth.
It was not mistaken identity.
Other Suggestions?
Some say the disciples did not know where the
tomb of Jesus was.
Joseph of Arimathea owned the tomb. Soldiers
guarded it.
Some say the disciples mistook someone else for
Jesus after that Sunday.
All of them… over 500? Disciples saw and
touched him (1
John 1).
Some say the disciples had hallucinations about
Jesus.
Hundreds of them… all mentally disturbed?
Why did Jews not produce the body?
The Jews never used the “occupied tomb,”
mistaken identity argument.
Could have totally stopped Christianity by
producing the body.
What about “Lost Tomb of Jesus” (by
James Cameron on Discovery Channel)?
Claims rejected by
academic community (Archaeologists, Sociologists, Historians). Earlier BBC documentary also
rejected.
Assertions:
Family tomb at Talpiot (1980) contain ossuaries
of Jesus’ family.
Names included “Jesus, son of Joseph,” and
“Judah, son of Jesus.”
“Mariamne Mara” is actually Mary Magdalene.
This proves Mary Magdalene married to Jesus and
they had a son.
Fallacies:
Jesus family was from Nazareth, not Jerusalem,
where tomb would be.
Jesus’ family was poor and would not have
resources to own a tomb?
The ornamental decorations on the ossuaries
distinguishes the tomb
(Jesus’ tomb if he was not raised must have
been hidden or Jews would have produced the body.)
Jesus is never called “son of Joseph”. Joseph
not his real father.
Why use a borrowed tomb (Joseph of Arimathea) if
owned one nearby? These names include one generation. Tombs
and ossuaries almost always include several generations.
So What Happened to Jesus’ body?
(Only conclusion, HE AROSE!)
Did disciples take the body?
How did they get past the Roman guard?
Did Matthew lie about the Roman guard?
Why? Disciples died for a buried Lord and big lie
if they stole it.
Did the Jews take the body?
Why did they not produce the body when the
preaching began?
Glory
to God in the church by Christ Jesus
Franklin
Church of Christ
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