Empty tomb

This article is about the Christian belief. For the type of monument, see cenotaph.

"Entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment" - an image from the Pericopes of Henry II

The empty tomb is the Christian tradition that on the morning of the first day of the week (Easter Sunday) female followers of Jesus went to the place where he had been buried and found the body gone. The story is recounted in the four gospels, but beyond this basic outline they agree on very little. Mark is the earliest, and in its original ending the women see a young man at the tomb and flee when he tells them that Jesus will meet the disciples in Galilee, telling no one what they have seen; Matthew introduces guards and a curious doublet whereby the women are told twice, by angels and then by Jesus, that he will meet the disciples in Galilee; Luke changes Mark's one "young man" to two, adds Peter's inspection of the tomb, and deletes the promise that Jesus would meet his disciples in Galilee; John reduces the number of women to the solitary Mary Magdalene and introduces the "beloved disciple" who visits the tomb with Peter and is the first to understand its significance.

Gospel accounts

Overview

The four gospels were almost certainly not by eyewitnesses, at least in their final forms, but were instead the end-products of long oral and written transmission. Three of the four, Matthew, Mark and Luke, are called the synoptics (meaning "seeing together"), because they present very similar stories, and it is generally agreed that this is because two of them, Matthew and Luke, have used Mark as their source. The earliest of them, Mark, dates probably from c. AD 70, some forty years after the death of Jesus, while Matthew and Luke date from around AD 85–90. John, the last gospel to be completed, began circulating between 90 and 110, and its narrative of the empty tomb is not merely a different form of the story told in the synoptics, but after John 20:2 differs to such an extent that it cannot be harmonised with the earlier three.

The four gospels preserve two distinct traditions. In the first, preserved in Mark and in John 20:1-10, the women who discover the tomb do not tell the disciples of their discovery; in the second, in Matthew and Luke and John 20:11-18, they do, and this version adds a visit to the tomb by various disciples to verify the women's words. The longer secondary version has a clearly apologetic purpose, proving that the disciples themselves had nothing to do with the disappearance of the body. Both Luke and John had difficulty including this secondary version in their gospels, Luke placing it in his road to Emmaus narrative, John placing it, rather awkwardly, after his version of the primary story.

Mark

Mark 16:1-8 tells of the women fleeing from the empty tomb and telling no one what they have seen, and the general scholarly view is that this was the original ending of this gospel, with the remaining verses, Mark 16:9-16, being added later. The imagery of a young man in a white robe, and the reaction of the women, indicate that this is an encounter with an angel. It probably represents a complete unit of oral tradition taken over by the author.The empty tomb fills the women with fear and alarm, not with faith in the risen Lord, although the mention of a meeting in Galilee is evidence of some sort of previous, pre-Markan, tradition linking Galilee and the resurrection.

Matthew

Matthew revises Mark's account to make it more convincing and coherent. The description of the angel is taken from Daniel's angel with a face "like the appearance of lightning" (Daniel 10:6) and his God with "raiment white as snow" (Daniel 7:9), and Daniel also provides the reaction of the guards (Daniel 10:7-9). The introduction of the guard is apparently aimed at countering stories that Jesus' body had been stolen by his disciples, thus eliminating any explanation of the empty tomb other than that offered by the angel, that he has been raised. Matthew introduces a curious doublet whereby the women are told twice, by the angels and then by Jesus, that he will meet the disciples in Galilee (Mathew 28:7-10) - the reasons for this are unknown.

Luke

Luke changes Mark's one "young man" to two, makes reference to earlier passion predictions (Luke 24:7), and adds Peter's inspection of the tomb. He also deletes the promise that Jesus would meet his disciples in Galilee - in Mark and Matthew Jesus tells the disciples to meet him there, but in Luke the post-resurrection appearances are only in Jerusalem. Mark and Luke tell the reader that the women visited the tomb in order to finish anointing the body of Jesus, but this explanation seems artificial given that it could have been done on the evening of the crucifixion rather than 36 hours later; in Matthew the women came simply to see the tomb, and in John no reason is given. The story ends with Peter (alone, not with the "beloved disciple" as in John) visiting the tomb and seeing the burial cloths, but instead of believing in the resurrection he remains perplexed.

Comparison of the synoptics

The following table, with translations from the New International Version, allows the three versions to be compared. (Luke 24:12, in which Peter goes to the tomb, may be an addition to the original gospel taken from John's story).

	Mark 16:1–8	Matthew 28:1–10	Luke 24:1–12
The women at the tomb	Mark 16:1–4 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb, and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.	Matthew 28:1–4 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.	Luke 24:1–2 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
The angelic message	Mark 16:5–7 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”	Matthew 28:5–7 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”	Luke 24:3–7 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words.
Informing the disciples	Mark 16:8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.	Matthew 28:8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.	Luke 24:9–11 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.
The message from Jesus		Matthew 28:9-10 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Disciples at the tomb			Luke 24:12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

John

John introduces the "beloved disciple", who visits the tomb with Peter and understands its significance before Peter. The author seems to have combined three traditions, one involving a visit to the tomb by several women early in the morning (of which the "we" in "we do not know where they have taken him" is a fragmentary remnant), a second involving a visit to the empty tomb by Peter and perhaps by other male disciples, and a tradition involving an appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene. John has reduced this to the solitary Mary Magdalene in order to introduce the conversation between her and Jesus, but the presence of "we" when she informs the disciples may be a remnant of the original group of women, although since mourning and the preparation of bodies by anointing were social rather than solitary activities the original version probably involved the group of women.

John's chapter 20 can be divided into three scenes: (1) the discovery of the empty tomb, verses 1-10; (2) appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene, 11-18; and (3) appearances to the disciples, especially Thomas, verses 19-29; the last is not part of the "empty tomb" episode and is not included in the following table.

	John 20:1–10 Discovery of the empty tomb	John 20:11–18 Appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene at the tomb	John 20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.	John 20:11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb
The angelic message		John 20:12-13 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
Informing the disciples	John 20:2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
Disciples at the tomb	John 20:3-10 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
The message from Jesus		John 20:14-18 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Evolution of Christ's resurrection in early Christian texts

The resurrection belief held by Jesus's first followers was based on traditions that he had predicted it, on Jewish scriptural prophecy, and on his post-Crucifixion appearances as recorded in Paul. The earliest of these appears in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, written by Paul about 55 CE, but possibly originating in the Christian community of Antioch in the thirties:

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas (i.e. Peter), and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.(1 Corinthians 15:3–8)

The empty tomb however, is not explicitly mentioned in First Corinthians 15:3-8, and in Acts 2:14-36 Peter proclaims the resurrection on the basis of psalm 16 (Jesus will not go to Sheol) and psalm 110 (he will instead be seated in heaven on the right hand of God) without mentioning the tomb.

According to Raymond E. Brown, N. T. Wright and Gary Habermas, the current scholar consensus is in favour of the historicity of the empty tomby. Other scholars disagree and state that the empty tomb is a late development: this late appearance would explain the numerous contradictions between the four accounts, with, for example, Mark and Matthew having Jesus promise to meet the disciples in Galilee while Luke has all the appearances in Jerusalem. However, Ed Parish Sanders argues that the contradictions seem to have originated by the fact that several of the disciples had claimed to have seen Jesus after the resurrection, giving birth to some kind of "competition" among different traditions.

N. T. Wright argues that the account of the empty tomb and the visionary experiences point towards the historical reality of the resurrection. He suggests that multiple lines of evidence from the New Testament and the early Christian beliefs it reflects shows that it would be highly unlikely that belief in the empty tomb would simply appear without a clear basis in the memory of early Christians.

Cultural background

Second Temple Judaism

Main article: Jewish eschatology

Jewish belief in resurrection has very deep roots, but its first clear statement is found in the final chapter of the Book of Daniel, c. 164 BCE: "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt"; by the time of Jesus it was widespread. Professor Daniel R. Schwartz from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem states that without the resurrection of Jesus, Christianity "would have disappeared like the movements following other charismatic Jewish figures of the 1st century."

The Osiris-bed, where he renews the harvest cycle in Egypt.

Greco-Roman culture

The Greeks and Romans also believed in the reality of resurrection, and Christians knew of the numerous resurrection-events which had been experienced by persons other than Jesus: the early 3rd century theologian Origen, for example, did not deny the resurrection of the 7th century BCE poet Aristeas or the immortality of Antinous, the beloved of the 2nd century CE emperor Hadrian, but said the first had been the work of daemons, not God, while the second, unlike Jesus, was unworthy of worship.

Emphasis on resurrection after death permeated throughout the Greco-Roman world through the Hellenic Mysteries of Isis, which were themselves modeled after the Eleusinian Mysteries. The ancient Eleusinian Mysteries beliefs centered on the rebirth of Persephone as the mythic image of the eternity of life and initiation was motivated by a reward in the afterlife.

Christianity

For 1st-century Jews and Greeks an empty tomb was a sign that the dead person had been taken into the divine realm. These rapture stories, told always from the point of view of witnesses left behind, described the subject taken body and soul into heaven at the conclusion of life and following the appearance of a heavenly being, whether an angel or God himself, and any serious rapture claim needed at least the absence of a corpse and preferably an empty tomb. In the gospels Jesus is presented as resurrected in the body, but it is clearly not the everyday body: he is not recognised by the disciples on the road to Emmaeus in Luke (the episode follows immediately from Luke's empty tomb narrative), and in John Mary Magdalene fails to recognise the "gardener" until he speaks to her.

See also

• Church of the Holy Sepulchre
• Garden Tomb
• Life of Jesus in the New Testament
• Resurrection of Jesus
• Stolen body hypothesis
• Swoon hypothesis
• Lost body hypothesis
• Substitution hypothesis

References

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