Is the Empty Tomb of Jesus Historical?

Hi, my name is Ryan Turner with the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry and the title of this video is is the empty tomb of Jesus historical? Most scholars today argue that the tomb of Jesus was indeed found empty on that first Easter morning.

Gary Habermas, in fact, a noted expert on the resurrection, states that about 75 of critical scholars that he surveyed accept the historicity of the empty tomb. So why is the empty tomb historical is a logical question to ask?

The JET Argument for the Empty Tomb

There are basically three main reasons why the empty tomb is a historical fact. They fall under the acronym which is very convenient known as JET. J is for the Jerusalem factor, E is for enemy testimony, and T is for the testimony of women.

So that's J-E-T, JET. So the first line of evidence we have for the historicity of the empty tomb is the Jerusalem factor. The early Christians basically began preaching Jesus's resurrection and empty tomb in Jerusalem.

We know this is the case basically from the numerous references in the Gospels we have, such as in Luke 24, 47, where it speaks of the Apostles. You know, they're going to preach his name beginning at Jerusalem.

Also, you can look at the book of Acts. And Paul's undisputed letters such as Galatians 1 to 2, where Paul goes up to Jerusalem and he meets the key Apostles of the church in Jerusalem. So there's already a thriving Christian community in Jerusalem at Paul's time and the early Christians were preaching the message in Jerusalem at an extremely early date.

And this is pretty much accepted by most critical historians today. So Christianity really would have had a very difficult time preaching this message of a resurrected Jesus in an empty tomb in Jerusalem if the body of Jesus was in fact still in the tomb.

So, you know, they were just all the disciples or all the critics of Christianity rather would have to do is just pull the body out of the tomb and say, hey, here it is. You guys are having a farce and you're preaching a false message and let's, you know, squelch this Jesus movement.

So the first evidence we looked at was a Jerusalem factor. The second line of evidence is the enemy testimony we have or enemy attestation. That's the E in the acronym of JET. In other words, the early critics of Christianity indirectly presuppose the empty tomb.

So when these critics of Christianity, you know, criticize Christianity or criticize the early Apostles who are preaching Jesus's empty tomb and resurrection, they never questioned the fact that the tomb or the body was gone from the tomb.

We see this in Matthew 28, 12 through 13 where the Jews, you know, pay these Roman soldiers to say that the disciples stole the body of Jesus and that was the Jews' attempt or the Jewish leaders at that time, their attempt to explain why the tomb was empty.

So again, these Jewish leaders in Matthew 28, 12 through 13 aren't questioning the fact that the tomb was indeed empty. Justin Martyr also in his dialogue with Trifo 108, for example, as a reference, he also mentions the fact that the tomb was empty in their discussions.

Or Tertullian, a little bit later of a writer, he mentions in De Spectaculis 30 that the tomb was also empty. So we see that there's no one really questioning the fact that Jesus was not in the tomb. So there's no body there.

The Testimony of Women in the Ancient World

So again, we have J, the Jerusalem factor. We have E, the enemy testimony. And then we have the final acronym, which is T, the final letter in our acronym. And I think this is probably the strongest evidence for the fact that Jesus's tomb was empty.

It's the T, which stands for the testimony of women. The women, basically, in the Gospels are the first and chief witnesses of the empty tomb. This occurs in Mark and occurs in other Gospels. Due to the lack of respect for women in first century Jewish culture, unfortunately, it is extremely unlikely that if the empty tomb was a myth, that the Apostles would appeal to women as their chief or first witnesses to that myth.

So instead, they would appeal to men as their primary witnesses, namely having, you know, the Apostles be the ones who are triumphantly going to the tomb. But instead, the Apostles are cowards and the first witnesses are women.

So even in the Gospel of Luke, the empty tomb and the appearances of Jesus to the women are seen as nonsense by the disciples. That's in Luke 24, chapter 24, verses 10 through 11. So I also want to go over some basic quotes from ancient historians that kind of talk about the testimony of women and how it was viewed in antiquity.

The following are some interesting quotations basically regarding ancient people's views of women. The first one is from Josephus. He was a historian during the time around Jesus's life. And he wrote a little bit later, actually around 100 AD or so, and this is what he says.

He says, But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex. Nor let servants be admitted to give testimony on account of the ignobility of their soul, since it is probable that they may not speak truth, either out of hope of gain or fear of punishment.

That's Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews, 4, 8, 15. So basically, Josephus is comparing women to slaves and neither of their testimony could be seen as reliable. Perhaps more interesting is in the Talmud, there's two quotations.

The first one says, Any evidence which a woman gives is not valid to offer. Also, they are not valid to offer. This is equivalent to saying that one who is rabbinically accounted a robber is qualified to give the same evidence as a woman.

Let me read that again. That is equivalent to saying that one who is rabbinically accounted a robber is qualified to give the same evidence as a woman. So women's testimony was not valid and were not seen very highly at all.

And that's in the Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 1 .8. You can also look at another quotation. This is probably the one that strikes to the heart of it in the Talmud. It says this, Sooner let the words of the law be burnt than delivered to women.

That's in the Talmud, Sotah 19a. So women's testimony was unfortunately not looked at very highly in ancient history. Therefore, due to the Jerusalem factor, the enemy testimony, and the testimony of women, which form our acronym J-E-T or JET, it is quite reasonable to believe that Jesus's tomb was indeed found empty on that Sunday morning.

Thank you.