The Wrong Tomb Hypothesis

One of the alternative explanations offered to the resurrection of Jesus is the idea that, on Easter morning, the disciples simply went to the wrong tomb, one that happened to be empty, and concluded that Jesus had risen from the dead.

There are multiple problems with this hypothesis. Here are the biggest ones:

1) The Gospels indicate that the women who visited the tomb were eyewitnesses of the burial. The Gospels even name the women involved. Mark states, “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid” (Mark 15:47). Then, describing the morning of the Resurrection, Mark adds, “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him” (Mark 16:1). Mary Magdalene was thus a witness both of the burial and the empty tomb. She was simply going back to the same place she saw Jesus buried. The odds of her going to the wrong tomb would be extremely low.

2) The tomb’s location was publicly known. It was in the place where Jesus was crucified:

Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there (John 19:41-42).

The women merely had to return to the site of the Crucifixion, making it even more unlikely they would go to the wrong tomb.

3) The owner of the tomb was known. It was Joseph of Arimathea, who had also performed the burial:

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb (Matt. 27:57-60).

The fact that it was Joseph of Arimathea who buried Jesus is also recorded in the other three Gospels. Jesus was buried in the tomb of a prominent member of the Jerusalem Christian community, making it even less likely that the disciples went to the wrong tomb. If there had been any doubt about the matter, it would have been dispelled by consulting Joseph of Arimathea.

4) Matthew indicates that a guard was placed on the tomb (Matt. 27:62-66). The guard served to mark the spot and make it obvious where Jesus was buried.

5) The wrong tomb hypothesis implies that Jesus’ body remained where it was buried. But once the disciples began proclaiming the Resurrection, the Jewish authorities could simply have gone to the correct tomb, performing a search of recent burials if necessary, and produced Jesus’ corpse. Producing the body would be the obvious thing for the authorities to do, yet they didn’t.

6) This hypothesis does not explain why the disciples thought Jesus was resurrected. The disciples were not expecting a resurrection to happen in their own time. They viewed the resurrection of the dead as something that was to happen on the last day. In John’s Gospel, Jesus himself says,

This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:39-40).

Resurrection of the dead occurring at the end of the world was the common belief among Jews at the time. When Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, “Jesus said to [Martha], ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day’” (John 11:23-24).

Because it was believed that the resurrection of the dead would happen at the end of the world, the disciples had no reason to think that Jesus had been resurrected when his tomb was found empty.

7) In fact, the disciples did not leap to the conclusion that Jesus had been resurrected. Their first interpretation was that someone had simply moved Jesus’ body:

Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb (John 20:1-3).

After Peter and John saw the tomb empty, the idea that Jesus’ body has been moved remained:

Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?”
Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away” (John 20:11-15).

The idea that the body had been moved would be the logical explanation for Jews who thought the resurrection would happen at the end of the world.

8) The wrong tomb hypothesis does nothing to explain how the apostles could have thought they saw Jesus alive after the Crucifixion. If Jesus’ body were still lying in his tomb, why did the disciples claim to see him, hold conversations with him, and physically interact with him?

The wrong tomb hypothesis thus fails to explain the data we have concerning the Resurrection.

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