[viaveritasvita]

"12 strong able bodied men could easily empty that tomb in the night. It wasn't maintained even for a single day."

For the sake of argument, let's say that happened. 12 men stole Jesus' body (actually, I think it was only 11 at this point since Judas Iscariot had committed suicide, but I digress). How do you explain that they went to their deaths for a hoax? It seems that one of them would have exposed the hoax to save his life. Colson said it best when he said that the Watergate conspirators broke down at the threat of prison, let alone death! I think John Dean lasted only a few months before turning state's witness!! It stretches the bounds of reason and what we know of human nature to say that this many humans would have gone to the deaths for a hoax.

[PatrickHenry]

It stretches the bounds of reason and what we know of human nature to say that this many humans would have gone to the deaths for a hoax.

I'm not a fan of the "hoax theory" at all, but it's not impossible to find a dozen people who will behave contrary to all reason. I'm willing to bet (knowing the bet can't be tested) that you could easily find a dozen people in America today who would gladly go to their deaths for the proposition that Al Gore was the true winner of the 2000 election. Pick a cause (globalization, the whale, the redwoods, whatever), you'll find some zealots who will die for it. The truth of the NT is not established by the subsequent behavior of the apostles, but by their message.

[gore3000]

It stretches the bounds of reason and what we know of human nature to say that this many humans would have gone to the deaths for a hoax.

An excellent point! People are unwilling to die for a lie. This was shown abundantly well with the death of Hitler where the day after there were no Nazis in Germany or after the fall of the Soviets where nowadays there are no Communists.