Testimony Wrought in Blood

The American Thinker ^ | 4/24/2011 | Vasko Kohlmayer

[Olympiad Fisherman]

Could the disciples have stolen Jesus' body at night and snuck by Roman guards and moved that huge stone without waking anyone up? Well, this was the very argument of the opponents of the early Church for some 25 years (see Matthew 28:11-15). No one was denying the facticity of the empty tomb ...

[tflabo]

One passage in the New Testament mentions that the tomb guards were bribed with money to say the disciples stole the body during the night.

[DaveTesla]

Matthew 28:11

11 Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came
into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the
things that were done.

12 And when they were assembled with the elders, and had
taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,

13 Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole
him away while we slept.

14 And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will
persuade him, and secure you.

15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught:
and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until
this day.

[Olympiad Fisherman]

Yes, this was precisely the debate between the religious leaders of Jerusalem and the early Church. Matthew asserted that Jesus was raised from the dead. Religious headquaters in Jerusalem said that the disciples stole the body at night while the Roman guards were asleep. Matthew wrote his gospel sometime before 70 AD, and so this particular debate was still hot at the time of his writing. Furthermore, lawyers in Caesarea were arguing over this stuff as well when Paul was under house arrest around in 60 AD, “When the accusers stood up, they began bringing charges against him not of such crimes as I was expecting, but they simply had some points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a dead man, Jesus, whom Paul asserted to be alive (Acts 25:20).”