WERE THERE WOMEN AT THE TOMB OF JESUS?

The gospels say that a miracle man called Jesus Christ lived. They say he died by crucifixion and three days later he rose again. The tomb he was placed in was found wide open on Sunday morning, by women, with the stone that had been across the entrance moved back and the tomb was mysteriously empty. His body was gone. The gospels never say that anybody saw the body rising or coming out of the tomb. No evidence is given that he wasn’t stolen. Women were the first that we know of who were at the tomb.

The women at the tomb is a complete fiction. If there were no women at the tomb then it is more likely that somebody could have opened the tomb and stole the body of Jesus or let him out. For it would be untrue that the Marys saw an angel open the tomb which was empty. Then it would be untrue that some of the apostles went to the tomb because of the women. And the women certainly were not there to anoint the body. The soldiers would be no argument against theft for Matthew never says that his belief that they knew Jesus had supernaturally vanished was verifiable and anyway it was unlikely to be. If there were no women then the angels and the visions and the apostles’ arrival at the tomb were invented.

If the women had really found the tomb empty they would have been blamed for taking the body and dealt with accordingly. And Mark and Luke state that they were inside the tomb which would increase the danger of their getting into trouble and being blackmailed by the bent authorities.

Female friends of Jesus would not have been near the tomb to anoint Jesus on Sunday morning especially if there were soldiers there. They could have been tortured to find out where the apostles were. The apostles were hiding in case what would happen to Jesus would happen to them for he was accused of crimes against the empire thus implicating them as well.

When the disciples had went into hiding would the women have been likely to visit the tomb and risk being captured and forced to tell where they were hiding?

The women supposedly went to the tomb on Sunday to put spices on the body of Jesus.  This unnecessary effort suggests that there was concern about Jesus smelling.  It is almost as if there were others about to use the tomb.  And if Jesus had rotted fast.  The women carted expensive spices around at unearthly hours alone and as if robbery was not a threat.  Nothing about the story makes sense.  The women by trespassing on the tomb could have got into grave trouble for they were not relations of Jesus.  The women are just a lie made up explain where the empty tomb tale came from and to explain how the tomb was found to be empty.

The Luke Gospel has the women getting the spices on the day Jesus died before the sun had set. But Mark places it on the next day.  The lie is very suspicious as is how the women were so sure they could put the spices on Jesus and get to the tomb! It makes sense if they were getting the tomb robbed or going to another one and going to pretend it was Jesus' and that the body had vanished.  It is too neat - the women must have been clairvoyants.
 
There was no need for the women to come and anoint the body for Joseph of Arimathea had anointed and prepared the body for Jesus was buried according to the Jewish custom (John 19:39,40) and would have told them that for they were there. He would not have wanted anybody dragged back to the tomb when it was dangerous. To bury a body without oils and spices would have been scandalous (The Womb and the Tomb, page 115). Joseph could have had it done quickly for he had helpers so saying it was omitted because the Sabbath was near is silly. Would these followers of Jesus who detested Jewish scruples about the Sabbath rest have paid heed to them? If it was not done right perhaps somebody came to do it and discovered that Jesus was alive having survived the crucifixion and took him away. But it could have been done rapidly and still done correctly and several pairs of hands could have had it completed in five minutes. The bodies of criminals were usually dumped so Jesus might have been removed from the tomb to avoid this. Whoever did it could not admit it.

The gospel disagreement about the number of women at the tomb shows that they could have been lying about the women being there at all. At best, this observation commands us to be undecided and not to include the women in any argument for supernaturalism.

Jesus would have understood if they could not get to the tomb to finish the anointing. The women running to the apostles after what happened to the tomb could have blown the apostles’ cover. The whole thing is incredible and shows that much of the resurrection story is legendary. The fact that the stories don’t try to resolve the absurdities shows that they were kept secret until they were published and secrecy means embarrassment. Christians say that when the women were at the burial there was no need for them to hide. There was when they knew where the apostles were and the apostles believed themselves to be wanted men.

The women are not mentioned in Paul’s list of witnesses to the resurrection though the list was spelled out for those who accepted the testimony of women. This implies that the women were either incoherent and useless witnesses or their testimony was cooked up later for it would have been put in the list when the list was made to close up those Christians who had come to deny the resurrection of Jesus. Only the women could verify the reason for the tomb being empty for the apostles only saw the tomb after the tomb had been left with nobody about when anything could have happened. Had Paul believed in the empty tomb he would have had to give us the testimony of the women.
 

FURTHER READING

Christianity for the Tough-Minded, Ed John Warwick Montgomery, Bethany Fellowship Inc, Minneapolis, 1973
Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Vol 1, Josh McDowell, Alpha, Scripture Press Foundation, Bucks, 1995
He Walked Among Us, Josh McDowell and Bill Wilson, Alpha, Cumbria, 2000
Jesus: The Evidence, Ian Wilson, Pan, London, 1985
The First Easter, What Really Happened? HJ Richards, Collins/Fount Glasgow, 1980
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, Corgi, London, 1982
The Jesus Event, Martin R Tripole SJ, Alba House, New York, 1980
The Jesus Inquest, Charles Foster, Monarch Books, Oxford, 2006
The Passover Plot, Hugh Schonfield, Element, Dorset, 1996
The Resurrection Factor, Josh McDowell, Alpha, Scripture Press Foundation, Bucks, 1993
The Resurrection of Jesus, Pinchas Lapide, SPCK, London, 1984
The Unauthorised Version, Robin Lane Fox, Penguin, Middlesex, 1992
The Second Messiah, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, Arrow, London, 1998
The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, Raymond E Brown, Paulist Press, New York, 1973
The Womb and the Tomb, Hugh Montifiore, Fount – HarperCollins, London, 1992
Verdict on the Empty Tomb, Val Grieve Falcon, London, 1976
Who Moved the Stone? Frank Morison, OM Publishing, Cumbria, 1997