ROMANS OR JEWS AT THE TOMB?
The Matthew Gospel asserts that there were guards at the tomb. If there were guards, were they the Temple Guards who were all Jews or Roman soldiers? There is big if regarding whether or not guards were really there at all.
The main thing is that it does not matter when you are a sceptic
about the resurrection of Jesus. If guards were there, and if
they truly seen an angel open the tomb as Matthew says, they still
saw nothing in relation to what happened to the body of Jesus. And
they were liars for they took a bribe to lie that Jesus was stolen
from the tomb by his disciples. They were going to say they
slept on duty so how would they know? They would lose their
jobs. None of it makes any sense. Some think they stole
the body in order to get bribed.
When the chief priests and the Pharisees told Pilate they wanted a guard he
said, “You have a guard” (Matthew 27:65 AB). Professor Alford said that this can
be translated as saying they have got a guard or that they must get a guard
(page 211, Evidence that Demands a Verdict). But Mgr. E de Camus says that the
word for guards is a Latin word, koustodia. The gospel was written in Greek and
Latin was the language of Rome so guards must mean Roman Guards when the Latin
word was employed. If Pilate used the present imperative meaning he meant, “Get
a guard” this means he meant his own guards (page 73, The Resurrection Factor).
He could not just order the Temple guards out for he did not know exactly what
they were doing that night and why so it had to be his own guards. He told them
to get his own guards.
Frank Morison thinks that if the guards were Roman it would be absurd to think
of the Jews saying they were able to save them from the death penalty for
sleeping if the Governor got wind of it (page 189, Who Moved the Stone?). That
is why he thinks the guard was composed of the Jewish Guard for the Temple and
not the Romans. But the gospel says they asked Pilate to set the guard instead
of asking him to let them set the guard. Also the gospel never actually mentions
the death-penalty – that is just a lie that is sneaked in to bolster up the
argument. If Pilate had accepted a Jewish guard and they failed to do their duty
they would have been in trouble for it was easy to get on the wrong side of
Pilate.
You could say there were no guards for story is inconsistent or that we have no
reason to believe there were.
If you are trying to influence a difficult sergeant or a politician you take a
number of people with you to increase the chance of getting listened to. The
gospel says that the chief priests and the Pharisees came before Pilate to ask
him to get the tomb guarded. This suggests that it was not the Jewish Guard for
one man could have successfully got Pilate to let the Jews’ own guards be used.
Also, the rule was that Roman soldiers guard tombs and graves where theft was
feared. The Jewish Guard were not for upholding Roman law for Rome only trusted
Gentiles. Rome banned grave-robbery so the Roman soldiers had to take care of
it.
Matthew would tell us if it was the Jewish Guard for they were trusted more by
his Jewish readers than by the Romans. He wants them to be witnesses to the
supernatural at the tomb for us. Jewish soldiers would not have taken on the job
in case they would have to take the body from the thieves and become unclean and
unfit to work in the Temple through it for a while.
Some surmise that the guards were Jewish for there was no chance that Jewish
guards would have been punished for sleeping on duty and only they would be able
to say they slept on duty which the Gospel of Matthew says they said for Roman
soldiers would have been punished - and if they were not punished nobody would
believe they that they were truthful (Evidence that Demands a Verdict Vol 1,
page 212). But any guards would have been punished for Pilate commanded that the
tomb be made secure. He was not going to let the Jews have a guard that could
get away with sleeping. Any guards deciding to tell such a lie is ridiculous and
simply would not be done.
The Jewish Temple Guard had to watch the Temple to prevent desecration and
people from going to forbidden territory. They had a religious function. The
Romans did not care what happened to the Temple as long as it was nothing
illegal in their law. The Temple Guards were relieved in the daytime but not at
night-time (page 214, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Vol 1). This means it was
unlikely for the Jewish Guard to be sent to the tomb on Saturday evening. Pilate
had desecrated the Temple and they would have been afraid to make do with fewer
men.
The Jews would not have needed Pilate’s permission to place their own guards at
the tomb. And how could Jewish guards work over the Sabbath? Could it be
possible that Pilate had commanded that nobody would know where Jesus was buried
and the high confidentiality was the reason guards could not be posted without
his consent? The Jews could have asked Pilate to have the tomb guarded without
knowing where the tomb was. This would tell us that the apostles and the women
lied about knowing where the tomb was in order to create the resurrection hoax.
The Temple Guards were always checked up on by the captain to make sure they
were not asleep. They got beaten up and their clothes burnt off if they were
caught sleeping. The Jews would have been especially anxious to make sure a
Jewish Guard at the tomb did not sleep. And they would have been paranoid about
the Romans doing the right things for when Pilate had to be asked to place
guards at the tomb it gave the probably inaccurate impression that the Romans
could not care less what happened to Jesus.
The Temple had a tremendous influx of visitors because of the feast. It is
impossible it believe that any guards would have been sent from the Temple to
the tomb of a Jesus who was popular and the Jews feared what the people might do
if anything bizarre happened to him like we are told in the Gospel. The priests
could have been attacked.
Maybe it is important to establish that the guards were Roman because that helps to
reveal the story of what Matthew says they did as deranged rubbish.
The WWW
Who is GA Wells? Rev Dr Gregory S. Neal
www.errantskeptics.org/G_A_Wells.htm
The Silent Jesus
www.askwhy.co.uk/awcnotes/cn4/0325SilentJesus.html#Justin
Apollonius the Nazarene, The Historical Apollonius versus the Historical Jesus
www.apollonius.net/bernard1e.html
Why Did the Apostles Die? Dave Matson,
www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/1997/4Why97.html
The “Historical” Jesus by Acharya S
www.truthbeknown.com/historicaljc.htm
How Did the Apostles Die?
www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/1997/4/4front97.html
History’s Troubling Silence About Jesus, Lee Salisbury
www.secweb.org/asset.asp?AssetID=102
Steven Carr discusses the Christian and apostolic martyrs
www.bowness.demon.co.uk/martyrs.htm
www.bowness.demon.co.uk/martyrs2.htm
Challenging the Verdict
A Cross-Examination of Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ
http://human.st/jesuspuzzle/CTVExcerptsOne.htm
http://human.st/jesuspuzzle/CTVExcerptsTwo.htm
http://human.st/jesuspuzzle/CTVExcerptsThree.htm#Twelve
The Martyrdoms of Peter and Paul, Peter Kirby
http://home.earthlink.net/~kirby/
The Martyrdoms: A Response, Peter Kirby
www.bowness.demon.co.uk/martyrs3.htm
A Sacrifice in Heaven,
http://human.st/jesuspuzzle/supp09.htm
The Evolution of Jesus of Nazareth
http://human.st/jesuspuzzle/partthre.htm
The Jesus of History, a Reply to Josh McDowell by Gordon Stein
www.infidels.org/library/modern/gordon_stein/Jesus.html
Josh McDowell’s Evidence for Jesus – Is It Reliable?, by Jeffrey J Lowder
www.infidels.org/library/modern/jeff_lowder/jury/chap5.html
A Reply to JP Holding’s “Shattering” of My Views on Jesus
www.infidels.org/secular_web/new/2000/march.html
Robert M Price, Christ a Fiction
www.infidels.org/library/modern/robert_price/fiction.html
Earliest Christianity G A Wells
www.infidels.org/library/modern/g_a_wells/earliest.html
The Second Century Apologists
http://human.st/jesuspuzzle/century.htm
Existence of Jesus Controversy, Rae West
www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/littleton/gm1_jesu.htm
Why I Don’t Buy the Resurrection Story by Richard Carrier
www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/resurrection/index.shtml
Jesus Conference,
www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_sd/jconf_hall.html
Jesus Conference,
www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_sd/jconf_stuckenbruck.html
The Testament of Levi Concerning the Priesthood and Arrogance
www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-08/anf08-07.htm#P378_53868.
Sherlock Holmes Style Search for the Historical Jesus
www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bp/890/history.html
The Ascension of Isaiah
www.earth-history.com/sacred-ascension-Isaiah.htm
Apollonius of Tyana: The Monkey of Christ? The Church Patriarchs, Robertino
Solarion www.apollonius.net/patriarchs.html
What About the Discovery of Q? Brad Bromling
www.ApologeticsPress.org
Wells without Water, Psychological Buffoonry from the Master of the Christ-Myth,
James Patrick Holding
www.tektonics.org/JPH_WW.html
Critique: Scott Bidstrp [sic] on The Case for Christ by James Patrick Holding
www.tektonics.org/bidstrup02.html
GA Wells Replies to Criticism of his Books on Jesus
www.infidels.org/library/modern/g_a_wells/errant.html
The Ossuary Scam: A Critical Analysis of the “James” Ossuary
http://www.atrueword.com/index.php/article/articleprint/15/-1/1/
The Origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus, Acharya S
www.truthbeknown.com/origins.htm
The Historical Jesus
http://www.geocities.com/b_d_muller/index.html
BIBLE VERSION USED
The Amplified Bible
The King James Version
