The Wrong Tomb Theory – Resurrection Theories Debunked (Part 3)

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We’re continuing now, our talk and discussion about these other theories regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ. People saying, no, he wasn’t resurrected. Here are better theories to consider. So this time we’re looking at what we can call the wrong tomb theory. And this theory basically says that the women on Sunday morning, they went to the wrong tomb. And of course, if you go to the wrong tomb, there’s not going to be a body there.

So does this sound like a reasonable explanation for what took place? Well, just like the previous one, there’s no historical evidence for this, but let’s look at this in a little more detail. First of all, we know that at least five women followed Joseph of Arimathea to the tomb where the body of Jesus was placed. It’s probably more like six, maybe seven. And they not only saw the tomb, but they were close enough so they could see how the body was laid in the tomb. That was on Good Friday, and then on Sunday they come back again. A minimum of five women. They start out when it’s dark by the time they get there, the sun had risen to some degree. And so they, it’s not like they couldn’t see what was going on or where they were. They knew exactly where they were. And if you have 5 or 6 or more women there and they were at the wrong tomb, you would think one of them would have said, hey, are we at the right tomb? You have the bodies gone, but maybe we’re not at the right tomb. So it’s really hard to explain that the the women got confused because there were so many and because it was light by that time.

Another thing to keep in mind about the tomb it was a well known tomb. It was the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. If the women had gone to the wrong tomb, the other members of the Sanhedrin would have questioned Joseph and said he was buried in your tomb, right? And then they would have gone to the tomb themselves, the right tomb, and they would have discovered the body. And so they could have said, you women, you’re a bunch of idiots. You went to the wrong tomb and they could have simply disproved the wrong tomb theory themselves.

If the women went to the wrong tomb, that also means that Peter and John went to the wrong tomb. It also means that the guards who were guarding the wrong tomb as well. So we can see that there’s a lot wrong with this wrong tomb theory. And again, there’s no historical evidence for it. So again, the wrong tomb theory just falls short. It doesn’t hold water. And again, we as Christians we say the historical evidence is there, but that historical evidence is included in those eyewitness testimonies that we find in John, we find in Matthew, and we find also indirectly in the Gospels of Mark and Luke as well.

Next time we’ll look at another theory. My name is David Thompson, the director for The Center for Apologetics and Worldviews. Thank you for joining us.