Is it believable that Jesus’ disciples stole his body? For sure, the disciples had cause to steal the body. They had just given three years of their lives to follow Jesus. They were invested in Jesus. Furthermore, he had made claims that he was going to rise from the dead. So to save face and not be humiliated that they had given the last three years of their lives to a man who turned out to be a fake, so the story goes, they stole the body to make it look like Jesus was the real deal.
But there are problems with the stolen body theory. The disciples were afraid for their lives. Remember when the temple guards showed up to arrest Jesus? What did the disciples do? Initially Peter pulled out a sword to defend Jesus. But that didn’t last, and all the disciples ran away. Later that very night at Jesus’ trial, when called out, three times Peter would deny that he even knew Jesus. So keep that in mind. The disciples were very afraid that they too would be arrested. Is it reasonable that they would then steal his body? They were hiding in the city, fearing for the lives. They did not have the courage to attempt to steal Jesus’ body and run away with it.
Also Jesus’ tomb was guarded by Roman soldiers. Roman soldiers were much more fierce and highly trained than the temple guards that arrested Jesus. There’s little chance that the disciples who were already fearing for their lives would have had the courage and skill to fight and defeat Roman soldiers, if they were to attempt to steal his body.
My conclusion: the stolen body theory is unlikely.
But there is another theory that some promote to refute the resurrection.
Another way to understand the disciples’ bold claims that Jesus rose from the dead is to claim that the disciples were having a simultaneous group hallucination. They thought they actually saw him, at the same time, but it was a hallucination. Perhaps they were so scared, so emotional, they had a group psychotic episode.
But a simultaneous group hallucination is exceedingly rare. Hallucination almost never works like that. Hallucination is almost always individual. There have been documented group hallucinations, but it is rare, perhaps when people are under the influence of a drug like psilocybin. Again, my conclusion: simultaneous group hallucination is a highly unlikely possibility.
Another rebuttal some have made to suggest that the resurrection of Jesus is not true is the idea of mass graves. The Roman Empire did have a regular practice of burying criminals in mass graves. When Rome performed crucifixions, which they did many times to stop uprisings, they could crucify hundreds of people at a time. Mass graves were a convenient method to quickly dispose of bodies. Some suggest, therefore, that Jesus would not have been placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and thus of course the tomb was empty. He was never buried there. He was still dead, the story goes, in some random mass grave.
But the refutation of that idea is the detail of the story which notes that not only did Joseph of Arimathea get special permission to bury Jesus, but also the Romans sealed the tomb and placed a guard over it. All of which would have been unnecessary at a mass gravesite. My conclusion: the mass grave theory is unlikely.
There is another suggestion made by some to try to disprove Jesus’ resurrection. The idea that due to his beating and crucifixion he was actually in a coma, and he never died. He was non-responsive and mistakenly assumed to have died. Thus when he was in the cool air of the cave, and the burial spices were on his body, helping to stanch his wounds and begin the healing process, he eventually regained consciousness.
This coma and resuscitation view, however, is in line with neither the severity of the wounds he received prior to his crucifixion nor the crucifixion itself. Either one, the beating or the crucifixion, were punishing enough on their own. Jesus had both. Some people did not survive the beating. And the Romans were exceedingly good at crucifixion. They didn’t make mistakes. They knew when a person was dead. The coma theory, along with all the others, the mass grave, the group hallucination, and the stolen body, are all unlikely.
What’s more, there is evidence in favor of the resurrection. In the next post, we’ll talk about some of that evidence.
Is this a believable story? For sure, the disciples had cause to steal the body. They had just given three years of their lives to follow Jesus. They were invested in Jesus. Furthermore, he had made claims that he was going to rise from the dead. So to save face and not be humiliated that they had given the last three years of their lives to a man who turned out to be a fake, so the story goes, they stole the body to make it look like Jesus was the real deal.
But there are problems with that idea. The disciples were afraid for their lives. Remember when the temple guards showed up to arrest Jesus? What did the disciples do? Initially Peter pulled out a sword to defend Jesus. But that didn’t last, and all the disciples ran away. Later that very night at Jesus’ trial, when called out, three times Peter would deny that he even knew Jesus. So keep that in mind. The disciples were very afraid that they too would be arrested. Is it reasonable that they would then steal his body? They were hiding in the city, fearing for the lives. They did not have the courage to attempt to steal Jesus’ body and run away with it.
Also Jesus’ tomb was guarded by Roman soldiers. Roman soldiers were much more fierce and highly trained than the temple guards that arrested Jesus. There’s little chance that the disciples who were already fearing for their lives would have had the courage and skill to fight and defeat Roman soldiers, so they could steal his body. The stolen body theory is unlikely.
But there is another theory that some people promote to refute the resurrection.
Some people suggest that another way to understand the disciples’ bold claims that Jesus rose from the dead is to claim that the disciples were having a simultaneous group hallucination. They thought they actually saw him, at the same time, but it was a hallucination. Perhaps they were so scared, so emotional, they had a group psychotic episode.
But a simultaneous group hallucination is exceedingly rare. Hallucination almost never works like that. Hallucination is almost always individual. There have been documented group hallucinations, but it is rare, perhaps when people are under the influence of a drug like mushrooms. This is a highly unlikely rationale.
Another rebuttal some have made to suggest that the resurrection of Jesus is not true is the idea of mass graves. The Roman Empire did have a regular practice of burying criminals in mass graves. When Rome performed crucifixions, which they did many times, they could crucify hundreds of people at a time. Mass graves were a convenient method to quickly dispose of bodies. So people suggest that Jesus would not have been placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and thus of course the tomb was empty. He was never buried there. He was still dead, the story goes, in some random mass grave.
But the refutation of that idea is the detail of the story which notes that not only did Joseph of Arimathea get special permission to bury Jesus, but also the Romans sealed the tomb and placed a guard over it. All of which would have been unnecessary at a mass gravesite.
There is another suggestion made by some to try to disprove Jesus’ resurrection. The idea that due to his beating and crucifixion he was actually in a coma, and he never died. He was nonresponsive, and mistakenly assumed to have died. So when he was in the cool air of the cave, and the burial spices were on his body, helping to stanch his wounds and begin the healing process, he eventually regain consciousness.
This coma and resuscitation view, however, is in line with neither the severity of the wounds he received prior to his crucifixion nor the crucifixion itself. Either one, the beating or the crucifixion, were punishing enough on their own. Jesus had both. Some people did not survive the beating. And the Romans were exceedingly good at crucifixion. They didn’t make mistakes. They knew when a person was dead. The coma theory, along with all the others, the mass grave, the group hallucination, and the stolen body, are all extremely unlikely.
What’s more, there is evidence in favor of the resurrection. We’ll talk about that in the next post.
Engaging Scripture 
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