Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
96Finally, and t his t o my mind c arried c onc lusive weight, we c annot find in the
c ont emporary rec ords any t rac e of a t omb or shrine bec oming t he c ent re of
veneration or worship on the ground that it c ontained the relic s of Jesus. This is
inconceivable if it was ever seriously stated at the time that Jesus was really buried
elsewhere than in the vac ant tomb. Rumour would have asserted a hundred
supposit it ious plac es where t he remains really lay, and pilgrimages innumerable
would have been made to them.
Strange though it may appear, the only way in whic h we c an ac c ount for the
absenc e of this phenomenon is the explanation offered in the Gospels, viz. that the
tomb was known, was investigated a few hours after the burial, and that the body
had disappeared.
2 and 3. That the Authorities (Jewish or Roman) removed the Body
It will be convenient to take these two suggested solutions together, since the
situation c reated by them is not markedly different from that whic h we have been
c onsidering.
It is no doubt possible, even at this distance of time, to suggest reasons why
the body of Jesus might have been moved officially either by the Roman or the
Jewish power, though the intrinsic probability of suc h a proc eeding seems to be
slight. Pilate was a very obstinate man, as his curt refusal to alter the terms of the
insc ript ion shows. He was c learly glad of any exc use t o be rid of t his painful
inc ident, and if a Jew of substanc e desired and was granted the nec essary
permission to take charge of and bury the body, what more need have been done?
Wit h t he Proc urat or in the mood in whic h he apparently then was, it would have
required some exc eedingly strong arguments to have induc ed him to alter his
decision even at the instance of the Jewish power.
There is, of course, a very persistent tradition, both in the Gospels and the
apoc ryphal writ ings, t hat t he Jews did go t o Pilat e wit h a request. I shall deal wit h
the very singular but important question of the guards in a later c hapter. But the
whole point of this tradition is to the effect that what the Priests are said to have
sought of Pilate was not permission to remove the body, but to prevent it f ro m
being removed or stolen. There is not the slightest hint or suggestion in the earlier
extant writings, apocryphal or otherwise, that the Priests ever contemplated
c hanging the burial plac e, while there are a number of distinc t statements that they
were c onc erned lest some unauthorized person should abduc t the body.
But the whole case for the supposed official removal of the body really breaks
down when we c onfront it by the admitted facts of the after-sit uat ion. For if t he
Priests induc ed Pilate to c hange the burial plac e, or to authorize their doing so, they
must have known the ultimate and final resting-plac e, and in that event they would
never have been c ontent with the obviously unsatisfac tory and untrue statement
that the disc iples had stolen the body. They would surely have taken the muc h
stronger ground that the body had been removed for judicial reasons by Pilate’s
c ommand or at their own request. Suc h a statement, made on the authority of the
High Priest , would have been final. It would have dest royed for ever t he possibilit y
of anyone c redibly asserting the physic al resurrec tion of Jesus, bec ause in the last