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Post by michelle on Feb 8, 2007 20:56:32 GMT -8
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Post by michelle on Feb 9, 2007 19:14:01 GMT -8
1/24/06:
57As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
62The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63"Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' 64So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first." 65"Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how." 66So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
In reading this, some people might make the case that there was a time in which Jesus' body was not guarded and his followers would have time to take and dispose of his body in order to claim that he had risen. After all, Joseph had time with the body and the women were the only ones at the tomb until the following day. Could there have been a conspiracy among these few people? After all, Joseph was strong enough to roll the rock in front of the tomb, couldn't he also move it away? And the woman who discovered he had risen were also the ones that were there on the day of preparation. Coincidence?
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Post by Josh on Feb 9, 2007 19:14:56 GMT -8
1/25/06:
A couple thoughts: first, if we are to trust Matthew's account regarding the 'guard' Pilate allows to be sent, we can almost certanily assume they would have checked for the body before sealing the tomb (with their suspicions of body-snatching already astir). This would have headed off any 'body stealing' plot.
If one advanced the theory that somehow they didn't, or Jesus' body was clevered replaced with someone else's (again, I think they would have double checked, but...), then we have to ask the further question: do Joseph and the women and the early Church fit the profile of people telling lies to found their own religion? Because they certainly would have been committed to a lifetime of lies from that point onward. Not only them, but many others as well who saw the risen Christ: all the disciples and at least 500 others, as Paul tells us. And then of course, most of those people would have to die for the plot as well.
I know you know this already and are just pointing out a potential loophole. I think these questions are great so that we can refine and clarify the arguments... as well as adding to the 'database' of resources here.
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Post by michelle on Feb 9, 2007 19:15:41 GMT -8
Yeah and sometimes I just like to stir the pot!
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Post by Josh on Feb 9, 2007 19:17:01 GMT -8
1/24/06:
Well, this is one of those difficult Matthew moments.
He's fusing together two different OT prophecies (one in Jeremiah about purchasing a field and a potter's jar and one in Zechariah about the "Good Shepherd" being 'paid off' with 30 peices of silver). What ties both prophecies together is the theme of judgment on Israel. So, I think what Matthew is getting at is that what happened with Judas, the chief preists, and the money is eerily similar to things the prophets said about what would happen before God brought judgment on Israel (for rejecting the good shepherd).
But it's very a nuanced, subtle interpretation-- one that would only be seen after the fact, not one of the clear expectations found elsewhere about things connected with the coming of the Messiah. I think it probably never occurred to them.
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Post by Josh on Feb 9, 2007 19:17:56 GMT -8
1/25/06:
There's also a cool tie-in with the Joseph story in Genesis here.
Joseph, who became the 'savior' of the world (saved the 'world' of that time from famine as administrator Egypt), was sold, presumably, to his death by his brothers for 20 peices of silver. He miraculously 'comes to life' again by ascending to the highest position in Egypt (at the right hand of Pharaoh).
Jesus, of course, is the fullest and truest Savior of the World, sold for 30 peices of silver (20-30 for inflation) unto death, and then literally comes back to life and sits down at the right hand of God the Father.
Whew...
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Post by Josh on Feb 9, 2007 19:18:28 GMT -8
1/25/06:
"Let his blood be on us and on our children!" (verse 25)
Yet another echo of the AD 70 descruction of Jerusalem and the diaspora of the Jews.
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Post by Josh on Feb 9, 2007 19:19:16 GMT -8
1/25/06:
Verses 52-53 have always posed an intellectual hurdle for me. The story seems so outlandish...
What exactly, does Matthew mean really happened, anyway?
I get that he's trying to show that Jesus' resurrection provides us with evidence of our own. But, I guess it just bugs a little that we don't have any outside sources on these claims.
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Post by Josh on Feb 12, 2009 20:31:28 GMT -8
51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 52The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
Interesting. I was just reading in Eusebius and he makes this comment:
"Even his own body was raised up [Jesus], and many bodies of the sleeping saints arose and came together with him into the holy and real city of heaven, as rightly is said by the holy words"
Is he saying that they enter not physical Jerusalem but the heavenly Jerusalem?
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