RUmike

The story of the Roman guards accepting a bribe to say that they fell asleep is ridiculously implausible. We know that guards chose to be buried alive by volcanic eruptions rather than leave their post without permission. Penalty for falling asleep would have been death.

The story of the Roman guards accepting the bribe only tells us one thing: that by around 80-85, there may have been a story circulating that Jesus' body was stolen by the disciples, or perhaps Matthew anticapted such a story and put this in to refute it ahead of time. Realistically, it tells us nothing more.

Lord Emsworth

Yeah, OK. But do you have an example though? Or could you show one on Metacrock's page?

Steven Carr

Why would Romans guard a corpse?

Knowing Roman views , the conversation might well have went :-

Priests 'If we don't guard the corpse, the disciples will steal it and claim he rose from the dead'.

Pilate 'Kill the disciples.'


And how long did they intend to guard it for?

According to the Bible, the disciples only went public with the news that the grave was empty 6 weeks later.

Was it guarded for all 6 weeks?

Even granting many assumptions, the story is ridiculous.

Killer Mike

The fundamental problem with this line of reasoning is that in the Gospels we are dealing largely with myth and legend. The Gospels are neither histories nor biographies. For example, we know the empty tomb is myth and that there never even was a tomb in the first place. The reason we know this is because it was common practice for the Romans to let the bodies of crucified "criminals" hang on crosses for days following these kinds of executions and let the body slowly rot away. The Romans did this to intimidate and remind people of the penalty for not following Roman authority.
So the story of Jesus being buried in a tomb is a myth, and the reason we know this is because it does not fit with what is known about Roman history and practices of the Roman Empire.

Using the Gospels as evidence is like taking stories about Santa Clause and then arguing that Santa must be real, because of all the "eyewitnesses" who have "seen" him is stories written about Santa.

Vorkosigan

:notworthy:

JEST2ASK

Note not all gospels but only Matthew claims there were guards.

From the Cannoical Gospels we are told many things please give a complete harmonized account from the time of Jesus' arrest Thursday through Sunday evening, incorporating all stories without resorting to Non-Scriptural speculation ... Sorry to be somewhat rude but use your own brian put up or shut up. Once you supply that we can perhaps then look at various aspects.
such as the trials by night ... Pilates actions ... etc

ETA : Please do not brush this off saying they are four different stories giving, for emphasis different details ... much like four different witness to an accident ... remember these accounts (all scripture) is "God-Inspired" and you are arguing that the events are factual.

pharoah

First of all, Matthew is the only gospel to make the claim that there were guards at the tomb.

Secondly, Matthew couldn't even keep his own story straight. He has Pilate order the priests to take 1 guard to watch the tomb, but suddenly after the resurrection there was more than 1 quard.

Matthew 27 (NIV)
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.

Matthew 28 (NIV)
2There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

Half-Life

OK, but don't you know that sometimes people were granted permission to take the body down. Joseph of Arimethea did this. Now, let's say there were guards at the tomb. Now, how did they get past the guards and move the huge stone that was said to be covering the tomb? Would the guards want to take the chance of leaving the tomb and be put to death? SOMETHING must have scared them away.

http://www.geocities.com/metacrock20...ogic_tomb.html

This explains the point I'm trying to make.

Julian

You have any examples of this?
First demonstrate that there was a tomb in the first place. And that there were guards. Then we can proceed to this argument.

Go back and read the posts above. Please. Based on this post you must have ignored every post in this thread.

Julian

Julian

In all fairness, a guard can both refer to a single person or to a group of guards, both are correct.

Julian