The Case For Christ

the Jews would gather the bones of their deceased and put them in
boxes to be preserved until the resurrection at the end of the
world, when God would raise the righteous dead of Israel and they
would come together in the final kingdom of God. In light of
this, it would have been simply a contradiction of terms for an
early Jew to say that someone was raised from the dead but his
body still was left in the tomb. So when this early Christian
creed says Jesus was buried and then raised on the third day,
it's saying implicitly but quite clearly: an empty tomb was left
behind."
HOW SECURE WAS THE TOMB?
Having heard convincing evidence that Jesus had been in the tomb,
it seemed important to know how secure his grave was from
outtside influences. The tighter the security, the less likely
the body could have been tampered with. "How protected was Jesus'
tomb?" I asked. Craig proceeded to describe how this kind of tomb
looked, as best as archaeologists have been able to determine
from excavations of first-century sites.
"There was a slanted groove that led down to a low entrance, and
a large disk-shaped stone was rolled down this groove and lodged
into place across the door," he said, using his hands to
illustrate what he was saying. "A smaller stone was then used to
secure the disk. Although it would be easy to roll this big disk
down the groove, it would take several men to roll the stone back
up in order to reopen the tomb. In that sense it was quite
secure."
However, was Jesus' tomb also guarded? I knew that some skeptics
have attempted to cast doubt on the popular belief that Jesus'
tomb was carefully watched around the clock by highly disciplined
Roman soldiers, who faced death themselves if they failed in
their duty. "Are you convinced there were Roman guards?" I asked.
"Only Matthew reports that guards were placed around the
tomb," he replied. "But in any event, I don't think the guard
story is an important facet of the evidence for the Resurrection.
For one thing, it's too disputed by contemporary scholarship. I
find it's prudent to base my arguments on evidence that's most
widely accepted by the majority of scholars, so the guard story
is better left aside." I was surprised by his approach. "Doesn't
that weaken your
case?" I asked.