De Guarden’ Ferhaal

Wat fan Matthew syn rekken fan 'e bewakers? Hy skriuwt dat it grêf bewekke waard (Mt 27:62-6), dat de bewakers flechten doe't de ingel ferskynde (Mt 28:4) en dat se letter omkeapen waarden om te sizzen dat de learlingen it lichem stellen hienen wylst se sliepten. Hy merkt ek op dat dizze beskuldiging noch aktueel wie ûnder de Joaden op it stuit fan dit skriuwen (Mt 28:11-5).

Guon sizze dat Matthew dit tafoege om it opstanningsferhaal te stypjen tsjin de beskuldiging fan lichemsroof. Mar dat is amper wierskynlik it gefal west te hawwen, sûnt Matthew registrearret dat de wacht waard net ynsteld oant de dei nei de krusiging: as hy it ferhaal makke hie soe it folle oertsjûgjender west hawwe as it grêf fan de earste dei ôf fersegele en bewekke wie.

Ek, as hy besocht syn ferhaal te fersterkjen, why would he deliberately introduce the suggestion that the body had been stolen by the disciples?

De learlingen hiene it lichem stellen, en alle lokaasjes wisten it!

Sels as it net de learlingen wie, It koe lichemsneminheden west hawwe.

One thing may be said with reasonable certainty however: Matthew’s account is strong testimony that the body really had disappeared and that such reports must have been in circulation.

Is there any independent corroboration of the missing corpse or the guard’s story? From Jewish sources, Nee; many ancient Jewish references to Jesus are known to have been expurged from Jewish writings on account of Christian persecutions in later centuries. But we do have one very interesting piece of evidence.

Yn 1878 an inscribed marble slab came to light at a village in Galilee, from where it was shipped to Paris and now resides in the Louvre’s Bibliotheque Nationale. It reads as follows:

‘Ordinânsje fan Caesar. It is myn wille dat grêven en grêven ivich ûnfersteurd bliuwe foar dyjingen dy't se makke hawwe foar de kultus fan har foarâlden of bern of leden fan har hûs. As, lykwols, elkenien beskuldiget dat in oar se óf sloopt hat, of hat op in oare wize de begroeven helle, of hat se kwea-aardich oerbrocht nei oare plakken om se ferkeard te meitsjen, of hat ferpleatst de sealing op oare stiennen, tsjin sa'n befel ik dat in proses ynsteld wurdt, lykas yn respekt foar de goaden, sa oangeande de kultus fan stjerliken. Want it sil folle ferplichter wêze om de begroeven te earjen. Lit it perfoarst ferbean wêze foar elkenien om har te fersteuren. Yn gefal fan oertrêding wol ik dat de oertreder feroardiele wurdt ta de deastraf op oanklacht fan oertreding fan grêf.’

Yn Jezus’ tiid, this village was so obscure that it was not mentioned either in Josephus’ lists of Israel’s towns and villages, or the Talmud. Some modern scholars even claimed that it could not have existed at that time – until 1962, dat wol, when its name was found in another inscription of the period from Caesarea.

But by the 1870’s this village had a thriving antiquities market; no doubt attributable to its name…

… Nazareth.

The inscription has been dated between 50BC and 50AD: but if from Galilee, which did not come under direct Roman rule till AD44, it cannot be earlier than that. This would place it in the reign of Claudius Caesar, during the rapid expansion of the Christian church described in the book of Acts. Spitigernôch, wy kinne de mooglikheid net útslute dat it fan earne oars ferfierd is om syn wearde te ferbetterjen: mar it is grif nijsgjirrich dat sa'n ûngewoane ynskripsje hjir opdûkt.

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