Balebeli’ Pale

What of Matthew’s account of the guards? He records that the tomb was guarded (Mt 27:62-6), that the guards fled when the angel appeared (Mt 28:4) and that they were subsequently bribed to say that the disciples had stolen the body while they were asleep. He also comments that this allegation was still current amongst the Jews at the time of writing (Mt 28:11-5).

Some say that Matthew added this in order to bolster the resurrection story against the allegation of body-snatching. But that is hardly likely to have been the case, since Matthew records that the guard was not set until the day after the crucifixion: if he had been making the story up it would have been much more convincing if the tomb had been sealed and guarded from day one.

Hape, if he were trying to bolster his story, why would he deliberately introduce the suggestion that the body had been stolen by the disciples?

The disciples had stolen the body, and all the locals knew it!

Even if it wasn’t the disciples, it could have been body snatchers.

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, che; 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.

Ho 1878 an inscribed marble slab came to light at a village in Galilee, Ho tloha moo e neng e romelloa ho Paris 'me e lula ka har'a bbliothe ea Louvre. E bala ka tsela e latelang:

'Molao oa Cesare. Ke monyaka oa ka hore mabitla le mabitla a lula a sa khathatsoa ke ba li entseng bakeng sa baholo-holo kapa bana kapa litho tsa ntlo ea bona. Haeba, leha ho le joalo, mang kapa mang o qobella hore o mong o ile oa li hloekisa, kapa ho na le ka tsela efe kapa efe e ileng ea feta e patiloeng, kapa o ba fetisetse ka boomo libakeng tse ling bakeng sa ho li fosa, kapa o lahlile tiiso ho majoe a mang, Khahlano le ea joalo ke rera hore nyeoe e buloe, Joalo ka Mabapi le Melimo, Kahoo mabapi le batho ba bangata. Etsoe e tla ba tlama haholo ho tlotla se patiloeng. E tlohelle ho baloa ka botlalo hore mang kapa mang a ba ferekanye. In case of violation I desire that the offender be sentenced to capital punishment on charge of violation of sepulchre.’

Ho Jesu’ time, 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, ke, 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, Nakong ea keketseho e potlakileng ea kereke ea Bokreste e hlalositsoeng bukeng ea Liketso. Ka bomalimabe, Ha re khone ho etsa monyetla oa hore e kanna ea tsamaisoa libakeng tse ling hore li ntlafatse boleng ba eona: Empa ka sebele hoa thabisa hore ngoliso e joalo e sa tloaelehang e lokela ho fetoha mona.

Khutlela sehloohong se seholo.