Mark Goodacre, “How Empty Was the Tomb,” JSNT 44 no. 1, (2021), 144.
The interesting and rarely mentioned possibility that there were other bodies in the tomb may be echoed in the angels’ question in Lk. 24.5, Τί ζητεῖτε τὸν ζῶντα μετὰ τῶν νεκρῶν; It is usually translated with a nice poetic ring, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead’, but it would be more precise to translate it, ‘Why are you looking for the living one among dead people?’ Is the question purely a Lukan rhetorical flourish, or is it a tacit admission that the tomb was not, after all, empty of corpses? One way of focusing the issue that still takes account of the idea in Matthew, Luke and John that the tomb was new is to reflect on the fate of the two bandits who were crucified with Jesus (Mk 15.27, 32; Mt. 27.38, 44; Lk. 23.33, 39-43; Jn 19.18; Gos. Pet. 10.38-39 and 13.55-57). Were these men buried? If so, where, and by whom? Was it in the same tomb with Jesus? Was one of them with Jesus not only ‘this day in paradise’ but also that evening in the tomb?
The Amateur Exegete 
Neat excerpt.
I’ve been kind of curious as to what different biblical scholars, religious scholars, historians, etc. make of the burial stories in the Gospels (Bart Ehrman’s approach being the one I’m familiar with in the greatest detail).
The literary elements and goals of the authors so often seem to “get in the way” when trying to discern possible historical details from later creations. (If only some extrabiblical witness to the events had decided to jot down a few notes for posterity…)
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I just don’t see Jesus as ever being placed in a tomb. The entire episode of Joseph of Arimathea (I put both “Joseph” and “Arimathea” in quotes since I don’t believe either ever existed) was invented by later Christians to get a cogent resurrection story together. The chances of a severely brutal, indifferent, maniac like Pontius Pilate letting Jesus – a known seditionist – down from the cross to comply with some Jewish law about the Passover or any Law in the Torah is wildly dubious at best. This simply never happened. Consider that “Joseph of Arimathea” was also, supposedly, a member of the Pharisees, who, according to Acts of the Apostles, voted for Jesus’s death in what was a unanimous vote. So one moment he’s sentencing Jesus to a horrible, egregious, death and the next moment he concerned about complying with the Torah about his burial? Doesn’t pass the stink test by far; this is pure fiction.
Jesus was arrested, convicted without trial (the stories of the trial of Jesus are also without any basis in either fact or compliance with Jewish Law of the time. See “The Trial & Death of Jesus” by Haim Cohn, former member of Israeli Supreme Court and expert in Hebrew Law), and executed. Pilate was known to convict and execute many, many offenders without a trial and wouldn’t have given Jesus another thought.
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