That Jesus Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate is the testimony of all history. That his crucifixion was the day before the Jewish Sabbath is proved by all the Evangelists, and the constant observance of the First Day of the week as the Lord’s Day.
Having been condemned to death, and his execution entrusted to Roman soldiers, there is the strongest presumption that the sentence was fully executed. This presumption is confirmed by all the Evangelists, by Paul in all his Epistles, and by the constant teaching of all the Apostles. On the day of Pentecost, Peter boldly said, Ye men of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, “ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay;” and no one called in question the fact of his death. Again, at the healing of the lame man, he declared, “Ye denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of Life;” this charge he repeated before the Sanhedrim; and there was no denial. When Peter and John, after their release from prison, were brought before the Council, one charge against them was: “Ye have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” Stephen, when brought before the Council, declared, “Ye have now become the betrayers and murderers ... of the Righteous One.” If there could have been the slightest doubt of the actual death of Christ, the Council would have furnished the evidence.
John solemnly declares that “one of the soldiers, with a spear, pierced his side, and straightway there came out blood and water.” It was a thrust by a Roman soldier to make the fact of death absolutely certain. It was such a result as would have followed, if, from excessive labors and extreme agony, there was a collection of water about the heart, or if from like causes, and as Dr. Stroud and other eminent surgeons suppose,[1] the cause of his death was a rupture or breaking of the heart.
And, finally, not less than forty times, on different occasions, and in a variety of ways, had Jesus foretold his death. He instituted a Sacrament to commemorate it; he said to the penitent thief: “This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise;” and in the extreme moment, “Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit.” It is not possible to accept the hypothesis of his return to life from a state of lethargy, without destroying his moral character, as well as that of his disciples. Where was he, when Peter and Stephen were charging home his death upon the guilty Jews? Where was he, when Stephen suffered martyrdom for his sake, and when his apostles and disciples were preaching his death and resurrection?
Even Strauss is constrained to say “The whole country-side knew that he was dead.”
He was buried. So says Paul, and[2] all the Evangelists. As the day of the crucifixion was drawing to its close, that the bodies should not remain on the cross[2] upon the Sabbath (for that day[2] of the Sabbath, was a high day), the Jews asked of Pilate that the legs of those who had been crucified might be broken,[2] and they be taken away. The soldiers brake the legs of the others, but not of Jesus, for they found that he was already dead; and his death was assured by one of the soldiers. Thereupon Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man and a counsellor, begged the body of Jesus. Pilate, after he knew from the centurion that he was dead, commanded it to be delivered. Joseph, with Nicodemus, wound it in fine linen with spices, and laid it in his own new tomb, hewn out in the rock, rolled a great stone “to,” or “against” the door, and departed. The sepulchre was “nigh at hand,” otherwise, there would not have been time for the burial before the coming in of the Sabbath. The next[3] day the chief priests and Pharisees or some of them, obtained from Pilate a guard, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone (Matthew xxvii. 62, 66).
The objection that they could not have known that Jesus had said, “After three days I will rise again,” is well answered by Alford: “Not the saying, but its meaning was hid from his disciples.” Judas knew it, and may have informed the chief priests and Pharisees of it; and they may have known it from other sources, for it was not spoken in secret. Nor with their perverse rejection of him while they could not deny his works, is it improbable that they might have some apprehension of the necessity of a guard? We are not to judge them from our standpoint, but from theirs. They did not believe that he was the Messiah (Acts iii. 17; 1 Corinthians ii. 8). They said and doubtless believed, after a fashion, “He deceiveth the people” and “casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.” Their guilty fears were the occasion of this increased certainty of his resurrection. The mention of a guard by Matthew (although not by the other Evangelists), is in perfect keeping with his previous occupation, which had led him to make, and observe, precautions against fraud. It was, in his view, as in ours, an important fact that their precautions against imposition had reacted upon themselves. His narrative is unimpeached. It was published early, and his statement of the appointment of a guard was not contradicted.
The facts must stand that Jesus died, and was buried; and at the instance of his bitterest foes, soldiers guarded his tomb against the little company of his frightened followers.
At a very early hour on the first day of the week it was known that the stone had been rolled away, and the body of Jesus was not in the tomb. Such is the testimony of all the Evangelists. This great fact is at the threshold of our inquiry. It must be accounted for. The Christian’s explanation is that Jesus rose from the dead, and an angel of the Lord descended and rolled away the stone. The account which the soldiers were induced to circulate was, that his disciples came by night and stole him away while they slept. This story was current among the Jews when Matthew wrote[4] his Gospel, and when, nearly a hundred years after, Justin Martyr wrote to Trypho the Jew. It ought not to be difficult to determine which explanation is the true one.
As soon as Mary Magdalene (who was of the company of women who came first to see the sepulchre), saw that the stone was rolled away, she ran to Peter and John, saying, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we know not where they have laid him.” (John xx. 2.)