(Speaker 4) New Insights Into The New Testament: The Gospels In Review (CONFERENCE)

Mark Goodacre was the next presenter and he raises the issue of the empty tomb.

Interestingly, the idea of an empty tomb doesn’t fit with what we know of burial practices at that time. All the tombs that have been unearthed from that area and period were communal tombs, and so for instance our earliest narrative account of Jesus in Mark doesn’t say the tomb was empty.

So, historically, if Jesus’ body was discovered missing, there would have still been a lot going on in the tomb. The “empty tomb” is not a term that can be found in the New Testament! The first use of the term is late fourth century by John Crysostom.

If this topic interests you, I encourage you to see the replay of Dr. Goodacre’s presentation to hear how this relates to the resurrection accounts.