THE CORE ARGUMENT OF OBJECTION #6

The core of the argument for Objection #6 (Who Overpowered the Guards?) against the Swoon Theory has three premises:

D. IF the Swoon Theory is true, THEN Jesus did NOT overpower the Roman soldiers who were guarding his tomb on the weekend after Jesus was crucified.

F. It is NOT the case that some (or all) of Jesus’ eleven remaining disciples overpowered the Roman soldiers who were guarding Jesus’ tomb on the weekend after Jesus was crucified.

G. IF the Swoon Theory is true, THEN either (a) Jesus overpowered the Roman soldiers who were guarding his tomb on the weekend after Jesus was crucified or (b) some (or all) of Jesus’ eleven remaining disciples overpowered the Roman soldiers who were guarding Jesus’ tomb on the weekend after Jesus was crucified.

THEREFORE:

A. The Swoon Theory is FALSE.

EVALUATION OF THE CORE ARGUMENT OF OBJECTION #6

The core argument of Objection #6 contains two FALSE premises: premise (D) and premise (G). Thus, the core argument is UNSOUND and should be rejected. Because the core argument is UNSOUND, Objection #6 (Who Overpowered the Guards?) FAILS, just like the previous four objections all FAILED.

In this post, I will show that premise (G) is FALSE. In the next post, I will show that premise (D) is FALSE.

Premise (F) is probably TRUE, but NOT for the reasons given by Kreeft and Tacelli. Both of the sub-arguments for (F) are UNSOUND and should be rejected. However, it is probably the case that there were no Roman soldiers guarding the tomb of Jesus on the weekend after Jesus was crucified. If no Roman soldiers were guarding his tomb, then obviously Jesus’ disciples did NOT overpower “the Roman soldiers who were guarding Jesus’ tomb”. So, premise (F) is probably TRUE.

EVALUATION OF PREMISE (G) OF OBJECTION #6

Premise (G) asserts a conditional claim that is FALSE, because it asserts a FALSE DILEMMA: 

G. IF the Swoon Theory is true, THEN either (a) Jesus overpowered the Roman soldiers who were guarding his tomb on the weekend after Jesus was crucified or (b) some (or all) of Jesus’ eleven remaining disciples overpowered the Roman soldiers who were guarding Jesus’ tomb on the weekend after Jesus was crucified.

These are NOT the only two possibilities, given the truth of the Swoon Theory.

First of all, the Swoon Theory does NOT assume nor imply that Roman soldiers were sent to guard the tomb of Jesus, so the key premise (G) is FALSE. The Swoon Theory is compatible with the view that no Roman soldiers were guarding Jesus’ tomb.

Second of all, premise (G) is based on the assumption that Roman soldiers were sent to guard the tomb of Jesus on the weekend after he was crucified. But this assumption is probably FALSE. The account of soldiers guarding the tomb is found only in the Gospel of Matthew, and that account is historically DUBIOUS. For the reasons that show this assumption to be probably FALSE, see my November 2019 post on that issue: The Roman Guards are Probably Fictional. Premise (G) is based on a DUBIOUS assumption:

The assumption that Roman soldiers were sent to guard the tomb of Jesus on the weekend after Jesus was crucified is probably FALSE.

Thirdly, overpowering the Roman guards is NOT the only way to get Jesus past the guards.  The guards could have been distracted or drugged or deceived or bribed or threatened as a means of getting Jesus out of the tomb and past the guards:

The assumption that overpowering the Roman guards was the only possible way to get Jesus out of the tomb and past the guards is a FALSE assumption.

Fourthly, Jesus and “the disciples” are NOT the only people who could have helped Jesus to leave the tomb and to get past the Roman guards. 

The phrase “the disciples of Jesus” is AMBIGUOUS.  It might refer ONLY to the eleven disciples who were part of the inner circle of followers of Jesus or it might refer to ANY follower of Jesus.  Since Kreeft goes on (in the very next sentence) to infer that “if the disciples did it” (i.e. overpowered the Roman guards or helped Jesus to get past the Roman guards) this would imply the conspiracy theory, it is clear that the phrase “the disciples” refers ONLY to the eleven disciples who were part of the inner circle of followers of Jesus, because the conspiracy theory is ONLY about the inner circle of disciples, not about followers of Jesus in general.

Because Kreeft is using the phrase “the disciples” here to mean “the eleven disciples”, it is obvious that there were OTHER disciples or followers of Jesus besides the eleven who could have come to help Jesus to leave the tomb and get past the Roman guards.  Jesus had many followers outside of the eleven disciples, so there was a large number of OTHER people besides the eleven disciples who would have been willing to help rescue Jesus from the tomb:

The assumption that ONLY Jesus or the eleven disciples could have been involved in getting Jesus out of the tomb and past the Roman guards is a FALSE assumption.

Fifthly, it is also possible that some Jews who were NOT followers of Jesus would have been willing and able to help rescue Jesus from the tomb and the Roman guards.  Joseph of Arimathea, for example, might have been a rich and powerful Jewish leader who had lots of friends or associates or servants who were NOT followers of Jesus but who would be willing to help him rescue Jesus.  Or Joseph might have been able to hire some strong and well-armed fellow Jews to perform this rescue operation.

Also, there were many Jews who resented being ruled over by the Romans.  Such anti-Roman Jews might well have been sympathetic towards Jesus even though NOT followers of Jesus, and many of them probably viewed the crucifixion of Jesus as one more example of Roman abuse and oppression of innocent Jews.  Such anti-Roman Jews might well have been happy to try to overpower Roman guards to help Jesus leave the tomb and escape further Roman abuse:

The assumption that ONLY Jesus or followers of Jesus could have been involved in getting Jesus out of the tomb and past the Roman guards is a FALSE assumption.

Kreeft and Tacelli talk about Jesus or the disciples overpowering “the Roman soldiers” who were guarding the tomb. They don’t specify the number of Roman soldiers who were guarding the tomb, but their use of the plural “soldiers” implies they believe there were at least two or three Roman soldiers at the tomb, and they imply that ALL of the Roman soldiers at the tomb would have to be “overpowered” in order for Jesus to get away from the tomb (if only one Roman soldier needed to be overpowered, then they would have no reason to be confident that eleven disciples would be unable to overpower just one soldier).

If the guards had shifts to watch the tomb, so that only one guard was stationed right next to the tomb while the other guards slept a short distance from the tomb, then it would have been possible to overpower just the one guard who was right next to the tomb, so long as this did not wake up the other sleeping guards.  It would certainly be possible for six or eight or ten disciples to overpower just one guard:

The assumption that ALL of the Roman guards MUST be overpowered in order to get Jesus out of the tomb and past the guards is a FALSE assumption.

Similarly, if one guard was stationed right next to the tomb and the others slept a short distance away, it would have been possible to distract or drug or deceive or bribe or threaten just that one guard who was stationed right next to the tomb into leaving his post or letting Jesus leave (or be taken from) the tomb:

The assumption that ANY of the guards would have to be overpowered is a FALSE assumption.

The core argument of Objection #6 FAILS to make a solid objection against the Swoon Theory because premise (G) constitutes a FALSE DILEMMA. There are many different ways that Jesus could have left the tomb (or been taken from the tomb) without being detained or killed by the Roman guards, not just the two particular possibilities that Kreeft and Tacelli focus upon (i.e. Jesus overpowered ALL the guards by himself OR some/all of the eleven disciples overpowered ALL the guards), so premise (G) is FALSE, making this argument against The Swoon Theory an UNSOUND argument.

In the next post, I will evaluate premise (D), another premise in the core argument for Objection #6.