I am sure the theists on this thread can answer this one but I have to say there are certain elements to the disposal of Jesus' body I haven't quite got.
Basically Jesus has died on the cross. A guy by the name of Joseph of Arimathea goes to Pilate and gets the body. There's little explanation of who he is, he doesn't appear to be mentioned anywhere else in the Bible other than in the 4 gospel accounts (which don't agree on who he is) describing this event.
Anyway, according to Mark he takes the body and places it in a tomb with the 2 Marys. He then rolls a stone across the entrance and disappears.
When the 2 Marys come back the next morning (?) the stone has been rolled back, the body is gone and a young man sitting by the side of the tomb tells them that Jesus has risen. Again this is the only mention of the Young man.
So:
Who was the young man?
What was he doing sitting besides a tomb in the morning?
How do we know that the young man and Joseph were not in league to steal the body?
How do we know it was even Joseph's tomb as he claimed?
As Joseph rolled the stone into place we can safely assume he could roll it away again (particularly with the help of the young man). It all seems a bit odd to me, but obviously once we have established the first report of the resurrection comes from this strange young man the rest follows as the story gets embellished. This we see in the fact that Mark's gospel actually ends just about there - with the 2 Marys rushing off somewhat confused (Mark 16,8 with verses 9 to 20 being added later). Those additional verses contain the rest of the resurrection story as told in the other, later, gospels.
Unless I have gotten something horribly wrong here I don't see much mystery.
Basically Jesus has died on the cross. A guy by the name of Joseph of Arimathea goes to Pilate and gets the body. There's little explanation of who he is, he doesn't appear to be mentioned anywhere else in the Bible other than in the 4 gospel accounts (which don't agree on who he is) describing this event.
Anyway, according to Mark he takes the body and places it in a tomb with the 2 Marys. He then rolls a stone across the entrance and disappears.
When the 2 Marys come back the next morning (?) the stone has been rolled back, the body is gone and a young man sitting by the side of the tomb tells them that Jesus has risen. Again this is the only mention of the Young man.
So:
Who was the young man?
What was he doing sitting besides a tomb in the morning?
How do we know that the young man and Joseph were not in league to steal the body?
How do we know it was even Joseph's tomb as he claimed?
As Joseph rolled the stone into place we can safely assume he could roll it away again (particularly with the help of the young man). It all seems a bit odd to me, but obviously once we have established the first report of the resurrection comes from this strange young man the rest follows as the story gets embellished. This we see in the fact that Mark's gospel actually ends just about there - with the 2 Marys rushing off somewhat confused (Mark 16,8 with verses 9 to 20 being added later). Those additional verses contain the rest of the resurrection story as told in the other, later, gospels.
Unless I have gotten something horribly wrong here I don't see much mystery.
Kuusi palaa, ja on viimeinen kerta kun annan vaimoni laittaa jouluvalot!
