Someone stole the body!

[abaris]

Let's try it another way:

THEY MADE THE WHOLE FUCKING THING UP!!!!  The tomb of Jesus was empty because there wasn't a Jesus to put into a tomb to begin with.  There wasn't even a tomb.  The hagiographic tales about 'Jesus of Nazareth' were written decades after the 'events' they purport to describe, so the most likely explanation is that they were written to give a semblance of form and substance to the myths people were already talking about.

Boru

The whole story is rigged right from the get go. There's no way a roman governor would have presented the people with the choice of releasing someone being suspected to conspire against roman rule. Unless he didn't value his job and possibly his head very much. One of the few things we know about Pilate is that he was a master in lining his own pockets. So, this doesn't fit the bill. Apart from the fact that he wouldn't have presided over the trial in the first place.