Fact #3: Jesus Christ was Buried in a Tomb

All four of the Gospel narratives mention the burial of Jesus and present Joseph of Arimathea as the one who requested the body of Jesus and provided the tomb in which He was buried. – Matthew 27:57-61; Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42.“Now when evening had come, there was a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and he laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and departed”. – Matthew 27:57-60.Mark’s Gospel adds a few details – “Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, coming and taking courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate marveled that He was already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him if he had been dead for some time. So when he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph”.The Gospel of John provides more information regarding Jesus’ burial – “After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips of linen with the spices as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus…” – John 19:38-42.

These accounts provide us with a fairly complete picture of Jesus’ burial.

Joseph of Arimathea (Arimathea was the Old Testament town of Ramah, located about 15 miles northwest of Jerusalem) was a rich man, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the Jewish council that had previously condemned Jesus to death. Luke’s Gospel states that Joseph “ had not consented to their decision and deed”. – Luke 23:51. He had been a secret believer in Jesus. He along with another member of the Sanhedrin – Nicodemus (who came to Jesus at night – John 3) came and asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. When a prisoner was sentenced to death by crucifixion, he forfeited the rights to a burial and was usually kept on the cross to be eaten by birds of prey or wild animals. The remaining corpse was then thrown into a common burial grave.

However, under Roman law the bodies could be granted to family or relatives. There is no evidence that Jesus’ mother or His brothers and sisters made an attempt to retrieve His body from the cross. The disciples who had fled and were in hiding did not step forward. Except for John, who had been instructed to care for His mother by Jesus while Jesus was on the cross – John 19:26,27 none of Jesus’ disciples were anywhere near the cross or the tomb. Luke 23:49 describes the crucifixion events and states – “… all His acquaintances and the women who had followed Him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things”. Matthew’s Gospel states that they “were looking on from afar”. – Matthew 27:55. Those who had followed Jesus in secret (Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus) now stepped forward and those who had followed Him publicly (Jesus’ disciples) went into hiding.Jesus had only been dead for 6-8 hours when Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, Pilate was surprised that He was already dead. So he sought confirmation and asked the centurion in charge of the crucifixion and he confirmed to Pilate that Jesus was dead. The Gospel of John 19:38-42 states that the tomb that Joseph and Nicodemus used to bury Jesus was near the crucifixion site. Here is where they carried Jesus’ body and prepared it for burial. They brought spices of myrrh and aloes and most likely laid some directly on the body and then on to strips of cloth. Then they wrapped the strips around the body and probably applied more as packing around the entire corpse. The total weight of the burial application was stated to be 100 pounds which is 65-70 pounds in modern measurement.All of the Gospel accounts include the detail that a large stone was placed and rolled against the entrance to the tomb. – Matthew 27:60; Mark 15:46; Luke 24:1,2; John 20:1. This large stone weighing approximately 2,000 pounds, was placed as a seal to the tomb and based on its size would require a number of strong men to move. According to research of first century tombs, this stone was fit into a sloping track or channel and rolled down the slope to put into place. In order to remove the stone, it would have had to be pushed back up the slope and then into a level resting position.The last detail that the Gospel record provides is the fact that the tomb was sealed with a Roman guard. The Gospel of Matthew states – “ On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate, saying; Sir, we remember while He was still alive how that deceiver said, After three days I will rise. Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away and say to the people; He has risen from the dead. So the last deception will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, you have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how. So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting guard”. – Matthew 27:62-66.

The Jewish rulers had heard of Jesus’ claim to rise after three days and they took it seriously. Jesus’ disciples on the other hand, heard His claim but did not believe Him or take it to heart. So the Jewish rulers went to Pilate and asked for a guard (probably a unit of four soldiers) to secure the tomb from the possibility that the disciples might steal His body and then declare that Jesus had risen from the dead. Pilate provided a guard for them and instructed them to secure the tomb and to “make it as secure as you know how”. According to New Testament scholars, the seal that was used at the tomb site was probably a type of cord stretched across the large stone and then sealed at each end. To break this Roman seal would be to break Roman law which would result in a serious penalty. Roman historians confirm that the military discipline for a Roman soldier who quit at his post was the death penalty. So the tomb of Jesus was made secure by a Roman guard under the direction and authority of Pilate the Roman governor with secure military restrictions.Wilbur Smith, who was the professor of the English Bible at Moody Bible Institute, Fuller Theological Seminary and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School wrote regarding the burial of Jesus.“We know more about the burial of the Lord Jesus than we know of the burial of any single character in all of ancient history. We know infinitely more about His burial than we do the burial of any Old Testament character, of any king of Babylon, Pharaoh of Egypt, any philosopher of Greece, or triumphant Caesar. We know who took His body from the cross; we know something of the wrappings of the body in spices and the burial clothes; we know the very tomb in which this body was placed, the name of the man who owned it, Joseph, of a town known as Arimathea. We know even where this tomb was located, in a garden nigh to the place where He was crucified, outside the city walls. We have four records of this burial of our Lord, all of them in amazing agreement, the record of Matthew, a disciple of Christ who was there when Jesus was crucified; the record of Mark, which some say was written within ten years of our Lord’s ascension; the record of Luke, a companion of the apostle Paul and a great historian; and the record of John who was the last to leave the cross and with Peter, the first of the Twelve on Easter to behold the empty tomb”. 9