THE CHIEF PRIESTS' STORY.
By Charles S. Robinson
ON the evening of Friday, Jesus had been hastily buried. Saturday was, as it is now, the Hebrew Sabbath, and the day then began with the evening before; that is, it was Sabbath on Friday evening at sundown. These disciples, in common with all their nation, had been trained to keep that closing day of the week with great strictness. They thought it would be wicked to use holy time in making preparations for permanent interment. So, as best they could, they wound up the body Joseph begged of Pilate, and laid it in this generous counselor's tomb. They expected to return and to complete their work on Sunday morning. Now, at this juncture in the affairs, the chief priests make it evident that they had kept warily on the watch for all which occurred. A suspicion arose in their minds. Some of them remembered that Jesus had declared he would rise again in three days. So they went to Pilate asking that a guard might be set at the sepulchre until the critical date of the third day had passed. Their wish was granted. Sixteen men, divided into four fours,—the so-called "quaternions" of a Roman military watch,—were assigned to the duty, and took their regular turns as sentinels on the spot. Moreover, the unusual precaution was added, of sealing up the entrance to the enclosure. Most likely they rolled up the stone before the opening of Joseph's new excavation in the rock, then passed a strong cord around it, fastening the ends at either side, and covering the knots with balls of wet clay on which they stamped some official letter or sign; if the grave were disturbed, this would show it, no matter who the parties might be.351When Sunday morning dawned, the tomb was found open, the buried body was gone. Aware that some explanation must instantly be made, the chief priests circulated the story which Matthew records. They said that the soldiers fell asleep, and then the friends of Jesus came secretly and stole the body away. The military guard admitted this statement publicly, and so helped on the tale. Before we submit this fabrication to the test of argument as a "case" in jurisprudence, it may be just as well to note two interesting points made by it at the beginning. This story settles, at any rate, the fact of Christ's actual death and burial. In the recital, everybody admitted he was truly crucified, really dead at last in the grave. It was agreed on all hands that he had predicted his own rising upon the third day. With equal acquiescence, it was understood that on Sunday morning the body was missing. This is worth the recollection; for so much of either gospel history or doctrine as rests in the death of Jesus upon the cross may forevermore be considered as established by his enemies beyond a cavil. Further; since the chief priests put their case on the best basis they had, it must follow that, if this subterfuge of theirs fails, all presumption is against any process of denial. They asserted, and this is all they said in explanation of the most stupendous miracle the universe ever knew, that the disciples secretly stole and made way with Jesus' body. If such a story cannot be now credited, then there is an end of all counter-evidence to be adduced by those who would deny the doctrine of our Lord's resurrection. Coolly and dispassionately it becomes us to weigh the tale, therefore, on its own merits. This case, if it be good for anything, will bear the same cross-examination and analysis as others in the annals of important jurisprudence. And candor is compelled instantly to admit it labors under serious embarrassments. 1. In the very outset, the antecedent improbability of particulars crushes it. How came a trained watch all to go to sleep? Would the whole band of sixteen men be likely to fall away at once, and remain in slumber a time long enough for this amount of labor? This was noisy work, and took some numbers to do it; yet it would have to be done leisurely. Who folded up the napkin, and arranged the grave-clothes so methodically in the dark? And, if the Roman soldiers were asleep, how did they know anything about it? 2. But go a step further; the immediate followers of Jesus had no motive to steal the body of their Lord. They must have believed him to be either a true man or an impostor. If they now gave him up as an impostor when they saw him die, then the sooner he was out of all remembrance and notice forever, the better for them; the more effectually he was buried and forgotten, the easier for their disappointment and shame. They surely did not need or wish to follow a deceiver; they did not want his memory on their hands. On the other side, if they believed him true, they had only to wait till he should vindicate himself. Whatever the supposition as to the state of these men's minds, to go and purloin the dead body was the worst policy for them. For this admitted and agreed that he was a liar; it accepted the taunt of his infamous crucifixion; it confessed he was a mere man. 3. Nor is this all; it is evident from the entire story told here in its artless naturalness that the disciples had no sort of concerted plan to do any such thing. Why, they had his body full in their power, after Joseph begged it on Friday evening; how was it possible that the idea should strike them to go and pilfer it away on Saturday? Who was it did the stealing? Not Peter; for one can doubt its utter ignorance and unconsciousness, as he arrived on Sunday morning, breathlessly rushing into the sepulchre unbidden. Nor John; he knew nothing about a disappearance of the body, for he ran with the greatest surprise to see if the opened grave was empty. Nor Thomas; for he obstinately refused to surrender his confidence in anything on the subject until he had put his finger in the print of the nails. Surely, not the women; for the mother of Jesus was entirely ignorant of any such connivance. These poverty-stricken friends of Christ spent their time and their scant money in gathering expensive spices and myrrh just to embalm the body. We cannot mistake their unsophisticated surprise. 4. Again; the Jews never told this tale in any judicial audience or court, so that it could be subjected to cross-examination. Stealing this body was a capital crime; yet not one of these accused disciples was ever arrested for its commission. The chief persecutors among them pressed these Christians most cruelly before and after the ascension, while they preached the resurrection from the dead; they charged them with every conceivable crime; but it is marvelous to notice that this pretended fraud they never ventured to mention again. They did not so much as once use the tale in rebutting evidence offered them. We know very well from the Acts and the Epistles that the main doctrine, for which during forty years these disciples contended, was the actual resurrection of Jesus. They had no end of taunts, gibes, and arguments to answer. But this story of theft in the night they were never called upon officially to deny. To have proved it would have overturned the entire Christian religion in one sweep. But, after this first lie in Jerusalem, the Sanhedrim preserved a discreet silence. Nowhere else in the Bible do we find any allusion to this fabrication. 5. To all this now add the consideration that there was awful risk to the soldiers, if this story were true. Death was in every instance the punishment for a Roman sentinel who slept on his post. To suffer an escape like this was unpardonable. But if the story was not true, there was no peril in it. They could be hired to repeat it as often as was necessary, and they could do so fearlessly. That is, they would tell it out around among the populace loosely; for all they had to do, if ever brought to the governor or pressed to trial on the charge, was to deny it again, and say they were only lying; punishment belonged to the sleeping, which they would assert they did not do; not to the falsehood, which they would admit. Certainly, if such a confession had been honest, they would have conspired to help each other keep the secret for their life's sake. 6. Finally, the inherent impossibility of the act itself cannot be left out of sight. This was only two nights after Passover, and that feast was always observed at the full of the moon. That garden, therefore, was filled with white light. It would have been fatal to any man or woman to be caught on such an errand. Joseph lived close beside the city, most likely; Jerusalem was crowded at the time with a vast throng of unusual pilgrims. It was jubilee year, and there were greater numbers in attendance at the festival. Mountains and valleys on every side of the town were occupied with booths and tents of excited travelers. The people must have been alert and frightened. Oh the majesty and the horror of that whole day! The curtain of the temple was torn in two—the holiest place was in full display before the profane eyes—rocks were split—graves were opened—old dead Hebrews had been up from their tombs, and had been seen walking in the streets! And if there was one spot more than another likely to be under malevolent and curious scrutiny, it was where this Nazarene prophet was laid. Any suspicious movement would have been observed by a score of eyes. Then what could have been done with the body after the disciples had got it in possession! In all ages of mysterious history of crime, how many midnight machinations have been defeated and exposed because the presence of a human body was involved! It seems as if death would never be kept secret. In that land, too, where such strict regulations existed, so superstitious and exact, where every one shunned contact because of ceremonial uncleanness, how could those frightened Galileans have relieved themselves of a burden so awkward after they had passed the precincts of the garden? If discovered, what was there so fatal to their faith, as well as to themselves, as this half-buried body of that crucified Nazarene? There seems hardly any need of pursuing so idle and so ill-contrived a tale with such seriousness. But remember this is all the evidence which has ever been offered in these eighteen centuries to explain the stupendous fact that on Sunday morning the new sepulchre of Joseph was found tenantless. In a word, it is the entire defense in this supposed case of jurisprudence. Justin Martyr and Tertullian, the historians of the second and third centuries, tell us that the Jews sent this story by letter around through all the East. Even in our time, the descendants of those people stubbornly insist that it is true. If, therefore, the story breaks down, the entire case against the gospel is lost. So let us bear in mind that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than a fact; it is a doctrine. And once admitted, it will surely take all the other Christian doctrines in its train. Just let me know that Jesus himself folded that napkin, burst those stony barriers of the sepulchre, and led captivity captive, and then I know that the atonement is perfected. Man may find his way unhindered in returning unto God, and through penitence and faith sin may be checked, Satan conquered, and Heaven set open forever! With such a gospel, why does any one wait? Even the Turks say in a proverb, "Hold thy mantle wide open, when Heaven is raining gold!"
—Charles S. Robinson, D. D.