Question: After Jesus was crucified, what happened to His body? The gospels claim that Jesus was buried in a tomb and on the third day ascended into heaven. I believe this is only partly true. Jesus was not buried in a tomb, but He did ascend into heaven. Biblical scholars agree that the gospels were written 35 to 70 years after the crucifixion of Jesus. Moreover, they assert, based on surviving manuscripts, that the gospels were written in Greek by educated Greeks, not by uneducated Jews. They also maintain that the authors didn't reside in the Holy Land . How do you explain this?
Response: In other words, you recognize that the Scriptures tell us that Jesus was buried in a tomb, but you do not believe what is written. In Mark:15:46And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre., Joseph of Arimathea "...bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre."
We don't need to be intimidated by generalizations. Many skeptics strive to "late date" Scripture in order to get around very clear prophetic claims such as those in the book of Daniel. It sounds very authoritative to say "Bible scholars agree," yet this must be subject to careful examination.
In Matthew:24:2And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down., Jesus said unto the disciples, "See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." All through Matthew's gospel, the apostle recognizes the fulfillment of prophecy. Yet, if the gospels were written "35 to 70 years" after the crucifixion, why then is the fall of Jerusalem not mentioned in Matthew or any of the gospels?
In Acts 1, the learned physician Luke wrote to Theophilus, citing his earlier writing (the Gospel of Luke). Luke mentions his "former treatise...of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen" (Acts:2:1-2 [1] And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
[2] And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
) . Again, although Acts was written after the events of the Gospel, there is still no mention of the fall of Jerusalem .
Acts records events that are dated by secular history, such as the appointment of the Procurator Festus (Acts:24:27But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix' room: and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.), sometime between A.D. 55 and 59 (Mays, James Luther, Ph.D., Editor, Harper's Bible Commentary, Harper and Row Publishers, 1988, cited in Slick, "When were the gospels written and by whom?"). The book itself ends prior to Paul's death at the hand of Nero, which indicates that it was written no later than A.D. 63 (Robertson, A.T., A Harmony of the Gospels , Harper & Row, 1950, 255-56) .
