Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Topic: The empty tomb 43
Reading: Matthew 27:57-66, 28:1-15
Scripture: He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. (Luke 24:6)
Note: The swoon hypothesis has been heavily criticised not just by Christian believers who perceive those wild, unsubstantiated allegations as mere fantasies of confused minds and lacking basic commonsense analytical thinking, but by many others, including medical experts who, based on the account given in the New Testament, conclude that Jesus was definitively dead by the time he was removed from the cross.
Many others consider it unlikely that Jesus would be capable of inspiring faith in those who saw him after barely surviving a brutal torture and crucifixion, including the 19th century rationalist theologian David Strauss, who wrote: “It is impossible that a being who had stolen half dead out of the sepulchre, who crept about weak and ill and wanting medical treatment…. could have given the disciples the impression that he was a conqueror over death and the Prince of life: an impression that lay at the bottom of their future ministry.”
After all the flogging and crucifixion of the weakened Jesus, who was without energy left to carry his cross to Calvary, the lame suggestion by the swoon hypothesis proponents that Jesus managed to pull a fast one on the Roman executioners, by pretending to be dead, would definitely have failed the acid test of survival when one of the executioners who was ensuring due diligence of death, decided to spoil the fun of the pretence by thrusting a spear through his side, bringing out blood and water.
For Jesus to have survived this whole stunt of pretentious death and be able to convince the frightened, hiding and yet, discerning disciples including Thomas, running away from the menace and misfortune that had befallen their Master and scuttling all their plans, would simply be giving too much credit to what Jesus would unrightly have deserved as the cleverest fraudster that ever walked on planet earth.
Food for thought: A faked death by crucifixion would have come with these consequences; dislocated shoulders, pierced wrists, feet and one side of ribs, and no blood and water in the body. Could such a person have been able to ever walk again?
Declaration: Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. (Matthew 27:26)
© Author: Rev Fred Aboe
