How Do We Know That Jesus Really Died?

A recent podcast listener offered the following objection: Couldn’t the disciples have been wrong about the death of Jesus? After all, when Paul was stoned by the Jews from Antioch and Iconium (in Acts 14) they drug him out of the city and left him for dead. “While the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city” (verse 20). If the disciples were wrong about Paul, couldn’t they also have been wrong about Jesus? As I always say, anything and everything is possible, but not everything is reasonable. There are good reasons to believe that the disciples were not wrong about the death of Jesus:

1. Extended Contact
Unlike the their contact with Paul after his stoning, the disciples were in intimate and extended contact with the body of Jesus. We have a tendency to read over the following verses very quickly:

Mark 15:43-46
“So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council... …bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock.”

But stop and think about it for a minute. The disciples had to remove the nails, collect the body, carry it some distance to the tomb, treat the body thoroughly with the customary ointments and spices used in such situations, wrap the body and then place it in the tomb. While we can read through this process in minutes, it takes a lot longer to actually complete. Surely the disciples were also deeply grieved by the death of Jesus. In all this extended contact with his body, do we really think they wouldn’t do everything possible to prove to themselves that he wasn’t really dead? In all of this time, is it reasonable to believe that they wouldn’t have noticed the three inconvenient properties of dead bodies? I’ve been around enough dead people to recognize that properties that appear when a heart stops beating:

Loss of Temperature
When the heart stops pumping, the body begins to cool. In the time it would take to prepare Jesus for the tomb, the disciples would certainly have observed this feature of death.

Rigidity
When blood is not circulating, the body begins to stiffen. Dead bodies begin to feel and behave differently than unconscious bodies with a beating heart.

Lividity
Gravity begins to act on un-circulating blood. As blood settles in those extremities that are closest to the ground, discoloration is notable.

In all the time it took to prepare Jesus’ body, with all the extended contact the disciples had, is it really reasonable to think they would not have repeatedly checked to see if he was still breathing and that they would not have noticed the three inconvenient properties of dead people?

2. Un-Expected Corroboration
John, a disciple of Jesus, was raised as a fisherman. I doubt that he had any medical training. Yet look at what he reports in his gospel:

John 19:31-34
“The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.”

John seems to record an aspect of Jesus’ body that is common when people are fatally wounded. Critical injuries typically cause people to enter Circulatory Shock, a condition I often see at assault or accident scenes. When people die of their injuries, their death is often accompanied with Pericardial or Pleural Effusion, a condition that causes water to accumulate around the heart or within the lungs. It appears that the uneducated fisherman is reporting this condition in his gospel. Think he might have done this intentionally in an effort to deceive us, or is it more reasonable to attribute this description to a true observation?

3. External Confirmation
History tells us that there was a tremendous penalty to be paid by Roman soldiers if they allowed a capital criminal to either escape or avoid the penalty for which they were sentenced. For this reason, Roman soldiers were brutal and meticulous, executing their orders with precision. Look again at how the Bible describes the death of Jesus:

John 19:31-35
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

According to the non-Christians at the scene, Jesus was dead on the cross.

4. Eyewitness Connection
Take a look at the description of the burial of Jesus offered in the Gospel of Mark. Notice the description of Joseph of Arimathea:

Mark 15:42-46
It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath). So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock.

Mark appears to be describing the same scene as John, but Mark includes a character that John omits. Why would Mark writing many years prior to John, include Joseph? It’s reasonable that Joseph was still alive when Mark wrote his account; Mark may be including Joseph so that the early readers could contact Joseph as an living eyewitness who not only saw the crucifixion, but also touched and wrapped the dead body of Jesus.

The experience the disciples had with Jesus was very different than the experience the disciples had with Paul at his point of his stoning. The disciples simply “stood around” Paul after the stoning; they did far more with the body of Jesus following his crucifixion.

Comments

[John W.]

Wow, thank you, Mr. Wallace! So glad you are on the STR team now. Thank you for helping to strengthen my faith by allowing me to be more informed and reasonable about my beliefs! These articles are incredibly helpful.

[Louis Kuhelj]

I am just a bit confused here. I was under the impression that the disciples were hiding out from the authorities, not checking to see if Jesus was actually dead. The fact that it was Joseph of Arimathea that gave Jesus a decent burial and not the apostles seems to speak to that. If anything, it seems that the women were showing more courage and they were the ones tending to Jesus after his ordeal on the cross. I have no problem with the medical evidence and the fact that Roman soldiers were very good at their job of killing, but this business of the disciples not going into hiding is novel and I don't know how our friend J. gets to that point. I can see how someone might have quizzed Joseph about what he did later on and then included his portion of the account, but is there really any evidence that Jesus' inner circle was out in the open after Jesus died?

[Willie]

I am resonably sure that he is dead.

[Louis Kuhelj]

Willie

"I am resonably sure that he is dead."

I have to hand it to you. At least you are willing to admit that he was alive. Some folks won't even go that far. You're at least one step ahead of them.

[Sam]

I had the same thought as Louis. I don't see any reason to think the disciples had anything to do with Jesus' burial, and every reason to think otherwise. That is, unless J. is assuming that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple. I suspect Joseph himself didn't even handle the body, but had his servants do it.

I do think the argument could be tweaked, though. Whoever handle Jesus' body would surely have known whether he was dead or not by the time they finally got it in the tomb. And if Jesus wasn't already dead, he surely would've been in a short amount of time if they wrapped him up and left him in the tomb.

So either way, I think the idea that Jesus didn't die is crazy talk.

[RonH]

Sam,

When you say 'crazy' you mean 'crazy given certain claims of the gospels'.

Right?

The podcast listener (mentioned in the OP) seems to grant (for unknown reasons) all kinds of Gospel claims before doubting just one in particular:

Couldn’t the disciples have been wrong about the death of Jesus?

Or maybe the listener is merely portrayed in the OP as doubting only this one claim.

The OP's response most certainly does grant all kinds of other Gospel claims to support the answer, "No". Many of these supporting claims have the same (low) level and (weak) kind of support as the claim, "The disciples could not have been wrong".

There are thousands of claims made in and around the Bible. The probability of any individual claim can be independent or conditional on one or more others.

If one asks, "Couldn’t the disciples have been wrong about the death of Jesus?", one could also question many of the Biblical claims used above to support the answer, "No".

If one questions certain other claims, then the idea that Jesus came down from a cross alive is not crazy.

Don't misunderstand: I don't defend the idea that Jesus survived crucifixion. I doubt it.

My point is that these things are at the edge - or beyond the edge - of history.

You can reason that IF 5 of them are true then the 6th is certain or likely.

But, assuming 5 of them (each no more certain than the 6th) in order to argue that the 6th must be true is, well, crazy.

RonH

History tells us that there was a tremendous penalty to be paid by Roman soldiers if they allowed a capital criminal to either escape or avoid the penalty for which they were sentenced. For this reason, Roman soldiers were brutal and meticulous, executing their orders with precision.

Sounds like it came from a book for 12-year-old boys - or an apologetic tract.

[Louis Kuhelj]

RonH

"If one questions certain other claims, then the idea that Jesus came down from a cross alive is not crazy."

I would give credit to the possibility that he came down from the cross if it was not for the medical evidence presented that would speak against Jesus being alive on the cross. Of course I am referring to the blood and water coming from his side when pierced. This would be consistent with what one could medically expect to occur if he was dead.

[Mike K.]

John, a disciple, gives the account of the piercing of Jesus's side and seeing the flow of blood and water from His side as an eye witness. Also, Joseph of Arimathea is a disciple (secretly).
I think it is safe to conclude that John, all the "Mary's" and many others not only witnessed the crucifixtion but the burial also.
I think what is being over looked here is those who are performing the preparation for the burial LOVED Jesus. I would have to think that all of them were wishing, hoping and praying that He was still alive, and absolutely aware of the fact that He was dead and observed the characteristics of a dead body Greg mentioned. NONE of them were thinking anything about the fact that He might rise again. It is clearly stated that they did not piece that together until after the assention.

[RonH]

Medical evidence?

No! John is an anonymous account of events.

This is exactly what I mean by questioning other claims.

You have medical evidence if YOU see blood and water.

[John Willis]

That's the funny thing about history Ron - you weren't there!

But somehow your opinion of what happened at Calvary is superior to those that were there and thought enough about those events to write them down.

[RonH]

I wasn't there. That's right.
And I don't know what happened or who was there or whether they wrote anything down about it.

[Carolyn]

There's skepticism and then there's downright blathering about doubting everything you haven't seen with your own eyes and heard with your own ears. The latter would mean ignoring anything that happened prior to your 40 plus years of life, including most of what HAS happened DURING that time which you haven't been privy to seeing or hearing firsthand. Sort of makes life very, very small, insular, and empty...