The Evidence Room · The Empty Tomb File
Gary Habermas's survey of the critical literature since 1975 reports that a short list of facts about the weeks after the crucifixion is granted by most writers on the subject. They disagree about what explains them.
Each one is photographed, dated, and placed in the museum that holds it, with what it puts on the table and exactly what its text says.
AD 26–36
Israel Museum, Jerusalem (replica at Caesarea) · Caesarea Maritima, 1961
A dedication naming [Pon]tius Pilatus, [Praef]ectus Iuda[ea]e — Pilate, in stone, from his own province, with his exact title.
The exact reading
The title is prefect, not procurator: the Gospels' governor is confirmed, and Tacitus's later term for him is the looser one.
1st century AD
Israel Museum, Jerusalem · North Talpiot, Jerusalem, 1990
An ornate limestone bone-box scratched with the name Yehosef bar Qayafa — Joseph, son of Caiaphas — holding the bones of a man of about sixty.
The exact reading
Most scholars identify him with the high priest of the trial narratives; the identification rests on the name and the date, and a minority reads the inscription differently.
1st century AD (disputed)
Cabinet des Médailles, Paris · Acquired in Paris, 1878; said to come from Nazareth
An imperial rescript ordering capital punishment for anyone who breaks open a tomb or moves a body — an emperor legislating about disturbed graves.
The exact reading
Its provenance is not documented, its emperor is disputed from Augustus to Claudius, and isotope work on the marble points to Kos rather than Galilee. It is printed here as an object, not as an argument.
There is a short list of facts about the weeks after the crucifixion that nearly every historian grants (including historians who conclude no resurrection happened), and the argument is about which explanation of that list is least strained.
THE CLAIM
The empty tomb and the appearances are best explained by a resurrection.
8 steps9 objections answered at full strength18 named worksWalk it →
