Were Women Assigned The Exclusive Role Of Anointing Bodies?

2/29/2012

Keith Parsons argues that the women naturally would be the first to see the risen Christ in an invented story, since it was their responsibility to anoint the body.

RESPONSE: Mr. Parsons is simply factually mistaken:

Dov Zlotnick, The tractate "Mourning" (Semahot) (Regulations relating to death, burial, and mourning). Translated from the Hebrew, with introd. and notes (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966), p. 82 (XII, 10). "A man may shroud and gird the corpse of a man, but not that of a woman. A woman may shroud and gird the corpse of a man or of a woman. A man may attend another man suffering from intestinal illness, but not a woman. A woman may attend a man or a woman suffering from intestinal illness."

Licona and Habermas further respond that Parson’s claim doesn’t square with the Gospels’ testimony that Joseph of Arimathea and/or Nicodemus prepared the body for burial with a substantial amount of spices before the women’s visit (Matt. 27:57-61; Mk. 15:42-47; Lk. 23:50-56; Jn. 19:38-40). Moreover, an invented story of the resurrection could have recorded the appearance to the men while waiting at the tomb for the women to show up or after the women did their part in dressing the corpse. The women need only have played a secondary role.

8 Comments

gary

3/21/2015 02:43:21 pm

Which of these two stories has a higher probability of having occurred:

Jesus of Nazareth is crucified in Jerusalem in circa 30 AD. As he draws his final breath, the entire earth goes dark for three hours, a violent earthquake shakes dead people awake in their graves, and rips the Temple veil down the middle. Jesus' body is taken down off the cross and placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimethea, a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing body which the previous night had voted unanimously to execute Jesus. The tomb is sealed with a large stone and Roman guards placed in front of it. Three days later, a second great earthquake shakes Jerusalem, causing the dead who had been shaken awake in the first earthquake to now come out of their tombs to roam the streets of Jerusalem and reconnect with old acquaintances; an angel (or angels) comes and rolls away the great stone in front of the tomb, causing the soldiers to faint and testifies to one, several, or many women that Jesus' tomb is empty; that he had risen from the dead. Jesus later appears to the Eleven, and eight days (or forty days) later, ascends into heaven from a mountain in Bethany (or Galilee, or from the Upper Room in Jerusalem). The resurrection appearances of Jesus so emboldened the previously easily-frightened, doubting disciples that they now boldly preach the gospel of Jesus in the temple, Judea, and the world, dying martyrs deaths, refusing to recant their eyewitness testimony that they had seen the resurrected, walking/talking body of Jesus. These same disciples soon write the Gospels and several epistles that would soon become the New Testament of the Bible. The Gospel of Jesus spreads like wildfire, even though furiously persecuted by both the Jews and Romans, to become the dominant faith of the Western World for two thousand years.

Or, is this what happened:

Jesus of Nazareth is crucified. He dies. His body is left on the cross for days, as was the Roman custom, to warn any other "King of the Jews" pretender to think twice about stirring up trouble. After a few days have passed and the birds, dogs (Roman crosses were low to the ground), and other carrion ravaged the body, the remains were taken down at night and tossed into an unmarked common grave---a hole in the ground--- with the bodies of other criminals executed that week. The location of this common grave is known only to a few soldiers, as the Romans do not want to give the "King of the Jews" a proper burial nor do they want a known grave to become a national shrine where Jews could later come and pay homage to their "King", possible inciting more trouble. Jesus disciples who were already in hiding, go home to Galilee to take up their prior professions---fishing or collecting taxes. The small band is devastated. Their beloved leader is dead; their hopes of reigning over the New Kingdom on twelve thrones with Jesus are dashed to pieces; there will be no overthrow of the hated Romans after all. All hope seems lost. Then...months or a few years after Jesus' death...a couple of women disciples see a man in the distance, at sunset, and in the silhouette of the fading sun...he looks like Jesus. Is it Jesus? He turns to them, waves with his hand, and then disappears behind a hill. "It was Jesus!" they exclaim. They run and tell the disciples. Soon other disciples are "seeing" Jesus. "He is risen, just as he said he would!" The disciples are thrilled! They WILL reign in the New Kingdom after all! They begin to preach the Gospel of Jesus, telling everyone how he has risen from the dead, as he promised.

...and forty years later, after Jerusalem has been destroyed and most of the disciples are dead, a Greek speaking Christian in Rome writes down the story of Jesus. However, the version of the oral story that this man hears circulating in Rome tells of an empty tomb, the tomb of a member of the Sanhedrin, ...so "Mark" writes down the story. A decade or so later, "Matthew" in another far away location and "Luke" in another, write down the story of Jesus. They borrow heavily from "Mark's" story, from another common source (Q), and from other sources that they do not seem to have shared. For instance, "Matthew's" story contains incredible supernatural tales, such as an earthquake occurring when Jesus died, causing dead people to come back to life...but they don't come out of their graves until three days later! One wonders what they were doing in their tombs for three days!

And two thousand years later, every Christian on earth believes that the stories written by "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John" are the historically accurate accounts of the life and death of Jesus, when all they are are legendary stories. No one lied. No one made anything up. It's a legend. Now, dear Christian, how many supernatural events such as dead people coming out of their graves and walking around town have you seen in your life? Not many, have you? And how many times have you se

Kevin V

4/30/2015 09:22:01 am

Hello,

Thanks for the question. I believe you can find a thorough answer to your question by reading another post of mine here:

http://www.apologeticsinthechurch.com/the-historical-case-for-the-resurrection/historical-case-for-the-crucifixion-burial-empty-tomb-psot-mortem-appearances-and-the-origin-of-the-disciples-belief-in-a-resurrected-jesus

As for the mistaken identity hypothesis as an explanation of the historical facts defended in the link above it fails the 7 criteria for what make an explanation the best by a long shot whereas the resurrection hypothesis passes them with flying colors. For an explanation of those criteria see the first chapter of the book, Justifying Historical Descriptions. Specifically, it doesn't lead to the prediction of other known facts such as the empty tomb, the appearances to Saul and James, or the origin of the disciples belief in a bodily resurrected Jesus. It lacks plausibility because we know that the appearances of Jesus were close up, repeated, and extended, and of a supernatural rather than an purely earthly sort. It fails miserably with respect to explanatory scope and power, it is disconfirmed by accepted beliefs since people in the century before and after Jesus either went home or got themselves a new messiah when they came to believe there would be messiah wasn't messiah after all, it is ad hoc because it isn't actually implied by what we historically about the life, death, and post-mortem events of Jesus.

gary

4/30/2015 12:46:49 pm

Jesus' Tomb was not Guarded or Sealed the entire First Night!

Holy Grave Robbers!

I had never heard of this until today: How many Christians are aware that Jesus’ grave was unguarded AND unsecured the entire first night after his crucifixion??? Isn’t that a huge hole in the Christian explanation for the empty tomb?? Notice in this quote from Matthew chapter 27 below that the Pharisees do not ask Pilate for guards to guard the tomb until the next day after Jesus’ crucifixion, and, even though Joseph of Arimethea had rolled a great stone in front of the tomb’s door, he had not SEALED it shut!

Anyone could have stolen the body during those 12 hours!

The empty tomb “evidence” for the supernatural reanimation/resurrection of Jesus by Yahweh has a HUGE hole in it!

“When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard[a] of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can.”[b] 66 So they went with the guard and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone.”
—Matthew 27

Kevin V

5/1/2015 12:51:37 am

You must know that virtually no historian has tried to defend either the mistaken identity or the grave robber hypothesis (except for perhaps Richard Carrier who is more biased than a fundamentalist preacher). Jews wouldn't have robbed the grave because there is no KNOWN motive and is therefore ad hoc, it has no explanatory power or scope because it doesn't explain the appearances, or the origin of the disciples belief, it is disconfirmed by accepted beliefs since going near a dead body during Passover would be any Jew ritually unclean, it doesn't lead to the prediction of any new facts, and it is implausible because any grave robbers wouldn't have taken the time to unwrap Jesus' body and leave the grave wrappings which were left in the tomb; especially since they are more valuable than the corpse of Jesus!

gary

5/2/2015 10:39:39 am

First, I believe that there is no way to determine if any of the details about Jesus crucifixion, burial, and alleged resurrection as described in the four gospels can be verified as real historical events. These four books were written decades later by anonymous authors.

Now to your point that no Jew would have robbed a grave, and especially not during Passover: Then please explain why the Sanhedrin was so worried that Jesus disciples (all Jews) would steal the body--- the very reason they requested that Pilate post a guard??

Kevin V

5/1/2015 12:55:21 am

All the same points apply to any non-Jewish bodily theft except that in this case what makes a non-Jewish theft disconfirmed by accepted beliefs is that the only cases we know are "non-Jewish, non-Palestinian, and non-contemporary to Jesus — in other words, irrelevant to Jesus."

gary

5/2/2015 10:43:07 am

Again I must ask: If neither Jew nor Greek would rob a Jerusalem tomb, why was the Sanhedrin so worried about it? And, why would Pilate expend the resources to guard a tomb that every knew, no one would rob?

Kevin V

5/5/2015 02:16:12 am

Hello,

1. While I cannot compel you to change your mind, I can show you the intellectual price tag you have to pay to maintain your views so far shared. In particular, those facts that I have mentioned, are accepted as virtually certain historical facts by the majority of NT historians today despite the anonymous authorship and gap between the events and their being written down. Indeed, NT historians have developed criteria of authenticity which they use on any historical document, or documents because of their shortcomings (contradictions, lack of eyewitness material, and so on) to establish historical facts. The NT is no exception. If you attended any university and wrote a paper defending your premise above, you would get an F! Do yourself a favor and read the works of professional historians before entering into public dialogue about these issues.
2. The irony in your new argument is not only that the majority of NT historians regard the guard story as an apologetic legend invented by the author of Matthew, but if you accept that story as historical (as you must in order for your argument to hold any water) then by parity of reason you have to accept the empty tomb, the post-mortem appearance, and the origin of the disciples belief because they are better attested! In any case, if we accept the Matthean guard story as historical, which I don’t, then would this help your theft hypothesis? Actually, it would turn it into the Conspiracy hypothesis which is universally rejected by all NT historians today.
3. If I were you, I would be shaken to my bones by this! In order to deny the resurrection you are forced to defend arguments and positions which no expert in the field maintains. Worse than that, they even scoff at them. Try to cultivate an open heart and mind, or at the very least, read some primary sources.

Were Women Assigned The Exclusive Role Of Anointing Bodies?

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