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According to scholarly opinion
(historians/theologians Albert Roper, Mgr. E. Le Camus, A. T. Robertson,
Professor T. J. Thorburn, A. B. Bruce, Arndt, Gingrich, Professor Harold
Smith, Lewis and Short noted in Evidence by Josh McDowell) and my own
conclusion from the New Testament writings,
Roman soldiers stood guard over Jesus’ tomb.
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Pontius Pilate was directly involved in directing
the guards for Jesus’ tomb.
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Why did the Romans take such a strong interest in
what was otherwise the corpse of a Jewish peasant?
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It’s absurd to think of Roman soldiers expending
man-hours to guard the gravesite of an executed Jewish criminal. Why would
any Roman authority be concerned of someone stealing a Jewish corpse?
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It is easy to understand why the Jewish religious
authority would want to guard the tomb
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Prevent Jesus’ followers
from stealing his body, claiming resurrection.
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Such a theft would
perpetuate the disruption and challenge to their religious order.
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Written documentation
clearly indicates the Jewish religious order was very upset with Jesus’
teachings and his “blasphemy”.
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Under any semblance of normal circumstances the
Jewish religious order would have dispensed their own guards to the tomb
without the need to bother the Roman governor:
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Was Jesus’ tomb
documented as being on private Roman land? – No.
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Was Jesus’ tomb on land
accessible without Roman permission? – Almost definitely, yes. It’s hard to
imagine otherwise.
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Could the Jewish
religious order, therefore, dispense their own guards to a piece of land
that happened to be a tomb? – Most likely, yes.
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Is there some reason
Pontius Pilate would have been concerned that the Jewish court was not
motivated to properly guard Jesus’ tomb? Would he have had such concern
in the first place?
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But for some reason, Pontius Pilate is documented as
being directly involved in directing the guards at the tomb. Why? This
makes little sense, unless Rome had hidden interest(s).
