Resolving Alleged Historical Errors: Jesus’ Burial Dilemma
Introduction
In this blog, I will be defending the proper burial of Jesus by using historical and archeological evidence. A common objection hurled at the Gospels’ passion and resurrection narratives regards Jesus’ body after his death by crucifixion. Anyone familiar with Roman burial practices would know that the bodies of crucifixion victims were usually left on the cross for days and eventually dumped into a mass, unmarked grave. However, this theory ignores Roman peacetime administration policies with the Jews and relevant archeological evidence. I will neither presuppose nor argue the theological inspiration or inerrancy of the Biblical text; it will be treated like any other historical source. I will be steel manning the skeptical position by using two critical historians, but before I do this, I want to take a look at why proper burial was important to the Jews.
The Importance of Proper Burial in Ancient Jewish Culture
Craig Evans says concerning proper burial in the Mediterranean World, “[i]n the Mediterranean world of late antiquity proper burial of the dead was regarded as sacred duty, especially so in the culture and religion of the Jewish people.”[1] Evans gives two reasons in support of this statement. The first reason for practicing proper burial was, “for the sake of the dead themselves.” This is abundantly clear in the Hebrew Scriptures. For example, Abraham purchased a cave for the burial of his wife, Sarah [3], Jacob’s body was taken to Canaan to be buried in a tomb [4], King David congratulated his men for burying Saul and his sons [5], and individual criminals required to be buried before sunset [6]. As can be seen, the early Israelites respected proper burial and even bestowed it on criminals and enemies. People not being buried was actually seen as a sign of sin and divine judgment [7].
This emphasis on proper burial was also seen in contemporary Jewish sources to Jesus. For example, the Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria describes several stories where he highlights the importance of proper burial. In the fictional creation of Jacob’s grief over the report of his son Joseph’s alleged death, he says that having Joseph’s body to bury would have comforted Jacob more [8]. Another one of his works, the book of Tobit, Tobit’s greatest virtues are burying the dead.[9]
A second reason why Jews buried the dead was to avoid corruption of the land of Israel. Quoting from Deuteronomy 22: 22-23, it reads, “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is accursed by God; you shall not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you for an inheritance.” In addition to this, Ezekiel 39:14, 16 says, “They will set apart men to pass through the land continually and bury those remaining upon the face of the land, so as to cleanse it...This shall they cleanse the land.” This tradition was still pertinent during the turn of the era as seen in the Temple Scroll: “If a man is a traitor...you are to hang him on a tree until dead...if a man is convinced of a capital crime...you are to hang him, also, upon a tree until dead...but you must not let their bodies remain on the tree overnight; you shall most certainly bury them that very day...you are not to defile the land...”[10] In conclusion of this first section, proper burial was of utmost importance to Jews.
The Negative Argument
Now that we’ve shown why the Jews felt very strongly about proper burial, let’s take a look at a critical scholar’s objections. Bart Ehrman argues against Jesus being granted a proper burial. He provides five primary sources for crucifixion victims being left on the cross way after their deaths [11] and a further four sources for mass, unmarked graves for crucifixion victims.[12] In addition to that we have several examples of Jewish crucifixion victims being left unburied.[13]
However, the problem with these primary sources is that they either don’t talk about practices in Judea or are examples of wartime. Roman peacetime administration in Palestine allowed Jews to practice their own customs and beliefs. The primary sources of Jews being left unburied are a result of rebellion or war. As Craig Evans notes, “[m]ost of these cases involve open rebellion and armed conflict, on the one hand, or mob actions and anarchy, on the other. None of these cases can be said to be ‘normal’ or ‘typical’ of peacetime Roman administration. These cases are exceptional and involve desperate attempts to gain or retake control and/or terrorize civilian populations.”[14] We have good evidence that Romans respected Jewish customs during peacetime.
For example, Philo records an episode where the Roman government put eagle emblems on their shields. This offended the Jews and they “appealed to Pilate to redress the infringement of their traditions caused by the shields and not to disturb the customs which throughout all the preceding ages had been safeguarded without disturbance by kings and by emperors."[15] However, since Pilate was stubborn, he still did not succumb to the Jewish people’s wishes. This led them to write a letter of complaint to Emperor Tiberius himself. After reading the letter, Tiberius became very angry with Pilate and “immediately, without putting anything off till the next day, wrote a letter...commanding him [Pilate] to take down the shields...”[16] Josephus records another incident with Pilate when he attempted to impose Roman standards on the Jewish people by bringing images of the Emperor into Jerusalem. Josephus explains how the previous Roman leaders never attempted to do any of that out of respect for Jewish law (in this case Exodus 20:4). When the Jewish people resisted Pilate, he sent an armed Roman battalion to surround and murder the Jews. In response, they fell to the ground and refused to back down, saying they would rather die than have their laws broken. Josephus records that Pilate was, “astonished at the strength of their devotion to the laws, straight away removed the images from Jerusalem.”[17]
Interestingly enough, Ehrman uses this last passage as evidence Pilate wasn’t willing to respect Jewish sensitivities. Ehrman claims that, “Pilate realized he could not murder such masses in cold blood...[and] ordered the standards removed...”[18] The problem with this interpretation is that the text simply does not say that. Ehrman has to purposefully misread the text to fit this conclusion, and this is a poor example of how people should exegete historical texts. In addition to that (and Ehrman knows this because he cites this same passage on the same page!), Josephus in the same chapter and next pericope says that Pilate had his soldiers disguise as Jews and attack the people after they got angry at him for taking their money from their temple. Josephus records many Jews being killed in the onslaught or by being trampled.[19] Pilate did learn to respect Jewish laws, but he certainly was not afraid to get his hands dirty, so Ehrman’s argument falls apart.
Burial of Crucifixion Victim Records
We have several Jewish sources recording crucifixion victims granted proper burial. In Jewish Wars, Josephus notes, “...the Jews are so careful about funeral rites that even malefactors who have been sentenced to crucifixion are taken down and buried before sunset.”[20] Again, in Jewish Wars, “...our laws determine that the bodies of such [criminals] as kill themselves should be exposed till the sunset, without burial, although at the same time it be allowed by them to be lawful to bury our enemies.”[21] In the Antiquities of the Jews, he says, “Let burial be given even to your enemies.”[22]
In addition to that, we also have Roman records allowing proper burial. According to the Digesta, a compilation of Roman law and justice code, “The bodies of those who are condemned to death should not be refused their relatives; and the Divine Augustus, in the Tenth Book of his Life, said that this rule had been observed. At present, the bodies of those who have been punished are only buried when this has been requested and permission granted; and sometimes it is not permitted, especially where persons have been convicted of high treason...the bodies of persons who have been punished should be given to whoever requests them for the purpose of burial.”[23]
We have a plethora of Jewish and Roman sources that attest to capital punishment criminals receiving proper burial or being returned to family members.
Archeological Evidence
Not only do we have outstanding historical evidence, but we also have excellent archeological evidence to support the proper burial hypothesis.
In 1968, archeologists discovered an ossuary (ossuary no. 4 in Tomb 1, at Giv‘at ha-Mivtar) belonging to a crucified man called Yehohanan.[24] The ossuary dates to the late 20s CE, during the administration of Pilate, the same governor who tried and executed Jesus.[25] An 11.5 cm iron spike was found in his right heel bone. After a forensic examination of Yehohanon’s skeletal remains, it has been confirmed that he died with his arms apart on a horizontal beams or tree branch.[26]
Interestingly enough, there is no evidence that his arms or wrists were nailed to a cross bream. However, as seen in Pliny the Elder, crucifixion victims were sometimes bound to the cross with ropes and not nails.[27] Yehohanon’s legs were broken, but the cause is still heavily debated. If it was before his death, his legs were probably broken to hasten his death, which is called crurifragium.
John Dominic Crossan objects to this evidence by saying, “I keep thinking of all those other thousands of Jews crucified around Jerusalem in that terrible first century from among whom we have found only one skeleton and one nail. I think I know what happened to their bodies, and I have no reason to think Jesus’ body did not join them.”[28] Jodi Magness does not agree with Crossan’s objection. She says, “In fact, the exact opposite is the case: the discovery of the identifiable remains of even a single victim of crucifixion is exceptional. Crossan’s assumption that we should have the physical (archeological) remains of additional crucified victims is erroneous for several reasons.”[29]
Magness argues, “First, with one exception (the repository in the late Iron Age cemetery at Ketef Hinmon), not a single undisturbed tomb in Jerusalem has ever been discovered and excavated by archeologists.”[30] This means that even in tombs that contain original remains, the skeletons are often disturbed or damaged, which means confirming Yehohanan was crucified is a miracle in of itself.
Magness continues, “Second, the Jerusalem elite who owned rock-cut family tombs with ossuaries favored the preservation of the status quo through accommodation with the Romans.”[31] This means that the majority of crucifixion victims would be buried in regular tombs, not the nice, high quality rock-cut tombs, which leads us back to Magness’ first argument since the regular tombs would not protect the bodies from centuries worth of erosion.
Magness concludes her objections by saying, “thirdly, and most important, the nail in Yehohanon’s heel was preserved only by a fluke.”[32]Dale Alisson explains why this is an important piece of evidence. He says, “the only reason we know that Yehohanan...was crucified is that a nail in his right heel bone could not be removed from the wood: it was stuck in a knot.”[33] Had it not been for the nail being located where it was, soldiers would have pulled the nail out and we would never have known that he had been crucified.
In addition to that, Alisson agrees with Pliny the Elder by saying, “...many victims were surely tied up rather than nailed, so we would not recognize them as having been crucified.”[34] Dr. Evans adds, “...many crucifixion victims were scourge, beaten, and then tied to the cross, not nailed. Thus, skeletal remains would leave no trace of trauma of crucifixion.”[35]
Conclusion
In conclusion, the historical and archeological data shows that Jesus would have been granted proper burial after his gruesome death by crucifixion. For an in-depth examination for the historicity of the burial narrative, see Alisson 2005, 352-363.
I will conclude this paper with a good quote from Jodi Magness: “...the Gospel accounts describing Jesus’ removal from the cross and burial accord well with archeological evidence and with Jewish law.”[36]
[1] Evans, Craig A. “Jewish Burial Traditions and the Resurrection of Jesus.” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus, vol. 3, no. 2, 2005, pp. 234.
[2] Ibid., 234.
[3] Genesis 23: 4-19
[4] Genesis 50: 4-14
[5] 1 Samuel 31: 12-13; 2 Samuel 21: 12-14
[6] Deuteronomy 21: 22-23; see also Numbers 11: 33-34, 1 Kings 11:15
[7] Deut. 28:25-26; 1 Kgs. 14: 11, 21. 24; Jer. 7:33, 8:2, cf. 14:16, 16.4; Ps. 79:2-3; Ezek. 29:5
[8] Philo, De Iosepho 22-25. "Child, it is not your death that grieves me, but the manner of it. If you had been buried in your own land, I should have been comforted and watched and nursed your sick-bed, exchanged the last farewells as you died, closed your eyes, wept over your body as it lay there, given it a costly funeral and left none of the customary rites undone...And, indeed, if you had to die by violence or through premeditation, it would have been a lighter ill to me, slain as you would have been by human beings, who would have pitied their dead victim, gathered some dust and covered the corpse. And then if they had been the cruelest of men, what more could they have done but cast it out unburied and go their way, and then perhaps some passer-by would have stayed his steps, and, as he looked, felt pity for our common nature and deemed the custom of burial to be its due."
[9] Philo, Book of Tobit, 1.18-20; 2.3-8; 4.3-4; 6.15; 14.10-13
[10] 11QT 64.7-13A= 4Q524 frag. 14, lines 2-4
[11] “The vulture hurries from dead cattle and dogs and crosses to bring some of the carrion to her offspring” Juvenal, Satires 14.77-78.
“You shall not therefore feed the carrion crows on the cross” Horace, Epistles 1.16.46-48
“a crucified man is raised high and his substance is sufficient to keep many birds” Artemidorus, Dream Book 2.53
“hung...alive for the wild beasts and birds of prey” inscription Caria quoted in Hengel 1977, 76.
“...a bit of gallows humor in the Satyricon of Petronius, a one-time advisor to the emperor Nero, a crucified victim being left for days on the cross (chaps. 11-12) pg. 158
Ehrman, Bart D. How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee. HarperOne, 2015., 157-158.
[12] “It was general law that temple-robbers should be cast forth without burial” Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 16.25.2
“[anyone who suffered] at the hands of the state for a crime...[was] denied burial, so that in the future there may be no trace of a wicked man” Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 31.85
“[after criminal begged for burial] Octavian: “The birds will soon settle that question” Suetonius, Augustus 13
“[about criminal committing suicide to avoid execution by state] [he] forfeited his estate and was debarred from burial” Tacitus, Annals 6.29
Ehrman, Bart D. How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee. HarperOne, 2015.,160-161.
[13] Antiquities of the Jews 12.5.4, 244-46; 13.14.2, 380; 17.10.10; 20.5.2, 6.2 cf. Jewish Wars 2.5.2, 12.6, 14.9; 20.5.2.
[14] Evans, Craig A. “Jewish Burial Traditions and the Resurrection of Jesus.” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus, vol. 3, no. 2, 2005, pp. 240.
[15] Philo, De Legatione ad Gaium 38, 300. He also records the Jews saying, “the honor of the emperor is not identical with dishonor to the ancient laws... [Emperor] Tiberius is not desirous that any of our laws or customs...be destroyed.” Legatione ad Gaium 301
[16] Philo, de Legatione ad Gaium 305. Josephus, discussing the same incident, says, “[the Romans do not require] their subjects to violate their national laws.” Josephus, Contra Apionem 2.73. These customs/national laws include never “leaving a corpse unburied.” Contra Apionem, 2.211
[17] Antiquities of the Jews 18.59. Full story: Ant. 18.55-59.
[18] Ehrman, Bart D. How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee. HarperOne, 2015., 162.
[19] Antiquities of the Jews 18.60-62.
[20] Josephus, Jewish Wars 4.317
[21] Ibid., 3.377
[22] Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 4.265 cf. Philo, Flacc. 83-85, Cicero Verr. 2.5.45
[23] Digesta 48.24.1, 3
[24] Rahmani, L.Y. “A Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries in the Collections of the State of Israel.” Israel Antiquities Authority, 1994., 130, (no. 218) + plate 31.; Zias, Joseph, and James H Charlesworth. “Crucifixion: Archeology, Jesus, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, edited by James H Charlesworth, Doubleday, 1992, pp. 273–289.
[25] Evans 2005, 242.
[26] Ibid., 243.
[27] Pliny Sr. Nat. Hist. 28.4
[28] Crossan, John Dominic. Who Killed Jesus?: Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus. HarperOne, 1996., 188.
[29] Magness, Jodi. “Ossuaries and the Burials of Jesus and James.” Journal of Biblical Literature, vol. 124, no. 1, 2005, pp. 144.
[30] Ibid., 144.
[31] Ibid., 144.
[32] Ibid., 144.
[33] Allison, Dale C. Resurrecting Jesus: The Earliest Christian Tradition and Its Interpreters. T & T Clark, 2005., 361.
[34] Ibid., 361.
[35] Evans 2005, 247.
[36] Magness 2005, 149.
