One of the many claims put forward by Christian defenders about the validity of the faith is the fact that when the disciples began preaching the claim that Jesus was resurrected; no one came forward to refute it. Instead, it is claimed, enemies of the faith came up with all sorts of explanations for the disciples finding the tomb empty. Yet, in all of this, many have argued that if these enemies really wanted to destroy the faith all they had to do was to point to Jesus’ corpse. However, things are not as simple as that.

For one thing, it may have been true that not many people came forward to refute the resurrection. However, this was true not because they couldn’t, but because they were not interested. The Jews at the time thought that these disciples were a bunch of nut cases not deserving of their attention. It must be remembered that for the first 150 years or so, Christianity was not a global religion like today, but a very small and un-noticed cult, with very few weird members who were ignored by most.

This is very significant. How is it that Jesus, who it is claimed by the gospels as having raising the dead and calming storms could be ignored by the very people who supposedly saw these unusual feats? This ignorance by the majority of the very people, who were there at the time, perhaps more than anything else, proves that the many claimed miracles are nothing but fiction. Joseph, who was a well-respected member of the council that convicted Jesus, would certainly have ignored these fanatics as well.

However, lets suppose that Joseph did have some concern for what these early disciples were doing and that he wanted to stop them. Could he?

According to the gospels themselves, the disciples did not start preaching the “good news” until some seven weeks after Jesus’ death. By that time, Jesus’ corpse would have decomposed beyond recognition. Imagine Joseph taking these quacks seriously by digging up what was left of Jesus’ body and confronting the disciples with it? Why, Joseph would probably be seen as the laughing stock of the Jews! Even if the disciples could have recognized him, which was very unlikely, they could always have denied that the corpse was really Jesus.

However, could Joseph have prevented Christianity by other means? This is very hard to say. Even though Joseph may have placed Jesus in a tomb after his death, he, as a highly respected member of the Jewish ruling council, would have had to remove Jesus’ corpse from that tomb and rebury it in the criminals’ grave yard - according to law. This, it seems, is exactly what Joseph did. However, would this explanation have aborted the Christian fetus?

It’s unlikely. For one thing, the disciples could have a long list of suitable explanations. They could have claimed that Jesus was resurrected in spirit form, which is what Paul seemed to have thought (when in his right mind, of course). They could have claimed that though resurrected, Jesus had gone to heaven. They could have even claimed that Jesus was resurrected in another body - unrecognizable to all except the disciples.

The point is that no matter how convincing the evidence to the contrary would have been, the founders of the new faith would have found some way to make sure that it started. I for one don’t think that anything Joseph would have done would have prevented the start of this faith. Like the origin of most logic is usually replaced by ignorance and superstition and this is especially true of Christianity. Joseph did not know what would have happened four hundred years later - most didn’t, so we can’t blame him for ignoring early Christianity.

[Back to Main Page]