THE RESURRECTION, OR WHO MOVED THE STONE?

 

 

Let us begin at the beginning of the problem.

It was Sunday morning, according to the Bible, the first day of the week, when Mary Magdalena went to the tomb of Jesus (Joh 20: 1 ). The first question that bedevils the mind is:

 

Question 1:

Why did she go to the tomb?

 

Answer:

The Gospel writer say that she went to "ANOINT" him. The Hebrew word for anoint is "MASAHA", which means "to rub", "to massage", "to anoint". The word and its meaning are the same in Arabic language also. From this root word "masaha" we get the Arabic word "MASEEH" and the Hebrew "MESSIAH" both meaning the same thing ‑ "The anointed one,', which was translated into Greek as "CHRISTOS" from which we derive the word Christ. The Arabic and Hebrew language are both Semitic languages, they have the same source and still many agreements.

 

Question 2:

Do Jews massage dead bodies after three days?

 

Answer: No.

 

Question 3:

Do Muslims massage dead bodies after three days?

 

Answer: No.

 

Question 4:

Do Christians  massage dead bodies after three days?

 

Answer: No.

lt is common knowledge that within three hours after death, rigor mortis sets in ‑ the breaking up of the body cells ‑ the hardening of the body. In three days the corpse starts rotting from within. lf we massage such a rotting body, it will fall to pieces.

 

Question 5:

Does it make any sense, tat Mary Magdalena wants to massage a rotting body after three days?

 

Answer:

lt makes no sense, unless we confess that she was looking for a LIVE Jesus, not a dead one. You will recognise this fact for yourself on analysing her reaction towards Jesus when she eventually saw through his disguise. You see, she had seen signs of live in that limp body when it was taken down from the cross. She was about the only woman beside Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus who had given the final (?) rites to the body of Jesus. This man Nicodemus somehow, has been deliberately blotted out by the synoptist. The Gospel writers of Matthew, Mark and Luke are totally ignorant of this devoted and self‑sacrificing disciple of Jesus. His name is not even mentioned in the first three gospels in any context. "It is difficult to avoid concluding that the omission in the synoptic tradition of the mysterious disciple was intentional", says Dr Hugh J Schonfield, one of the world´s leading Biblical scholars.

 

When Mary Magdalena reached the tomb, she found that the stone had already been rolled away, and the winding sheets bundled on the ledge within the sepulchre. The question now arises:

 

Question 6:

Why was the stone removed and why were the winding seets found unwound?

 

Answer:

Because it would be impossible for any tangible body to come out with the stone blocking the opening, and the same physical body could not walk out with the winding sheets encasing the body. For a resurrected body, it would have been unnecessary to remove the stone or to unwind the winding sheets.

While the poor, dejected Mary was investigating the sepulchre, Jesus was watching her from the vicinity. Not from heaven, but from terra firma, from mother earth. We must remember that this tomb was a privately owned property belonging to his "secret disciple" Joseph of Arimathaea ‑ who was a very rich, influential Jew, and one who could afford to have carved a big roomy chamber, out of a rock which according to Jim Bishop (a Christian scholar of note) was 5 feet wide by 7 feet high by 15 feet deep with a ledge or ledges inside. Around this tomb was this "secret disciple's" own vegetable garden. It is hardly expected of any Jew or Gentile to grow vegetables 5 miles out of town for other peoples' sheep and goats to graze upon! Surely, this husband must have provided his labourers with the gardeners' quarter to protect his own interests, and perhaps ha also had his "country home" around the place where he could relax with his family during the weekends. Jesus was watching his lady disciple out of whom he had cast out seven devils. He comes up to her. He finds her crying. He questions her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? (Joh 20:15)

 

Question 7:

Does he not know? Why does she ask such silly question?

 

Answer:

He knew why she was crying, and he knew who she was looking for and he was not asking any silly questions. Actually, he was pulling her leg, figuratively of course! He knew that she was looking for him in the tomb, and not finding him there, was crying in her disappointment. He also knew that she would not be able through his disguise. Though he had been through an ordeal, he still had that sense of humour to ask her, "Woman, why wepest thou? Whom seekest thou?"

"SHE SUPPOSING HIM TO BE THE GARDENER, SAITH UNTO HIM' (Joh 20:15)

 

Question 8:

Why did she think that he (Jesus) was a gardener? Do resurrected bodies look like gardeners?

 

Answer:

Can you imagine the scene on the Resurrection day, that you dear reader, will be made to look like a "gardener" and your father‑ in‑Law will also be transformed into a "gardener" and your son‑in‑Law will also be made to look like a "gardener" and your beloved wife will be left in confusion to find her husband! Does this make sense? No! The resurrected body will be you, yourself everyone will readily recognise you. It will be the real you and not your camouflage. Never mind at what age or under what condition one dies, everyone will know one another. Then why did Mary think that Jesus was a "gardener"? Because Jesus was disguised as a gardener.

 

Question 9:

Why was he disguised as a gardener?

 

Answer: Because he was afraid of the Jews.

 

Question 10:

Why was he afraid of the Jews?

 

Answer:

Because he had not died and was not resurrected. lf he had died and if he was resurrected, he would not have any reason to be afraid. Why? Because the resurrected body cannot die twice. Who says so? The Bible says so: "... it is ordained unto all men once to die, and after that the judgement." (Heb 9:27)

The idea that the resurrected cannot die twice is further supported by what Jesus Christ had most authoritatively pronounced regarding the resurrection. The learned men of the Jews came to Jesus with a poser, a riddle. They said that there was a woman who had seven husbands in turn. IN THE RESURRECTION THEREFORE MTHOSE WIFE SHALL SHE BE OF THE SEVEN? FOR THEY ALL HAD HER." (Mt 22:28) Jesus could have brushed off the Jews with some curt retort because here was another of their tricks to catch him out. Instead, he has enshrined for us the clearest statement in the Bible regarding the resuffected soul. He said: "NEITHER SHALL THEY DIE ANY MORE, FOR THEY ARE EQUAL UNTO THE ANGELS, AND THE CHILDREN OF GOD, FOR SUCH ARE TI‑IE CHILDREN OF THE RESURRECTION." (Lk 20:36)

"NEITHER SHALL THEY DIE ANYMORE" ‑ that they will be immortalised. They will not be subjected to death a second time. No more hunger and thirst. No more fatigue or physical dangers. Because the resurrected body will be "as an angel. They will become like spirit creatures, they will become Spirits. Mary Magdalena was not looking for a spirit. She, taking the disguised Jesus to be a gardener, says, "SIR, IF YOU HAVE TAKE HIM HENCE, TELL ME WHERE HAVE YOU LAID HIM..." (Job 20:15)Note that she is searching for "HIM" and not for "IT" ‑ a dead body. Further, she wants to know as to where they had "LAID" him, not to where they had "BURIED" him? So that, 1 MIGHT TAKE HIM AWAY." (Joh 20:15)

 

Question 11:

What does she want to do with a decomposing corpse?

 

Answer:

She wants to put it under her bed? Absurd! She wants to embalm him? Nonsense! She wants to bury him? lf so, who dug the grave? No! No! "She wants to take him away."

 

Question 12:

How can she alone carry a dead body?

 

Answer:

She is not thinking of a dead, rotting corpse. She is looking for a live Jesus. She is not a "super‑woman" of the American comics, who could with ease carry a corpse of at least a hundred and sixty pounds, wrapped with another "hundred pounds weight of aloes and myrrh" (Joh 19:39) making a neat bundle of 260 pounds. This frail Jewess was not expected to carry this decaying parcel like a bundle of straws. Even if she could carry it, how was she to bury it alone? She might have had to dump it in some hole like a heap of rubbish. But dumping and burying are poles apart. She was looking for a Jesus who was very much alive, a Jesus she could hold by the hand and take him home for rest, relax and recuperation, "so that. 1 might take him away".

 

During the whole course of the dialogue between Mary and Jesus, she did not suspect in the least that she was actually talking to her Master. She had failed to see through the gardener's disguise. He could not suppress it no longer. "M‑A‑R‑Y!" he uttered. Only one word, but it was enough. This one word Wary" did, all that the exchange of words failed to do. It enabled Mary to recognise Jesus. Everyone has his own unique and peculiar way of calling bis or her near one or dear one. It was not the mere sound of the name, but the way he must have deliberately intoned it that made Mary to respond him Waster!, Master! " She lunged forward to grab her spiritual master, to pay her respects and to give reverence.

The Muslims, when they meet their learned men, or respected elders or saintly people, hold such person's right hand in the palm of their own hands and fondly kiss the back of the respected one's hand. The Frenchmen kisses the cheeks to show respect and the Arab kisses the neck. Mary the Jewness would have done what any Muslim might have done under similar circumstances.

When Mary makes the effort, Jesus shies back a step or two, saying, "Touch me not," (Joh 20:17)

 

Question 13:

1 wonder – why not?

 

Answer:

 

Is he a current of electricity or a dynamo, that 1 she touches him, she will get electrocuted?

Answer: No! Don't touch me, because it will hurt. Though he had given no indication of any physical pain or injury he might have suffered, it would be excruciatingly painful lf he now allows her to touch him with love and affection. Can another reason be advanced for this "Touch me not"?

Jesus continues, "FOR 1 AM NOT YET ASCENDED UNTO MY FATHER;" (Joh 20:17)

 

Question 14:

Is she blind?

 

Answer:

Could she not see that the man she was talking to all the time was standing before her? does it make any sense when he (Jesus) says that‑ "HE IS NOT GONE UP", when he is DOWN right here. What Jesus is telling Mary in so many different words is that "HE IS NOT RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD", for in the colloquial language and idiom of the Jew, the expression, "FOR 1 AM NOT YET ASCENDED UNTO MY FATHER" means ‑ 1 am not dead yet.

 

lt is a sad fact of history that though the Christian Bible is an Eastern Book, full of eastern metaphors and similes, like ‑ "Let the dead bury their dead" (Mt 8:22) or "Seeing they see not and hearing they hear not" (Mt 13:13), all the commentators of the Bible have come from the West. The western world is made to see a Jewish Book, written by the Jews for a Jewish audience, through Greek and Western glasses. An Eastern book ought to be read as an Easterner would read and understand it. All problems would then be solved.

 

Mary was not afraid when she recognised the disguised Jesus yet ten brave men (the disciples of Jesus) were petrified on recognising their Master in that "upper‑room" after his alleged passion.

 

Simple answer

 

"Who moved the stone?" The answer is so simple and so natural that one is at a loss to understand how this problem has eluded Christian scholars of the highest eminence.

 

The answer to the question, "WHO ROLLED THE STONE INTO PLACE?T' is the answer for the title of this tract. "...and He (Joseph of Arirnathaea) rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. " (Mk 15;46) Mark is here supported by Matthew, who in Chapter 27and verse 60 states that "...He (Joseph of Arimathaea) rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and departed." lf this one man could move the stone into place as witnessed by mark and Matthew, then let me be more generous in adding the name of the other faithful "secret disciple" ‑ Nicodemus. It was Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus, the two stalwarts who did not leave the Master in the lurch when he was in most need. These two had given to Jesus a Jewish burial (?) bath, and wounded the sheets with the "aloes and myrrh" and temporary moved the stone into place, if at all; they were the same two real friends who removed the stone, and took their shocked Master soon after dark, that same Friday night to a more congenial place in the immediate vicinity for treatment.

 

 

Why Jesus did not died on the cross

 

1. Jesus did not wanted to die!

He had a defence strategy to stay away from the Jews. Because he wanted to live. (The one who has no money to buy a sword, should sell his garment and buy one.)

 

2. He prayed to God.

With tears and crying he prayed to God to keep him alive.

 

3. God heard his prayers.

Which means, that God accepted his prayers for keeping him alive.

 

4. An angel came to enforce him:

In the hope to be saved alive.

 

5. Pilate thinks, that he is innocent.

Another good reason, that Jesus should live.

 

6. Pilate's wife dreamt a dream, in which it was said to her:

"No pain should be done to this man." In other words, he should live.

 

7. He was only for three hours on the Cross.

The idea of the crucifixion was not designed that some one should die in this short time.

 

8. The both other crucified persons on the Cross were living while Jesus was supposed to be dead. Jesus was living on the Cross, as the both other crucified persons were living.

 

9. The Encyclopaedia Biblica writes under the article "Cross", column 960:

When Jesus was pierced by the spear, he was alive.

 

10. At once Water and blood was coming out. At once means "immediately" which is another sign that Jesus was alive.

 

11. Legs were not broke‑ as a fulfilment of a prophecy The legs are only useful, lf the one is living.

 

12. Thunder, earthquake and the darkening of the sun within three hours. To distribute the sadistic crowd, so that the "secret disciples" of Jesus could help him, to stay alive.

 

13. Pilate is surprised that Jesus is already dead. He knew from his experience, that the judged do not die within three hours. He suggested, that Jesus was alive.

 

14. Big room. Quick to reach, big and "breezy", to help the helping hands to rescue Jesus. The idea was to keep Jesus alive.

 

15. Stone and winding sheets must be removed. This was only necessary, if Jesus was alive.

 

16. Always in disguise. The disguise would not be necessary, if he was resurrected.

 

17. Forbid Mary to touch him. "Touch me not" the reason was that he was alive and perhaps had pain.

 

18. Not yet ascended to my Father.

In the language of the Jews this means: "1 am not dead yet." Or in other words: "1 live!”

 

19. Mary Magdalena is not fearing after she recognised Jesus. Because she had earlier noticed life signs in his corpse. That is why she had searched for a living Jesus.

 

12. Disciples were petrified, when they saw Jesus in the room. All their knowledge about the crucifixion which they had was from hear‑sayings. that was the reason, why they could not believe, that he was alive.

 

21. He ate in front of them and with them after he visited the disciples after the crucifixion. Food is only necessary if some one is alive.

 

22. Never showed himself to his enemies. He had luckily survived and he did not wanted to risk his life again.

 

23. Made only short journeys. Because he was not resurrected, no ghost, but still of flesh and blood.

 

24. Men state at the grave. What are you searching the living among the dead? (Lk 24:5) that means he was not dead, but alive.

 

25. Angels state. "The angels said that he was alive." (Lk 24:23) the angel did not say "resurrected" but the correct word: "alive".

 

26. Jesus himself prophesied, that he is going to perform the miracle of Jona. According to the book of Jona, Jona was alive , when he was expected to be dead. Similar was it with Jesus: we expect him to be dead, while he was alive.