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The empty tomb is the Christian tradition that the tomb of Jesus was found empty after his crucifixion. The each describe the visit of women to Jesus' tomb. Although Jesus' body had been laid out in the tomb after crucifixion and death, the tomb is found to be empty, the body gone, and the women are told by angels (or a "young man ... dressed in a white robe") that he has risen.
In the Jews, Greek mythology, and Roman mythology context, beliefs about resurrection varied, and early Christians were aware of other resurrection or “assumption” stories, yet positioned Jesus’ resurrection as unique and Salvation. The composition and classification of the empty tomb as an "assumption" or "translation" story have been the subject of considerable debate. Scholars debate its historicity, with some suggesting Mark invented or adapted it, while others argue independent attestations in Mark and John point to an early shared tradition. Scholars disagree on whether the empty tomb by itself substantiates the resurrection; some connect it to post-resurrection appearances, while others, such as Bart D. Ehrman, view it as a theological narrative crafted to highlight Jesus’ bodily resurrection.
In the original ending of the Gospel of Mark, the oldest, three women visit the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus, but find instead a "young man ... dressed in a white robe" who tells them that Jesus will meet the disciples in Galilee. The women then flee, telling no one. Matthew introduces guards and a doublet where the women are told twice, by angels and then by Jesus, that he will meet the disciples in Galilee. Luke changes Mark's one "young man ... dressed in a white robe" to two, adds Peter's inspection of the tomb, and deletes the promise that Jesus would meet his disciples in Galilee. John reduces the women to the solitary Mary Magdalene, and introduces the "beloved disciple" who visits the empty tomb with Saint Peter and is the first to understand its significance.
probably represents a complete unit of oral tradition taken over by the author. It concludes with the women fleeing from the empty tomb and telling no one what they have seen, and the general scholarly view is that this was the original ending of this gospel, with the remaining verses, , being added later. The imagery of a young man in a white robe, and the reaction of the women, indicates that this is an encounter with an angel. The empty tomb fills the women with fear and alarm, not with faith in the risen Lord, although the mention of a meeting in Galilee is evidence of some sort of previous, pre-Markan, tradition linking Galilee and the resurrection.
Matthew revises Mark's account to make it more convincing and coherent. The description of the angel is taken from Daniel's angel with a face "like the appearance of lightning" () and his God with "raiment white as snow" (), and Daniel also provides the reaction of the guards (). The introduction of the guard is apparently aimed at countering stories that Jesus' body had been stolen by his disciples, thus eliminating any explanation of the empty tomb other than that offered by the angel, that he has been raised. Matthew introduces a doublet whereby the women are told twice, by the angels and then by Jesus, that he will meet the disciples in Galilee ()—the reasons for this are unknown.
Luke changes Mark's one "young man ... dressed in a white robe" to two, makes reference to earlier passion predictions (), and adds Peter's inspection of the tomb. He also deletes the promise that Jesus would meet his disciples in Galilee. In Mark and Matthew, Jesus tells the disciples to meet him there, but in Luke the post-resurrection appearances are only in Jerusalem. Mark and Luke report that the women visited the tomb in order to finish anointing the body of Jesus. While Mark does not provide any explanation why they could not complete their task on the evening of the crucifixion, Luke explains that the first sundown of sabbath had already begun when Jesus was being buried, and that the women were observant of sabbath regulations. In Matthew the women came simply to see the tomb, and in John no reason is given. John reduces the women to the solitary Mary Magdalene, which is consistent with . The story ends with Saint Peter visiting the tomb and seeing the burial cloths, but instead of believing in the resurrection he remains perplexed.
The following table, with translations from the New International Version, allows the three versions to be compared. (, in which Peter goes to the tomb, may be an addition to the original gospel taken from John's version of the narrative).
| The women at the tomb | Mark 16:1–4 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb, and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?" But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. | Matthew 28:1–4 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. | Luke 24:1–2 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, |
| The angelic message | Mark 16:5–7 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'" | Matthew 28:5–7 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you." | Luke 24:3–7 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " Then they remembered his words. |
| Informing the disciples | Mark 16:8 Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. | Matthew 28:8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. | Luke 24:9–11 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. |
| The message from Jesus | Matthew 28:9–10 Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." | ||
| Disciples at the tomb | Luke 24:12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. |
| Mary Magdalene at the tomb | John 20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. | John 20:11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb |
| The angelic message | John 20:12–13 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." | |
| Informing the disciples | John 20:2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!" | |
| Disciples at the tomb | John 20:3–10 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. | |
| The message from Jesus | John 20:14–18 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher"). Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her. |
Mark Goodacre writes that using "empty tomb" to refer to the disappearance of Jesus' body may be a misnomer since first-century tombs in Judea were built to house multiple bodies. As such, Mark narrates that the women had seen the spot where Jesus was laid while the later gospels state that the tomb was "new" and/or unused.
However, Smith also notes that certain elements within Mark's empty tomb story are inconsistent with an assumption narrative, most importantly the response to the women from the young man at the tomb: ("He is risen" ). Pointing to the existence in earlier Jewish texts both of the idea of resurrection from the grave and of that of a heavenly assumption of the resurrected, Dale Allison argues that resurrection and assumption are not mutually contradicting ideas, and that the empty tomb story probably involved both from the beginning.
The absence of any reference to the story of Jesus' empty tomb in the Pauline epistles and the Easter kerygma (preaching or proclamation) of the earliest church, originating perhaps in the Christian community of Antioch in the 30s and preserved in 1 Corinthians, has led some scholars to suggest that Mark invented it. Allison, however, finds this argument from silence unconvincing. Other scholars have argued that instead, Paul presupposes the empty tomb, specifically in the early creed passed down in 1 Cor. 15. Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15. Journal for New Testament Studies., pp. 56-58, John Granger Cook The Resurrection of Jesus in the Pre-Pauline Formula of 1 Cor 15.3–5. Journal for New Testament Studies, p.498, James Ware
Most scholars believe that John wrote independently of Mark and that the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John contain two independent attestations of an empty tomb, which in turn suggests that both used already-existing sources and appealed to a commonly held tradition, though Mark may have added to and adapted that tradition to fit his narrative.Engelbrecht, J. “The Empty Tomb (Lk 24:1–12) in Historical Perspective.” Neotestamentica, vol. 23, no. 2, 1989, p. 245. How and why Mark adapts his material is unclear. Smith believes that Mark has adapted two separate traditions of resurrection and disappearance into one Easter narrative.
According to Géza Vermes, the empty tomb developed independently from the post-resurrection appearances, as they are never directly coordinated to form a combined argument. While the coherence of the empty tomb narrative is questionable, it is "clearly an early tradition". Vermes rejects the literal interpretation of the story, and also notes that the story of the empty tomb conflicts with notions of a spiritual resurrection. According to Vermes, "the strictly Jewish bond of spirit and body is better served by the idea of the empty tomb and is no doubt responsible for the introduction of the notions of palpability (Thomas in John) and eating (Luke and John)." New Testament historian Bart D. Ehrman rejects the story of the empty tomb, and argues that "an empty tomb had nothing to do with believe ... an empty tomb would not produce faith". Ehrman argues that the empty tomb was needed to underscore the physical resurrection of Jesus.
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