A New Argument for the Empty Tomb?
A Note on the Language of Resurrection
Did Paul believe in the empty tomb?
It may be fair to say that under the influence of writers such as Robyn Faith Walsh, David Litwa and Richard Miller, the Gospel narratives of Jesus’ empty tomb are increasingly seen at a popular level as legendary; pious tales which resemble the ‘translation fables’ so common to the evangelists’ Graeco-Roman environ.
Within this scheme, Paul’s silence on the empty tomb is sometimes taken as indirect evidence confirming the lateness of the empty tomb tradition.
If Paul knew of an empty tomb, in his debates with those Corinthian followers of Jesus who doubted the resurrection, why did he not mention the fact?
In the last two decades, however, a new argument for Paul’s belief in the empty tomb has arisen. The argument concerns the language Paul uses to speak of the resurrection: the verbs egeirō and anistémi. In my previous posts on the burial and the empty tomb, I overlooked this point. I therefore want to unpack it briefly here.
The Language of Resurrection
What does it mean to say that Jesus rose from the dead?
In English, the word ‘rose’ denotes a general upward motion. We might speak about the bread rising in the oven, or how the balloons rose gracefully through the air. With this language in mind, we might picture Jesus’ ‘resurrection’ as a general upward trajectory - an ascension unattached to his flesh and bones on earth, rather than the reanimation or revival of a corpse.
According to recent word studies, however, the ancient language for the resurrection - the verbs egeirō and anistémi - may be more limited in its scope. Taking a look at egeirō, the verb used by Paul in the formula of 1 Corinthians 15, James Ware has argued that the Greek word means “to get up or to stand up, that is, to rise from a supine or standing position.”1
Contrary to our English use of the word ‘rise’, Ware writes:
“ἐγείρω does not mean to rise in the sense that a balloon rises into the air, but in the sense of arising to stand. In resurrection contexts the verb does not therefore denote that the dead ascend or are assumed somewhere; rather, the verb signifies that the corpse, lying supine in the grave, gets up or arises to stand from the tomb.”2
Ware’s judgement has recently found support by a number of studies by James Granger Cook.3 Cook distinguishes the verb egeirō and noun anistémi (resurrection) from the more ambiguous anabasis (‘elevation’ or ‘ascension’) which is never used in the New Testament to refer to the resurrection.4 In his survey of ancient stories of resurrection, Cook argues that a physical motion upward is always in view.5
In his prolific work on the resurrection, New Testament historian Dale Allison cites both of these works approvingly: “In sum… Paul’s belief that Jesus “was raised” implies that he “was raised (from a grave)” just as surely as Paul’s remark that Jesus “was born” (Phil. 2:7) implies that that he “was born (of a woman.)”6
An Empty Tomb in Paul?
What does this argument mean for Paul’s knowledge of the empty tomb?
Both Ware and Cook take it as evidence that Paul’s language presupposes an empty tomb. But, assuming they are right about the language of resurrection, does this conclusion follow?
Allison, who himself deems it likely that Jesus was buried in a tomb which was later found empty, questions them on this point. He writes:
“ … what follows from this [language of resurrection] for our purposes is not evident. Paul could, in theory, have believed in an emptied tomb without knowing a narrative about its discovery. The fact remains that the apostle, even if his words likely assume that Jesus’ tomb was empty, fails to say so. So what, if anything, he knew about Jesus’ tomb remains forever beyond recovery. He may have known something like Mk 16:1-8 as part of a pre-Markan passion narrative. I myself suspect that he did. Paul could even, when in Jerusalem, have visited a tomb thought to be that of Jesus. Nonetheless, “may have,” “suspect,” and “could” carry scant force…
Allison concludes:
“If, then, we are looking for good arguments for the empty tomb, we will need to look elsewhere. While Paul is no witness against the story of an empty tomb as found in the gospels, he equally cannot be called on to support any of the specifics of that tradition or even, with any confidence, its pre-Markan existence as a narrative. While, moreover, the historical fact that Jesus’ tomb was found empty will explain 1 Cor. 15:3-4, so too would a legend that Paul and others mistakenly believed to be true.”
Even if Paul’s language of resurrection implies that Jesus’ grave must have been empty, the question of whether Paul knew about an empty tomb remains unanswered. For, as Mark Goodacre puts it, “Paul’s vanilla statement [about the burial] does not of course tell us anything about the type of burial imagined…”7
However, there are further considerations which might push us in this direction. Joan Taylor, a historian who has studied the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, thinks that “the traditional tomb of Jesus may very well be authentic.”8 Furthermore, Cook notes that the archaeological evidence for mass graves in Judea - perhaps the most plausible alternative to the entombment described in the Gospels - is entirely lacking.9
So, did Paul believe in the empty tomb? There is no firm evidence. Yet perhaps there are clues. The jury is still out on whether this tradition stands behind the Gospels.
James Ware, “The Resurrection of Jesus in the Pre-Pauline Formula of 1 Cor 15.3-5,” NTS 60 (2014): 475-498 (494).
Ware, “Resurrection,” 494.
See, John Granger Cook, “Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15,” NTS (2017): 56-75;
John Granger Cook, Empty Tomb, Resurrection, Apotheosis. WUNT 410 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018), 13.
Cook, “Resurrection,” 57.
Dale C. Allison. Jr., The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, History (London: Bloomsbury, 2021), 144.
Mark Goodacre, “How Empty was the Tomb?,” JSNT 44 n.1 (2011): 134-148 (138n.18).
Joan E. Taylor, “Golgotha: A Reconsideration of the Evidence for the Sites of Jesus’ Cru- cifixion and Burial,” NTS 44 (1998) 180–203 (182) cited in Cook, Empty Tomb, 594.
John Granger Cook, “Crucifixion and Burial,” NTS 57 (2011): 193-213 (206).