Combined Hypotheses

DEFENSE

Combined hypotheses avoid some problems but inherit problems from both original hypotheses.

The challenge may explain the empty tomb, Resurrection appearances, and Ascension, but it inherits problems from both the wrong tomb and hallucination hypotheses. From the wrong tomb hypothesis (see Day 207), it inherits the facts that:

• Specific, named women saw where Jesus was buried and returned to find the tomb empty.
• Jesus’ burial site was public—it was where he was crucified, so the women merely had to go back to the site of the Crucifixion.
• The owner of the tomb and the man who performed the burial (Joseph of Arimathea) was known and would have cleared up any confusion.
• There were guards marking the place of burial.
• Once the disciples started preaching the Resurrection, the Jewish authorities would have gone to the correct tomb—performing a search of recent burials if necessary—and produced Jesus’ corpse.
• Jews did not expect resurrection to occur in their own time but on the last day.
• The latter point is strengthened because the disciples initially did not think Jesus was resurrected but that his body had been moved.From the hallucination hypothesis (see Day 212), it inherits:
• Multiple people would not hallucinate the same conversation or physical interaction with Jesus.
• We have no evidence that the witnesses to Resurrection appearances had the kinds of mental disorders that produce hallucinations.
• It is disputed whether hallucinations are even possible for groups.
• We can’t explain the Resurrection appearances as an illusion caused by seeing something unclearly at a distance.
• The Gospels show disciples in the wrong frame of mind to experience illusions and hallucinations.
• We wouldn’t expect the hallucinations to occur for forty days and suddenly stop with the collective event of the Ascension.
• The Jewish authorities would have simply produced Jesus’ corpse.