Archaeological Evidence: The Crucifixion, Burial, and Resurrection

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all tell the story of Jesus crucified and raised to life on the third day. Lots of eyewitnesses and ancient historians wrote about these events, but we don’t only have manuscripts to support this claim (although those are valuable on their own), we also have archaeology! There are so many archaeological finds to support the New Testament, but in this blog, we will focus on two related to the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Nazareth Inscription

The first is called the Nazareth Inscription, which is a marble tablet from the first century with an ancient Greek inscription. The inscription makes a threatening promise: anyone who steals a dead body from a tomb will be put to death. Without context, this command is pretty confusing. Think about it: Why would the government go through the trouble of threatening death to tomb robbers—and not robbers who stole valuable things like gold and perfumes, but rather, the dead bodies?

This would make sense if a body was said to be stolen, and it caused a religious revival that proclaimed worship of Jesus alone as God, instead of worshipping the emperor. And this is exactly what happened according to Matthew 28, which says that after the risen Jesus left his grave, the guards were instructed to lie, saying the apostles stole the dead King of the Jews from his tomb.

“11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.” – Matthew 28:11-15

If the lie of these soldiers did get to the leaders, it would explain the strange decree completely.
Another clue the inscription may be inspired by Jesus’ resurrection, is that it seems like the command was specifically for Jews, and all the apostles were Jews. This is because it talks about a certain kind of tomb—family tombs, which were used almost exclusively by Jews. It would make sense that if the emperor heard Jews stole a body (Jesus), then he would ban Jews from stealing any other bodies. These clues indicate that the Nazareth Inscription was written in response to the soldiers’ lies, and supports the idea that this New Testament story did happen. This means we have even more evidence Jesus truly did rise from the dead!

The Crucified Man

Another testament to Jesus’ death and burial was discovered in a bone box in a Jerusalem tomb. The bones of a crucified man had broken legs and a nail through the heel. Surprisingly, these are the only physical remains of ancient Roman crucifixion archeologists have, and it says a few big things about the story of Jesus’ crucifixion.

First, the broken legs likely reflect the practice of breaking the legs of crucified men, just as the robbers on both sides of Jesus experienced. Second, skeptics sometimes say Jesus couldn’t have been buried in a tomb, since all victims of crucifixion were thrown in a mass grave. This bone box proves that the crucified were sometimes given to family or friends for proper burial, so the body of Jesus could’ve been properly buried as well.

As archaeologists are making new discoveries, they only continue to support the Bible, and never disprove it! Jesus claimed to be God, prophesied he would rise from the dead, and then resurrected just as he said he would. If Jesus is who he said he is, and did what he said he would do, what does that mean for you?

John 18: 36-37 “36Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.’ 37 ‘You are a king, then!’ said Pilate.
Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’”

Are you on truth’s side? Will you listen to him?