Jesus' resurrection is obviously a very important story, but if we look at Mark, the first gospel written, one would never know it. In the oldest copy we have of Mark, the last chapter ends with verse 18. Let's look at that first.
After Jesus' death, Joseph of Arimathea asks Pilate for his body. Pilate grants it to him. He takes Jesus' body down, and wraps it in a linen shroud, and lays it in a tomb which had been hewn from rock, and rolls a large stone against its entrance. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses see where Jesus is laid.
After the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James) and Salome buy spices, and go to the tomb very early on the first day of the week to anoint Jesus' body. On the way they wonder who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb. When they get there they find the stone already rolled away. They enter the tomb, and see a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they are amazed. The man says to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you shall see him, as he told you." The women flee from the tomb, trembling and astonished, and they say nothing to anyone for they are afraid. THE END. Jesus never sees his disciples and no one sees the risen Jesus. We have only the attendant's word that Jesus is risen and not just removed from the tomb and we don't even know who or what he was.
Perhaps, in the second or third century CE, a copyist, a translator, or an otherwise interested party didn't think the original ending made much sense, so he or she created another 12 verses and tacked them onto Mark's last chapter. In the extra verses their author tidies up the loose ends. When Jesus rises he appears first to Mary Magdalene, then unto two of them and finally to the eleven. He tells them to go and preach the gospel to the world. He also tells them that those who believe and are baptized will be saved. However, those who don't believe will be damned. Also believers will be able to drive out demons, handle serpents and drink deadly things and not be hurt (ask Jamie Coutts if this is true, oh, wait, he died of a poisonous snake bite he received during one of his church services) and heal the sick. Then Jesus is received up into heaven, where he sits on the right hand of God.
Matthew borrows the Joseph Arimathea story from Mark, except he identifies the tomb as Joseph's and he himself rolls the stone up to the door. The observers are Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. Matthew adds an interesting sub-plot to the story by having the chief priests and Pharisees go to Pilate and ask him to set a guard at Jesus' tomb so his disciples can't spirit away his body during the night and then claim that he rose from the dead. Pilate agrees to do so and the tomb is sealed and a guard is set. In Matthew's version Salome doesn't go to the tomb, only Mary Magdalene and the other Mary do so. When they arrive an earthquake occurs (Matthew is big on earthquakes, according to him one also occurred at the time of Jesus death. No other gospel writer mentions either of these events.) and an angel of the Lord descends from heaven and rolls the stone away and sits on it. His appearance is like lightning and his raiment is like snow. The guards fear him and tremble and are like dead men. He tells the women not to be afraid, Jesus is risen and he instructs them to go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen and will meet them in Galilee. On their way they meet Jesus. They take hold of his feet and worship him. He tells them to go tell his brethren to go to Galilee and they will see him there.
This is where Matthew's sub-plot takes a bizarre turn. The soldiers who were guarding the tomb go to the chief priests and the elders, and tell them all that they've seen. The chief priests and elders concoct a story for the guards to tell everyone. They say, "Tell people, 'His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' " They give the guards some money and say they'll cover for them if Pilate asks any questions. What kind of cock-a-mammy story is this? They were sound asleep and that's how his disciples were able to abscond with Jesus' body and they knew it was his disciples because they saw them removing his body while they were sound asleep. Really? If they told anyone this story they would have made a laughing stock of themselves. And let's not forget these guards saw something the average Christian will never see their life time - an angel descending from heaven rolling a huge rock away and sitting on it who then starts speaking the language the women spoke. Surely this would have made them instant followers of Jesus and maybe the chief priests and elders as well when they heard the story, albeit, second hand. Matthew goes on to say this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. Yeah, if they want to make fools of themselves.
The eleven disciples go to Galilee and meet and worship Jesus, but some doubted. Why would they doubt their own eyes? Jesus tells them to go forth and make disciples of all nations baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Luke also includes the Joseph of Arimathea story. This time it's the women who came with Jesus from Galilee who saw where he is laid. The women prepare spices and ointments with which to anoint Jesus' body. On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James go to the tomb, and find the stone rolled away from the tomb and Jesus' body gone. Suddenly, two men in dazzling apparel are standing by them. The women are frightened, but the men tell them that Jesus has risen as he said he would. Returning from the tomb they tell the eleven and the rest, but the apostles don't believe them. They think it's an idle tale.
Luke adds a lot to the story at this point. Two unidentified men are walking to Emmaus when Jesus joins them, but their eyes are kept from recognizing him. They tell him the story of Jesus and how his tomb was found empty. They share a meal with him and their eyes are opened and they recognize him. They return to Jerusalem and find the eleven and tell them they saw Jesus. Jesus joins them. At first they think he is an apparition, but he invites them to 'handle' him and to look at his hands and feet. He tells them that the repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations. He leads them to Bethany, blesses them and parts from them.
John's author also contains the Joseph of Arimathea story, but this time Nicodemus helps Joseph wrap Jesus' body, and they place him in the tomb. The first to go to the tomb in John's version is Mary Magdalene, by herself. She runs and tells Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, that the stone has been rolled away and that the tomb is empty. Simon Peter and the other disciple race to the tomb. The other disciple gets there first, but doesn't go in until Simon Peter gets there. Jesus' body is gone. Only the linen cloths remain. The two disciples go back to their homes.
Mary stands weeping outside the tomb and she sees two angels inside. They ask her why she is weeping, and she replies it is because they have taken her Lord away, but she doesn't know where they have taken him. She turns and sees Jesus, but doesn't recognize him. She believes he is the gardener. He calls her name and then she knows who he is. He tells her not to hold him as he has not ascended to the Father and asks her to tell his disciples that he is ascending to Him. During the evening Jesus comes and stands among the disciples. He shows them his hands and his side. He breathes on them and tells them to receive the Holy Spirit. He also tells them they have the power to forgive sins. Thomas, one of the disciples arrives after Jesus has left. They tell him about Jesus' visit. He tells them he won't believe unless he can see and put his fingers into the nail prints in Jesus' hands and his hand into Jesus' side.
Eight days later the disciples, including Thomas are together when Jesus enters the room without apparently opening the door. He shows Thomas his wounds and invites him to put his finger in his hand wounds and his hand into his side. Thomas believes. John's author tells us that Jesus did many other signs before his disciples which he didn't write in his book.
Some of the disciples go fishing on the sea of Tiberias, but they catch nothing. At daybreak, they see Jesus on the beach, but they don't recognize him. They tell him they've caught no fish. Jesus tells them to cast their net on the right side of the boat where they will find some. They do so and catch so many fish they can't haul in the net. Jesus and his disciples have bread and grilled fish for breakfast.
Interesting Notes:
1. The King James version of the bible contain the extra 12 verses as part of the text proper. Newer versions have removed these verses from the text proper and relegated them to a footnote.
2. In Matthew's version of the story, the Roman guards and the women who have come to the tomb witness an angel descend from heaven and roll away the stone. Jesus is not seen exiting the tomb. It's already empty, so he either walked right through the stone, or rolled it away himself. If he did the latter, why would he roll it back into place? He certainly didn't roll it back in the other three gospels. If he did the former, why was the stone rolled away in the other three gospels?
3. None of the four gospels agree on who goes to the tomb on the first day of the week after the crucifixion.
4. There is no mention of Jesus ascending to heaven in Matthew, John or in Mark with the original ending. In the extra verses that were added to Mark, Jesus "was taken up into heaven....". It isn't clear whether the disciples witnessed this or not. In Luke, we find "While he blessed them, he parted from them." Not a clear ascension. However, in the King James version of the bible we find in Luke "While he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." A clear ascension which the disciples most likely saw. This is obviously not a translation problem. It would appear to be an interpolation problem. The oldest copy of Luke doesn't have this addition. It gets added later and stayed with us through to the KJV. Now it has been pulled from the text proper in most of the later versions and is just a footnote. More interesting still, it is generally accepted that the author of Luke was also the author of the book The Acts of the Apostles in which there is a description of Jesus' ascension (Acts 1:9). "And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight." A clear ascension. There is no clear ascension in the oldest copy of Luke that we have, but there is in Acts. Same author. These two works should be in sync, but they're not. One would think that when he wrote his second work he would have remembered what he had written in his first.
5. In Luke, resurrected Jesus invites his disciples to 'handle' him, to check his wounds. In Matthew the women who first see the resurrected Jesus hold his feet. In John, Jesus tells Thomas to put his finger in his hand wounds and to put his hand in the wound in his side, but he won't let Mary Magdalene 'hold' him when she see him after his resurrection. Why not? He let others touch him?
6. Only Matthew's version has an angel descending from heaven, rolling away the stone and sitting upon it. None of the other gospels contain anything like that. Matthew's author seems to have a very vivid imagination or a source of information to which the other gospel writers didn't seem to have access.
