Eyewitnesses and Empty Tomb

To claim that the resurrection narratives in the gospels were developed long after the events, and that  the empty tomb and the eyewitnesses were fabrications, are simply not reasonable assumptions given all the historical facts. 

The first accounts of the empty tomb and the eyewitnesses are found in the letters of Paul, which every historian agrees were written just fifteen to twenty years after the death of Jesus. Paul speaks of the empty tomb and resurrection on the “third day” - making it clear that he is talking of an actual occurrence, not a symbol or metaphor. More significantly he lists the eyewitnesses.

Paul states that the risen Jesus not only appeared to individuals and small groups, but also appeared to five hundred people at once, most were still alive at the time of his writing and could be consulted to verify Paul’s statements.  Paul’s letter was to a community, intended to be read aloud and was, therefore, a public document. Paul invites anyone with doubts to go and talk to these eyewitnesses.

Furthermore, no one in Jerusalem would have heeded the preaching if they could not verify tomb was empty.  Skeptics could have easily produced the rotting corpse if these were false claims. 

The Jewish leadership and the governing Romans had considerable interest in contesting such claims and they could be counted on to aggressively expose any falsehoods with evidence to the contrary.  Furthermore, the Jewish leadership was far more likely than the disciples to fabricate evidence as demonstrated at their trial of Jesus.