Deliverance from the Cross — Page 89
for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it (Matt. 28:2). For fear of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men'. (Matt. 28:4) We know that the sepulchre had been prepared by Joseph of Arimathaea for himself and his family and that it belonged to him and therefore he had right of free access to it. Besides, it is unthinkable that after having obtained Pilate's permission that the body of Jesus be made over to him, he should have placed the body in the sepulchre and should not have taken any further care of it. The same applies to Nicodemus, who had provided himself with a large quantity of aloes and spices with which to minister to the body of Jesus. There is thus left a great deal of room for conjecture and speculation. An attempt is made in the Inquest on Jesus Christ to reconstruct the events. We set out the result for whatever it is worth. - While in the sepulchre, the body of flesh and blood or, as Jesus himself later put it, of flesh and bones had reverted to the condition which made physical resurrection possible or, to make it quite clear, a resurrection of a body which breathed and had an active heart. Mary of Magdala found the sepulchre open, hurried back to tell Peter and John who ran to 89