For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Was the tomb opened or closed when the women arrived?
Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:
The tomb was open.
“And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,” (Luke 24:2)
“They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.” (Mark 16:3-4)
“Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene *came early to the tomb, while it *was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.” (John 20:1)
The tomb was closed.
“And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.” (Matthew 28:2)
(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)
Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:
- When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction. A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time. To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
- One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible. See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions. Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do. But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
- The skeptics cited Luke 24:2, Mark 16:3-4 and John 20:1 as recording the fact that the tomb was open when the women arrived. This is pitted against Matthew 28:2 which the skeptics cited as recording the fact that the tomb was closed when the women arrived.
- The skeptics did correctly cite Luke 24:2, Mark 16:3-4 and John 20:1 as stating that the tomb was open when the women arrived.
- Notice Luke 24:2 stated the women “found the stone rolled away.“
- Mark 16:4 stated the women “saw that the stone had been rolled away.“
- John 20:1 stated Mary “saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.“
- The skeptic hasn’t established that Matthew 28:2 recorded the fact that the tomb was closed when the women arrived.
- It is true that this verse tells us “an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone.” Yet that tells us how the stone was removed blocking the tomb but that is not the same thing as the women finding the tomb closed when they arrived.
- Unlike the other three previous passages there’s no verb such as “found,” and “saw” in reference to Mary or the women as the subject of the action of the angels rolling away the stone in Matthew 28:2.
- So Matthew 28:2 should be seen as a parenthetical statement of what happened to the tomb’s entrance, and not that this was what the women saw as the tomb still closed when they arrived.
- If it is shown that the skeptics are incorrect in interpreting Matthew 28:2 as teaching that the tomb was closed when the women arrived then we don’t have a Bible contradiction.
- A skeptic might say Matthew 28:1 which is before Matthew 28:2 mentioned “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.” Therefore they could reason that the two women saw the tomb was closed. But here is where the skeptic’s lack of knowledge of Greek shows itself. The verb “look” in Matthew 28:1 is an infinitive verb. As infinitive it is showing purpose. It tells us the purpose of why the women were traveling in the morning. It is not an indicative verb showing a statement of fact. Again it is emphasizing purpose. And the object of the infinitive verb is simply “the grave” in Matthew 28:1. Not open grave. Not closed grave. The result of their intent of seeing the grave/tomb is verse 5 onwards. None of those verses mentioned that the women saw a closed gave. So the skeptics can’t cite Matthew 28:2 nor anything else from Matthew 28 to say that the BIble teaches he tomb was closed when the women arrived.
- Thus we can conclude there is not a contradiction here. The skeptic needs to learn How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
- We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity. The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible. In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview. Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”
- Also there’s another alleged Bible contradiction similar to this one that’s on the Skeptic Annotated Bible that we responded to; see Were the men or angels inside or outside the tomb when the women arrived?
Thanks for debunking this. Very helpful.
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Thanks for the lesson on the infinitive in Greek!
You’re welcome! Was a joy to look at verses in the Greek and I think you know the feeling of working with the original language, yeah? Thanks for commenting on the blog a lot lately Mandy!
I LOVE looking at the languages! I am obsessed with learning Hebrew!!! I only had two semester of Greek so my knowledge on that is VERY limited! I enjoy your blog immensely!
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Just curious, since I haven’t studied Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic – Do any of these languages have past participle tenses? (“The stone HAD been moved” as opposed to “The stone WAS moved”?)
If not, this could answer another question a friend and I were wrestling with recently.
While I haven’t heard Greek grammarian called it past participle tenses for what you are describing there is definitely a Greek way to capture the idea you mentioned! The Greek perfect tense typically function to capture the “had” idea. The tense doesn’t have to be a participle to convey that idea but can be conveyed and typically conveyed in other verbal “moods” (technical term for whether verb is a participle, verb stating facts, suggestions, commands, etc). Hope that helps without getting too foggy! What was the question your friend was wrestling with lately?
He was wondering about when Moses and Aaron (God) turned the Nile and all the water throughout Egypt to blood. But then it says that Pharaoh’s magicians did the same trick with their magic arts. If all the water was already blood, where did the magicians get water to show that they could do the same thing? I suggested that possibly the magicians HAD done it before, that maybe they just reminded Pharaoh, “Hey, we can do that trick, too, remember?”
I’m glad I read this comment it is good to keep in mind when I look up interlinear translations
Thanks for this thorough rebuttal of another one of Steve/Stephen Wells’ cherry-picking contradictions. Yes, Wells is extrapolating evidence from Matthew 28:2 that’s just not there. If Wells was a prosecutor, every judge of every case he was involved with would petition to have him debarred.
Good analogy from the court scene. It does capture a spiritual truth that Steve Wells want to accuse God the Judge with technical details of why He was wrong. But we know no one is without excuse and his arguments will be thrown out for being fallacious. I hope he sees the errors of his case and his ways and repent before it’s too late. Is the rest of your relatives and son’s family doing ok with the virus in NY?
Thanks, brother! Everybody in our family is hunkered down and doing well. Our AF son now stationed in Florida still has to report to his job on base daily. How is all of your family doing in SoCal?
It’s obviously super trivial given the circumstances, but this morning I downloaded LSH #5 e-comic to my Kindle. The local comic shop isn’t even allowed to bring comic orders to customers in the parking lot.
Wow! Some of their claims take a good bit of working through. This one was pretty obvious, I still wonder at their lack of shame at such an easily refuted list. Thank you for taking us through this, my friend!
Great rebuttal. The skeptics love to bring up contradictions concerning the Bible’s details on the Resurrection of Christ. The root cause is obviously sin and the love of sin, See Romans 1. It leads an atheist to find any excuse imaginable to suppress the truth about God.
This guy gives me a headache. He is sooooo blind. You have the light.:)
We have the Light by God’s Grace. Still it’s also a moral blindness this skeptic has because He chooses not to see the truth but twist Scripture in his interpretation. Which is a wicked thing to others and even more so God’s Word. Has Louisiana or your parish been pretty strict in enforcing shelter in place?
No. we have curfew of 5Pm unless you have legit reason. We do have to have papers to cross city lines proving the need industry to work. I am strict, as children insist I cannot go shopping but that’s ok. hehe. Theygo for me.:)
How is it that these verses have been scrutinized for centuries and found not to be contradictory, and our skeptic thinks he’s the first genius to see a contradiction. Seems quite arrogant to me…
Thanks. You’re right about the hubris especially with how flawed and fallacious his interpretation is, it’s embarrassing and I wonder what keeps a guy going and selling his books when it contain so many shameful handling of the text. Sometimes I wonder if it’s also the money…don’t know if you wonder that too? I also don’t see him interacting with those before him and their interpretation and reasoning for their interpretation. Yet young militant atheists on social media have promoted this book as scholarly…crazy huh?
Yeah, pretty nuts. If he’s not self publishing, I wonder who his publisher is, and if he is self publishing I can understand why.
It is my believe he had to try very hard to find a contradiction in these verses and he miserably failed.
Thank you for your great work refuting this nonsense.
Blessings
You’re welcome! The last few of these weekly refutations have been devoted to debunking contradictions surrounding Christ last week to the Ascension and Lord willing the next couple of weeks as we get close to Good Friday and Easter since unbelieving trolls will be busy attacking Christ for the occasion and I thought it would be timely. I wonder if this Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday the world will continue with this quarantine and lockdown…does it seem like it will he still be the case in Australia when the time comes?
From what I hear from our leaders is that we are just beginning here in Australia. NSW, where I live has recorded the largest number of infections.
There are many self appointed “prophets” stating that God told them that virus will be eradicated during Passover. Praying this virus will prove them wrong.
The Lord keep you and your family safe.
I can’t tell you how much I internally cringed reading this claim!
Thanks for reading this! How is your family doing with the virus, been reading there’s more infections going on in Australia. Also how’s your brother?
My brother sounds like he’s about the same; half my family are in Adelaide with him, while the other half are here at home with me. One of the staff working with my brother may have a son with coronavirus, so my brother and mother might have to isolate for a couple weeks. (I’m not entirely sure – I’m going to have to ask about what’s happening there at some point.)
We’re doing alright. Woolies has restricted how many items can be bought – of ANYTHING – after the toilet paper hoarding. That can be a downside, though, when you’ve got a large family. We’ll manage.
I appeal to reason when I say the skeptics should stop spreading this propaganda
Insightful discussion! I definitely agree with your conclusion. Matthew 28 explains how the tomb was open when the women arrived.
your work is great.
[…] For the reason why we interpret Matthew 28:2 as parenthetical in describing events before the women arrived at Jesus’ tomb and not what they saw and head, check out our argument here: Was the tomb opened or closed when the women arrived? […]
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I hope this helps those who needs it.
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Betcha the guys who shared this as a contradiction are virgins in their 30s and spends all day on video games when not Trolling Christians.
LOL
Glad J Warner Wallace shared this on FB
[…] Was the tomb opened or closed when the women arrived? […]
All this because the skeptic misinterpreted Matthew 28:2
There’s a significant percentage of people today whose viewpoints are that the Bible is contradictory. Nevertheless it isn’t. Your post gives credence to the veracity of the Bible, refreshing to see that. It seems everybody’s remarks on your article are actually positive, cheers to you for backing up your assertion and I did appreciate you examining what the critics have to say.
[…] Was the tomb opened or closed when the women arrived? […]
[…] Was the tomb opened or closed when the women arrived? […]
Good explanation that there is no contradiction in points 5 and 6.
Thanks for reading this Frank and your point about point 5 and 6. Have a blessed day Frank!!!
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