Jesus’ body discovered in Egypt?

As a preacher and Christian apologist, I often read articles in which someone claims to either challenge or debunk the Christian Faith. Such was the case when I discovered the headline posted by “The Daily Express,” which read as follows: “'Body of Jesus Christ' found in hidden chamber under Great Pyramid of Egypt'”. Needless to say, this headline caught my attention. After all, my entire Faith hinges on the resurrection of Jesus and if anybody, anywhere, or any time finds his body, then, “Houston, we have a (real) problem!”

The significance of such an acclaimed “discovery” cannot be underestimated because, if true, it would logically eradicate Christianity altogether. It would, per the Apostle Paul, nullify Christianity and its truth claims and render Christians everywhere the most pitiable of all people (I Corinthians 15).

But lest you think that I took the “clickbait” with a pounding heart or trembling hands as if my Faith was about to bite the proverbial dust - relax. I only opened the article to see if the skeptics had anything new to offer or if they were still banking on the same failed anti-supernatural logic-deprived theories of old.  

My suspicions were confirmed. There was nothing new! The claim that the body of Jesus might be found in a place far removed from his Jerusalem tomb emerges from one version of the “stolen body theory” or another.  To claim, as Dr. Paul Warner does, that Jesus’s body ended up in Giza, 329 miles from his original burial site, assumes that it was both taken and moved there, i.e. stolen. Hence, Warner’s conclusion emerges from an already debunked naturalistic explanation of Jesus’s empty tomb.

The first such theory emerged from behind closed doors with the Chief Priests, the Elders, and the tomb guards. After reporting that Jesus’s tomb was emptied on their night watch, the Chief Priests conspired with the Elders and bribed the guards to say that the disciples removed him while they slept - a story, said Matthew, that still circulated among the Jews when he wrote his Gospel between 45-55 AD (Matthew 28:13-15). Time proved fatal to this concocted tale, however, as many eyewitnesses of the risen Christ died for their testimonies. And while it is true that men may ignorantly suffer and die for a lie it is improbable that they would do so for a tale they knew to be false.  

While the martyrdom of Christ’s disciples easily busted the myth that they had done the dirty deed, other versions of the “stolen body theory” eventually arose with some claiming that either the Jewish or Roman authorities robbed the grave. Although somewhat believable at first glance, the idea that either of the Christ hating groups did so reaches far beyond the realm of reason. In fact, if either had actually robbed Jesus’s tomb, then stopping Christianity would have been a cinch. Dragging the corpse of the self-acclaimed Messiah through the streets of Jerusalem and dumping his lifeless body at the feet of Peter as he preached his first sermon about his resurrected Savior would have crushed the movement in its tracks. Of course, the record reminds us that Christ had indeed risen as more than 500 eyewitnesses could have testified (1 Corinthians 15). The resurrection, then, validates Jesus’s claim as the (only) way, truth, and life and logically nullifies all others – So no, they did not find his body!