This is the idea that Jesus' disciples, Joseph of Arimathea or maybe the women removed His body and hid it in order to falsely claim that He had risen from the dead. In support of this it is asserted that the disciples were humiliated by the crucifiction and demise of their leader - by removing the body and preaching a resurrection they were able to overcome their internal anxiety and regain pride in their once great leader.

This view was obviously held by the Jewish authorities early in the first century.

"While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. ¹²When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, ¹³telling them, "You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.' ¹⁴If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." ¹⁵So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day."

Matthew 28v11-15

There are, however, a number of serious problems with this view:

1) The tomb was protected by guards.

2) They would have had to roll away an enormous stone.

3) The tomb was sealed under Roman authority

4) Of much greater concern though is the fact that if the disciples stole Jesus body then they would have known that He was not alive. They would have known that He did not rise from the dead. They would have known that their preaching that He was risen from the dead, the Lord of Life was false. This would have made them liars. This would have run directly counter to everything Jesus had taught. Why would they choose to abandon everything He had taught?

5) Even more concerning is that if they knew He was not dead, why were they prepared to suffer death rather than admit the body was stolen? Men will seldom die for something they know to be true and important - let alone die for something they know to be false and meaningless. Out of the 11 remaining disciples (remember Judas hung himself and exploded!) 10 of them were killed for their faith. Not good odds. Even if I could imagine one of the disciples being stupid enough to die for something they knew to be false - I struggle to believe that 10 would. What do you think?

6) The other aspect of this suggestion is that the disciples must have conspired together. Quite clearly it would have taken more than one of them to get past the guards and remove the stone and then carry Jesus body to a safe house. But is it really believable that under the pressure of beatings, imprisonment, torture and death not a single one of the disciples `broke ranks` and told the truth?

Perhaps then Jesus' enemies stole His body?