Chain of Custody – Was the Body of Jesus Stolen?
One of the oldest of the arguments against the Resurrection is the charge that the crucified body of Jesus of Nazareth was stolen from the tomb. A Roman/Jewish chain of custody to prevent the theft of the body would make the allegation difficult to overcome.
Procurator Pilate granted the mutilated body of Jesus to Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Jewish council. Joined by Nicodemus, another prominent member of the Jewish Council, both took the body of Jesus to Joseph’s own unused tomb and quickly prepared the it for burial.
Witnessing the scene were women from Galilee, two identified by name, Mary the mother of Joseph (aka Jose) and Mary Magdalene.[2] The women from Galilee watched Joseph roll a stone in front of the tomb entrance – confirmation by the two Jewish Council members that Jesus was indeed dead and buried.
Information is limited detailing what did or didn’t happen between the time Jesus was laid in the tomb just before dusk, Nissan 15, until Sunday morning. Nonetheless, Matthew and Mark did report some activities that occurred with one being crucial.
Those who most certainly would not have wanted to be corroborating witnesses of a Resurrection became just that. Jewish chief priests and Pharisees declared to the Roman government the day after the crucifixion, the body of Jesus was still in the tomb that Sabbath morning, Nissan 16:
MT 27:62-64 The next day (which is after the day of preparation) the chief priests and the Pharisees assembled before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive he said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give orders to secure the tomb until the third day. Otherwise his disciples may come and steal his body and say to the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.”(NET)
Top level Jewish leadership had approached Rome’s jurisdictional authority of Judea – Pilate – with their concern of a false fulfillment of Jesus’ own 3-day Resurrection prophecy. Pilate as a Roman judge had to weigh the truthfulness of their claim as well as the potential political consequences.
First claim to be considered by Pilate was the acknowledgement by the Jewish leader that the corpse of Jesus was still lying in a tomb, but could be stolen. They argued, if the body was stolen and later found, it would complicate matters even worse.
False witness was a capital offense making it highly unlikely the leaders were lying to him.[3] Weighing the credibility and motive of the Jewish leader’s testimony, Pilate issued a seemingly terse decision:
MT 27:65-66 “Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.”(NASB)
Granting permission to secure the body the best way they knew how, Pilate seemed to satisfy their concerns. According to Matthew, the tomb was secured with a process of stationing a koustodia, a company of guards, and to place a seal on the tomb.[4]
Josephus described a similar “seal” process involving a combined Jewish-Roman military style squad led by a “Roman captain of the temple guards.” The Roman captain, who resided in the Tower of Antonia adjacent to the Temple, was assigned to a contingent of armed Temple guards.[5]
Matching the seal ring of the Roman captain with the Temple leadership’s ring validated the integrity of the seal, in this case, to secure the Chief Priest’s vestments worn at the Jewish festal sacrifices. This Roman-Jewish seal process was temporarily in place only from the death of King Herod until Vitellius became president of Syria in 35 AD – the period of years virtually coinciding with the lifetime of Jesus of Nazareth.
Koustodia of this combined Jewish-Roman military squad were still accountable to Pilate as evidenced after the Resurrection event on Sunday morning when some the guards reportedly ran to the chief priests instead of Pilate. Additionally, Jewish leaders promised the guards they would handle the matter with Pilate if their dereliction behavior became an issue.
Placed at the scene of the tomb holding the body of Jesus of Nazareth are the contingent of chief priests and Pharisees (possibly including stealth followers of Jesus, Joseph and Nicodemus) to witness the seal being placed on the tomb and the posting of the koustodia. Jewish leaders left with full confidence the sealed tomb was secure alleviating their anxiety that someone might steal the body of Jesus.
Archenemies of Jesus testified he was dead and buried in a tomb, then obtained a legally established Roman-Jewish chain of custody over the body of Jesus that remained unbroken from the crucifixion until the Sunday morning event. At dawn, incredible events occurred at the tomb while the koustodia were still stationed at their post.
Considering the statement by the Jewish leaders and a legally established Roman-Jewish type of chain of custody in place, what is the possibility his body was stolen?
Updated June 1, 2025.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
REFERENCES:
NET = NetBible translation; NASB = New American Standard Bible translation
Gospel references: Matthew 27-28, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19.
[1] Pearce, Jonathan MS. “Matthew and the guards at the tomb.” 2012. <http://www.debunking-christianity.com/2012/06/matthew-and-guards-at-tomb.html rel=”nofollow”> “Gospel Disproof #38: The guards at the tomb.” FreeThoughtBlogs.com. 2014. <http://freethoughtblogs.com/alethianworldview/2012/02/27/gospel-disproof-38-the-guards-at-the-tomb rel=”nofollow”> Chain. Business2Community. image. 2015. <https://www.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Chain-red-link.jpg-300×200.jpg>
[2] Edersheim, Alfred. The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. Book V. 1883. Philogos.org. n.d. <http://philologos.org/__eb-lat/default.htm>
[3] Jahnige, Joan. “The Roman Legal System.” KET Distance Learning. 2017. http://www.dl.ket.org/latin2/mores/legallatin/legal01.htm> Adams, John Paul. “The Twelve Tables.” 2009. California State University – Northridge. <https://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/12tables.html>
[4] “koustodia”, G2892l (Strong) “#2892 κουστωδία koustodia;” “strategos <4755> and “speira <4686>” Lexicon-Concordance Online Bible. n.d. http://lexiconcordance.com>
[5] Josephus. Antiquities. Book XV, Chapter XI; Book XX, Chapter I. Smith William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. 1857. “L. Vitellius” (#5); “C. Cassius Longinus” (#18), and “L. Cassius Longinus” (#19). OpenLibrary.org. n.d. <https://archive.org/stream/schooldictionary00smituoft#page/n9/mode/2up> Smith, Mahlon H. “Lucius Vitellius.” VirtualReligion.net. 2008. http://virtualreligion.net/iho/vitellius_1.html> “Lucius Vitellius.” Livius.org. Ed. Jona Lendering. http://www.livius.org/person/vitellius-lucius> “Chain of Custody in Drugs Cases.” ProhealthLaw. photo. 2015. <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7Bg40JhqJxo/Vsmv-MAWtXI/AAAAAAAAJlo/U59A28gTqRs/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/blogger-image–519822927.jpg>
