A note of caution: No one should misunderstand me below, I do believe in
the resurrection, I merely am arguing from the logical position that there
is really no scientific data that can support the resurrection, and like
what we do with early Genesis, we do with the rest of Scripture. If
evidence goes against the scripture we make it true in our eyes anyway.
I agree with what you say above no one who is asleep can see what is
happening. I merely was pointing out that something very similar to what
you requested did exist. And it is discounted. You discount it based upon
the evidence given by one side--that of the apostles. You haven't and can't
hear the other side of the issue, which might be different than was
reported by the Christian partisans. For instance, consider the fact that
YEC christians often misrepresent the facts in support of their views. How
do you eliminate this possibility from your dismissal of the guard's story?
What if their story had been that while some slept, the guard was accosted
and knocked out, but that fact wasn't reported in Scripture? The fact that
you so easily dismiss the account of the guards means that you aren't
looking at alternative possibilities. One of the possibilities is that
people lie--both roman guards, Jewish Priests and Christian Apostles
(Peter's denial).
Given your quick denial of any truth to the guard's tale, don't you think a
similar document attesting that Jesus' body rotted in the grave would be
discounted? What do you think that a medieval monk would do with such a
document if he had found it??? Do you think he would have filed it in the
Library of the Vatican? I think it would land in the nearest fire like the
documents about the Aztec religion did or like the documents written by the
Easter Islanders did. Christians, unfortunately, have not been kind to the
documents of other religions.
BTW this was a very dangerous strategy for the guards. Sleeping on duty
then as now, could result in a death sentence. One could say that this
would be good evidence that the guards wouldn't agree to such a tale and
that we don't have the entire story. I know we don't have both sides.
glenn
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm