[Pastor Ralph]

Q2. On the theft theory, what motive might the disciples have to take Jesus' body? What motive might the Romans have? The Jews? Joseph of Arimathea?

[Stan]

Q2. On the theft theory, what motive might the disciples have to take Jesus' body? What motive might the Romans have? The Jews? Joseph of Arimathea?

I can't think of any reason they would have had in taking the body of Jesus and hiding it, they were in a state of shock at first thinking that Jesus was going to lead them against Rome but now wa dead. How would moving His body have helped them in that.

The Romans had the least of reason if there were any in that they didn't believe in Jesus many didn't even know of His ministry ar the things taught about Him in the old Testament so the had no reason to conceal His body.

The jews had none because it would have strengthened Jesus teaching aout the resurrection and they were resolved to destroy Him now further His teachings.

Joseph had none He provided the tomb so why move the body, He was a believer and was like the disciples greaving that Jesus was dead.

[Tabatha]

Q2. On the theft theory, what motive might the disciples have to take Jesus' body? What motive might the Romans have? The Jews? Joseph of Arimathea?

The disciples had no motive to steal the body because they stayed hidden behind locked doors in Jerusalem afraid of the religious leaders. The disciples wouldn't have died for a faith they knew not to be true.

The Roman Soldiers were given a large sum of money of money from the chief priests to steal the body they did has they were instructed. This story was widely circulated among the Jews.

The Jews had no motive they wanted Jesus well buried.

Joseph had no motive

[JustJeff]

I don't see where there is any motive to steal the body of the Lord by any party. The disciples never got it concerning the resurrection until after He arose. The Romans wanted the whole mess to go away, as did the Jews. Joseph wanted simply to make certain the Lord was properly buried, in a manner worthy of his leader.

[PATJOE]

Q2. On the theft theory, what motive might the disciples have to take Jesus' body? What motive might the Romans have? The Jews? Joseph of Arimathea?

The disciples loved Him and would never want to steal His body, nor would they have any logical reason to do so. This would be true of all who loved Him. His enemies could never have guessed ahead of time that Jesus would be risen, and they would be looking at an empty tomb, so logically they too would have no motivation to steal His body. Joseph of Arimathea donated his own personal tomb for the purpose of interring Jesus' body permanently. He would not logically make this offer and then steal Jesus' body from His grave. In supposition, should any of Jesus' enemies have had fore knowledge of His rising from death, as soon as the disciples made the public statement that Jesus had indeed risen, His enemies would certainly have taken advantage of an opportunity to discredit who He claimed to be, and would have produced His body, as proof against Him, however this did not happen.

[jhm]

Q2. On the theft theory, what motive might the disciples have to take Jesus' body? What motive might the Romans have? The Jews? Joseph of Arimathea?

There does not appear to be any reason that any of those mentioned in the question would have any motive to steal the body of Jesus. The disciples were in hiding and probably afraid of being hunted down as associates of Jesus. The Romans had absolutely no reason to take the body and neither did Joseph. The Jews especially wanted the body to remain in the tomb.

[Lisa Rupert]

Q2. On the theft theory, what motive might the disciples have to take Jesus' body? What motive might the Romans have? The Jews? Joseph of Arimathea?
We know that no one had the time to prepare for what was about to happen, The Resurrection. Even though Jesus told everyone of the resurrection, no one was truly prepared for it.
We know that the Romans wanted the problem (Jesus) to be gone, to be forgotten, over with, and so did the Jews. But the disciples were truly grieving the death of Christ.
But if we look into their hearts the Romans and Jews I am sure they did not think that stealing the body of Christ would prove anything beneficial to them. Stealing the body would only confirm what Christ was saying all along and they wanted to disprove everything that Christ stood for and make his memory disappear.

[Ploughboy]

Q2. On the theft theory, what motive might the disciples have to take Jesus' body? What motive might the Romans have? The Jews? Joseph of Arimathea?

The only motive anyone would have would be to 'stage' a ressurection, this could have only been the disciples including Joseph, however could they have lived such tansformed lives many of them going to a martyr's death if they had had to live their lives based on a total lie I find this totally unbelievable.

[Mayjoy]

I believe the disciples have no motives of stealing the body of Jesus, as we could read in the bible they were all gone, lost and afraid., even Peter, one of the apostles denied Jesus which only shows that they didnt want to be recognized as followers of Jesus fearing for their own lives.
For the Romans and Jews, maybe their motives to steal the body is total destruction of body of Jesus so that He will no longer be remembered by His followers, and as for the Jews, they knew the prophesy about the promised Messiah, and the redemption, maybe halfheartedly they believe but afraid that it might fullfilled, but these are just opinion, overall we as Christians believe the truth that He has risen and He conquered death, no one stole His body,

[PCHRIS]

I can't see any motive for any of the groups involved.
The disciples were to frightened to do anything plus they wouldn't want to die for something that was false.
The Romans/Jews would have revealed the body, if they had taken it, once the Apostles started preaching about the Resurrection.
And Joseph I can't see any motive for anything apart for supplying a tomb for Christ whom he followed as a disciple.

[Ann K]

The disciples had no reason to steal the body as they knew it had been properly prepared for burial and was in a secure tomb.

The Romans would maybe want to dispel the 'love affair' or following that many were getting from Jesus and his teaching, but to steal the body would only give the followers of Jesus more solid belief. Taking the body would be the wrong approach.

The Jews would be glad to see the death of Jesus and would not want to touch the body for fear of the reaction it would cause against them.

Joseph Had no need to steal the body . He provided a tomb for the burial of Jesus' body. He wanted to provide a safe place for the body. Noone really had a need to steal the body.

[revmrf]

Q2. On the theft theory, what motive might the disciples have to take Jesus' body? What motive might the Romans have? The Jews? Joseph of Arimathea?

MOTIVES [all of these are a stretch...

Disciples: to produce a falsehood that he had risen they bribed the guards with a lot of money, stole his body away, buried him elsewhere, replaced burial clothes with new folded ones, guards then were caught and put to death,...

Romans: to implicate & have Jesus' followers imprisoned by producing his body.

Jews: same as Romans to get rid of the Jesus' trouble makers.

Joseph of Arimathea: only to bury Jesus in his 'proper' place.

[Craig]

The disciples would not have a motive for stealing Jesus' body. The disciples were depressed, dazed and confused after Jesus' trial, death and burial. John tells us in John 20:8&9: "Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead." So why would the disciples steal Jesus' body? What would have been the point? There was no motivation for them to steal Jesus' body. In fact, the theft of Christ's body would not have benefited the Romans, Jews or Joseph of Arimathea. For the Jews and Romans, Jesus buried was the best thing. The probem has gone away. Joseph of Arimathea like the other disciples didn't have a handle on the resurrection and there would have been no motivation for Him to steal the body. And if the disciples did have a handle on the resurrection, then they would have waited for Jesus to appear to them. So the bottomline is, that no one would have really benefited from stealing Jesus' body.

[June]

To be sure that Jesus had a proper burial was the only reason for the disciples to even entertain the idea of taking His body. Where Jesus had said that he'd rise in 3 days, to make Him look like a liar would be the Romans motive. For the Jews, He is one of their own. Joseph of Arimathea, they could say that he never placed the body in the tomb to start with. None of them had a motive...

[plethra]

Q2. On the theft theory, what motive might the disciples have to take Jesus' body? What motive might the Romans have? The Jews? Joseph of Arimathea?

If the disciples had taked Jesus' body it would have been to make people believe that He had been resurrected
The Romans and or the Jews would have done it to implicate Jesus' followers of stealing the body and have them arrested or put to death
Joseph of Armithea maight have taken the body to bury elsewhere more private where there would not have been all the commotion.
However, none of these motives makes alot of sense. Jesus' resurrection was real and that in itself caused alot of commotion! Praise God He is still stirring things up today also!

[haar]

The disciples did not have a motive for stealing Jesus's body. All others- the Romans, the Jews and Jesus's enemy did not have a motive to steal him and in deed, did not steal my Lord Jesus. Period.

[charisbarak]

The disciples didn't have any reason to desire stealing Jesus' body--they were in hiding & fearful at that time. The Romans may have had a reason--the same reason they had for putting the stone in front of the cave--they wanted to be sure Jesus stayed dead & that He wouldn't be a threat to their government. Joseph, why he gave his own tomb so Jesus could be buried there. No reason for him to steal his body either.

[Jewell]

I don't believe there was any motive by any party. The deciples were willing to die for their faith - that only comes from true belief. Any other party stealing His body would be going against what they wanted to prove.

[lamountain]

I dont see where any would have any type of motive to steal his body. By doing so they would confirm his teachings and the Jews did not want that. Romans would have no reason because some did not know of his teachings and others did not believe.Joseph did as we would today and claimed that spot so why would he want to move it especially with 2 guards placed right outside his door.

[linda bass]

The theft theory-motives to steal Jesus' body from the tomb.

The disciples-They were in hiding, discouraged and disheartened.
Their pyschological state is proof that they couldn't haven taken the body.
Despite all of Christ's teachings to the contrary, His followers really didn't expect Him
to rise from the dead.

The Romans-Supposedly Jesus had been just another Jewish criminal.
I doubt if any of the Roman soldiers even knew of the prophecies concerning
Jesus rising from the dead. Besides there were Roman guards posted at the tomb
to prevent Jesus' followers from taking the body, so why would they steal it themselves?

The Jews-The crucifixion and burial occured around Passover time. I doubt any devout
Jew would risk touching the dead body of Jesus. Doing so would have meant being
declared "unclean" and not being able to partake of the Passover meal.

Joseph of Arimathea- He has the least motive of the four groups. Joseph willingly
gave up his tomb so Jesus would have a place to buried, so why would he want to
steal the body?