TRANSLATION MATTHEW 28: 11

While the woman were on their way, -see this- some of the guard went into the city and told the high priests all that had happened. They assembled with the elders, and when they had discussed the matter, gave an adequate sum of money to the soldiers, with the instruction, “Tell people that ‘his pupils came by night and stole him while we were sleeping.’ And if the governor should hear about this, we will persuade him and preserve you from any anxiety.”

So they took the money and did as they had been instructed. Their account has been spread widely amongst Judaeans to this day.

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Having given the reader a very unlikely story certified as true, Matthew now gives a reasonably likely story certified as a lie. For people who are sceptical about disappearing corpses, the “false story’ may seem reasonable enough. It is interesting that 2000 years of biblical scholarship has accepted Matthew’s version.

(Note: All accounts of the empty tomb of Jesus come from documents we must date as later than 70 CE, whereas in the first letter of Paul to Corinthians chapter 15, dated 54 CE there is no mention of an empty tomb, but only of appearances of the risen Jesus. The empty tomb makes the task of narrating the resurrection, more rather than less difficult for believers.)

Of course, in the absence of a body, the question as to how Jesus was raised would be asked and answered. Matthew received an answer from Mark, and doubtless other sources, upon which he built and defended the tradition, by the story of soldiers paid to lie.