I'm saying we have no first hand account. All of the stories of resurrection we have are:
1) Written by people who were not there; and
2) Of a later time than the possible dates for the event
Hence we do not have eye witness accounts. We have stories about who the eye witnesses were, but nothing that is a direct report.
That is the opinion of some. Stating the above as fact is misleading, even if not intentionally so. You may cite scholars that take your view. I may cite scholars that take mine. Also, keep in mind it's not just the Gospels in play here, but the letters written by John and Peter.
Even if first-hand accounts did not exist, there's still no good explanation for people in Jerusalem (circa A.D. 33) worshiping a crucified, dead man as God, and awaiting his return. But they did worship Jesus.
See Itmar Bernsteins post here for a good summary of the evidence on the tomb:
http://dukereligion.blogspot.com.au/2008/01/talpiot-tomb-controversy-revisited.html?m=1
OK. Itamar says some interesting things, no doubt. That being said, it is a comment appended to university religion department blog posting, which concludes thusly.
To conclude, we wish to protest the misrepresentation of the conference proceedings in the media, and make it clear that the majority of scholars in attendance – including all of the archaeologists and epigraphers who presented papers relating to the tomb - either reject the identification of the Talpiot tomb as belonging to Jesus’ family or find this claim highly speculative.
Signed,
Professor Mordechai Aviam, University of Rochester
Professor Ann Graham Brock, Iliff School of Theology, University of Denver
Professor F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Princeton Theological Seminary
Professor C.D. Elledge, Gustavus Adolphus College
Professor Shimon Gibson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Professor Rachel Hachlili, University of Haifa
Professor Amos Kloner, Bar-Ilan University
Professor Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Professor Lee McDonald, Arcadia Seminary
Professor Eric M. Meyers, Duke University
Professor Stephen Pfann, University of the Holy Land
Professor Jonathan Price, Tel Aviv University
Professor Christopher Rollston, Emmanuel School of Religion
Professor Alan F. Segal, Barnard College, Columbia University
Professor Choon-Leong Seow, Princeton Theological Seminary
Mr. Joe Zias, Science and Antiquity Group, Jerusalem
Dr. Boaz Zissu, Bar-Ilan University
Thank you for answering my question. I hope you will forgive me if I do not believe the bones of Christ have been found; at least not on what's been found so far.
I'm also curious about how this tomb (especially if it contains a son of Jesus) fits with the whole picture. Would it mean that the body was stolen, and then secretly buried? If the body's disposition had been public knowledge, wouldn't there be some record of it? It would have been published by the Isrealis (to discredit the Christians), and Roman writers would have picked up on it, when the Christians became a problem for them. Yet if the burial were secret, why put his name on the box?