Inquest At Golgotha

So, the object of the inquiry, if you're not already aware, is for people to bring before the inspector, who we're going to introduce shortly, the evidence of those things—the firsthand knowledge that they had of the events which took place during the Jewish feast of Passover in Jerusalem. It's interesting that right now is the Jewish feast of Passover, which is being celebrated by Jews all around the world. It's also the Easter weekend; it's Good Friday today, the time when many people remember the crucifixion of Jesus. So it's actually quite appropriate that we are having our public inquiry this evening during that time.

So, the men and the women who are going to be giving evidence before the inspector that you will hear this evening have all been asked to be truthful in the things that they're going to say about the things that they have witnessed—so it's as accurate as possible. So, the death and the resurrection of Jesus that we're thinking about this evening has been held by his followers and Christians to be the most important fact in their faith and hope. Many people have questioned the death and the resurrection of Jesus, which is what we're going to be giving attention to, to think about this evening. So, the purpose of the inquiry is to bring forward evidence from these witnesses to enable you to decide about these events.

So, I'm going to call the inspector to come through. Inspector, are you ready? You please take a seat. So, the inspector is going to lead us through the proceedings this evening. I'd like to ask the witnesses to come through as well. You'd like to come through? Please take a seat. So perhaps if we can drop some lights at the back, that would be good, and then I'll hand over to the inspector to lead us through the proceedings of this public inquiry. Thank you. Thank you.

So, following the public interest in the death and resurrection of the man Jesus of Nazareth, the authorities have approved this inquiry to be undertaken. Its purpose is not to attribute blame or to find guilt or to pass judgment, but simply to establish the facts. In order to do this this evening, we're going to call six witnesses, and I'm going to question them in order to achieve that objective. Our first witness is the Roman officer who was responsible for Jesus of Nazareth after his arrest. Call the Roman officer. Can you please explain who you are and describe the events which took place after the death of—uh, sorry—describe the events which took place following the sentence by Pontius Pilate of the man Jesus of Nazareth? Perhaps to begin with telling us your name and rank.

Well, my name is Mark Fabius Varys. My rank is Centurion Hastatis in the second cohort—uh, Centurion in charge of Legion 3, which is the Gallic Legion stationed in the Antonia Fortress in Jerusalem. And what were your responsibilities and duties at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth? Well, I'm in charge of Pilate's prisoners and responsible, with my armed guard, to meet out the sentence of capital punishment. I was the officer commanding the crucifixion detail, so I was responsible for the efficient conduct of the crucifixion itself and for public order uh, in the immediate area of the execution. And was Jesus of Nazareth the only prisoner to be executed that day? Uh, no, there were two other prisoners; there were bandits, robbers, men who had committed terrorist offenses. Can you describe how crucifixion is carried out? Well, the prisoner is fastened to the cross by either nails or rope; in this case, uh, nails were used. The feet and arms were both nailed to the cross, and the prisoner was left to hang by his wrists and by his ankles. The prisoner would remain on the cross for some hours in pain until he gradually lost consciousness. Uh, when consciousness was lost, death would quickly follow, but the body would be left on the cross until there was no doubt about death. Was there anything unusual about this crucifixion? Not really, although the prisoner was in a worse physical condition than was usual. And why was that? Well, he'd been beaten and flogged during his trial, which was immediately before the execution. Uh, flogging before a crucifixion is quite usual, but this prisoner was hardly able to walk and was unable to carry his cross to the place of execution by himself without help. It's two or three miles from the Praetorium to Golgotha, and and some way into the journey he collapsed. Is it usual for a prisoner to collapse on the way to crucifixion? Well, no, but this was probably as a result of the severe beating he had received. We vigorously encouraged him, but he could go no further, so we coerced another man, a Cyrenian—I didn't make a note of it, but I think his name was Simon; I seem to remember—and he carried the crossbeam the rest of the way up the hill where the man Jesus was to be executed. Thank you. Carry on. Well, he was also bleeding from his head because he had been made to wear a crown of thorns. We had fashioned a crown of thorns and forced it down on his head. Why had we done that? Well, to—to mock him. Some of those around said that he was the king of the Jews, but we had to show him he was not the king of the Romans. Okay, so now take us on to the actual crucifixion. Was there anything unusual about this particular execution? Well, no, but what was more unusual was the behavior of the prisoner Jesus. Most of the people we crucify curse or swear, usually at us for doing our job. Jesus of Nazareth didn't do any of this; in fact, he actually prayed for our forgiveness. And then we raised up the cross with the prisoner Jesus nailed to it, and there he hung till he expired. How long did the crucifixion take? Well, I didn't keep an exact record, but around 6 hours, give or take. It was from the third hour of the day to the 9th hour. Was that a typical time? Well, it was shorter than usual because of the local religious customs. The authorities wanted the execution over before the 12th hour because their feast of Passover was to start at that time. So you did something to speed up the process? Well, you know, as is the custom in these situations, we we did speed up matters by breaking the legs of the—of two of the prisoners, but Jesus of Nazareth was already dead, so we didn't need to break his legs. What precautions did you take to ensure that Jesus of Nazareth really was dead? Well, while he was still on the cross, I had one of my legionnaires thrust the spear into his side from below. Maybe it pierced his heart, but as the spear came out, blood and water gushed to the ground, which was a sure sign to me that this man was definitely now dead. Did you examine the body to make sure? Well, yes, the body was left on the cross until all the prisoners were brought down. After this, the body was examined; uh, the prefect Pilate had requested a further examination, uh, and we carried this out as well. There was no doubt that Jesus of Nazareth was dead. So to be clear in your mind, there was no doubt that Jesus was actually dead? No, sir. None. None at all. I know when someone is dead. In fact, I had to personally confirm his death to Pilate before releasing his body to the man Joseph of Arimathea. So what experience do you have of crucifixion? How many crucifixions have you been at? Well, you know, I have no idea, really. I I don't keep count, but I imagine it to be hundreds, if not a thousand, during my time in the Roman army. I've assisted in more crucifixions than I can remember. Crucifixion is a common practice here in Judea, and my duties have caused me to attend many of them. As officer in command, I do have considerable experience carrying out this duty. And have you ever known a crucifixion in which the prisoner failed to be killed? No. Crucifixion is very reliable; that—that's why it's used so much. Were there any other unusual points about this crucifixion? Um, yes. From the sixth hour, which is noon, uh, there was an unusual darkness. This lasted until the death of the prisoner at the 9th hour. Did you form any opinion that this prisoner Jesus was unusual? Well, I've seen many men die—hundreds, thousands, probably—but I don't think I've ever seen any man die the way this man died—he—and the way he was on the cross, I mean his behavior. I do have to confess that I believe he was an exceptional man. I'm not usually moved, but I was moved by him. I think I said at the time that he was a righteous man. Thank you. You may step down.

Our next witness is Joseph of Arimathea. Call Joseph of Arimathea. You are Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish Council, is that correct? That's correct; I am. Please tell us a bit about your background. So, my name is Joseph. I am from the region of Arimathea, um, so I'm local to this part of Judea. I'm a member of the Sanhedrin; uh, the Sanhedrin is the ruling council of the Jews, and we are allowed to look after the—the day-to-day running of Jerusalem by the Romans as long as we keep the peace. The Sanhedrin is made up of the Sadducees, of the Essenes, and of the Pharisees, and I am a Pharisee, sir. The Romans themselves, um, while they do have a garrison in Jerusalem, they generally stay out on the coast—Caesarea—um, they do come in their numbers to Jerusalem during the feast times to remind us who's really in charge. That's around about three times a year when the males of Israel present themselves at the temple. As a Pharisee, I am looking for the return of Messiah to overthrow the Roman regime. I believe in resurrection in the last days. I study Torah daily—that's the law—and to be honest, I know most of it by heart. I'm responsible for actually making additional rules and clarifications to ensure that people are able to keep the law in its entirety—um, to keep people from transgressing the law, to define those gray areas that exist—um, one example of that would be defining what work is on the Sabbath day, what constitutes work and—and what doesn't. I will admit that as a result we do have a bit of reputation for—for being a little bit hypocritical sometimes; we say one thing and do the other—at least that's how it's perceived. Now, I must say, while I am looking for the Messiah, I—I have my doubts that the role of the Messiah is to overthrow the Romans. Now, Jesus talked to me about forgiveness, about being born again, and about salvation through the Son of God lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness, and when he spoke of these things he was, as far as I could tell, referring to himself. Now, today I've been following Jesus secretly, out of fear that I might be wrong about him, but when I saw him lifted up on the cross as he told me he would be, it gave me the confidence to come out and follow him openly. So please tell us your involvement in the disposal of the body of Jesus.

Okay, well, Jesus, as you know, he was—he was crucified; he was crucified as a criminal by the Romans after a trial by the Jews. Um, Pilate, who's the—the governor, he didn't want anything to do with it, so he passed the trial uh, over onto the Jews. Usually bodies from the crucifixion, once they've died, they're taken from the cross and dumped on Gehenna; that's—it's a rubbish dump outside the city walls, and it's constantly burning. But I didn't think Jesus was a criminal; I didn't want to see his body destroyed in this way. So, once he was dead, alongside another secret disciple—another Pharisee called Nicodemus—we begged Pilate for the body so that it could be buried properly. It was the least we could do after the illegal trial that he'd faced. And when we asked, Pilate released the body to myself and Nicodemus. So let me just be clear: are you saying that Pilate asked to make sure that Jesus really was dead? Oh, yeah. Well, Pilate was initially surprised that Jesus was already dead, so he made sure to confirm with the centurion that he was really dead before releasing the body to me. Thank you. Please carry on. So the Jewish process for burial—um, we have to prepare the body first; we don't just—just bury it as it is. We wash the body; we anoint it with oil; we—we clothe it; we wrap it; we cut the nails; we arrange the hair. Of course, we did what we could with the limited time that we had. We used over 30 kilograms of myrrh and aloes. Myself and Nicodemus, you understand, have been very well blessed materially—um, we wanted to use these blessings to give Jesus a proper burial. We used my new family tomb—um, as it's close to Jerusalem. The day of preparation was nearly over—um, so as I said, we didn't have much time. The tomb was closed by blocking the entrance with a large stone. There were some women that had been following Jesus who wanted to visit the tomb, but there just wasn't time before it was closed, so I asked them to visit after the Sabbath instead. Is it true that the tomb was guarded? Yes. So the Sanhedrin—my colleagues in the Sanhedrin—actually insisted that the Romans seal the tomb and set a guard. Not only was there a large stone blocking the way, but it was sealed, and there was a guard set. Jesus had spoken about being raised—um—from the dead after 3 days, and the Sanhedrin did not want to risk any foul play from his remaining followers, and to be honest with you, I was happy with this too. If Jesus really is the Messiah, a sealed tomb is not going to be enough to stop God from raising him from the dead. Thank you. You may stand down. Thank you.

Our next witness is of a different kind; he is an expert medical witness who's going to provide an analysis of the crucifixion of Jesus from a modern medical perspective. So call Dr. James. You are Dr. James? Yes, I am. For the benefit of the inquiry, would you please state your qualifications and your current employment? Uh, yes. Um, Dr. James. I've been uh, practicing medicine for 30 years or so, having learned initially as an apprentice in Alexandria—not in Egypt—um, that's from the uh, school of Aristotle, and I'm currently in the employment of the Roman government as a medical officer. We've heard evidence that Jesus of Nazareth was taken by the Jewish leaders and brought before the Roman governor Pilate, that he was whipped, that he was made to carry his own cross, and that he was crucified. Could you explain the likely effect of such treatment on the human body and the likelihood of anybody enduring such and surviving such an ordeal? Okay, yes. Um, yes, the man Jesus Christ, he suffered groups of injuries—um, these all occurred at a time of great emotional stress coupled with abandonment—abandonment by his uh, closest friends—during a sleepless night in which he probably went without food and water, was subject to a series of interrogations, and he received severe physical injuries from a brutal flogging. He was also forcibly marched about two and a half miles between the high priest's palace, the residence of Herod the king, the Antonia fortress where the government—sorry—the Roman governor Pontius Pilate was stationed, and then the place of execution at Skull Hill, otherwise known as Golgotha. He was then executed by crucifixion, and after a further six hours received a deliberate massive penetrating chest injury. After a further period of upwards of an hour, the body was certified dead by an experienced Roman soldier and then taken down for disposal. I'll now detail the injuries received. The first group of injuries occurred when Jesus was struck repeatedly on the face, first, I understand, by the high priest's men and later by the Roman soldiers on the order of Pontius Pilate. These injuries would be mainly superficial, with swelling and bruising of the eyebrows and of the cheeks and the nose. There was loss of teeth and cuts and abrasions to the face, but given the known brutality of Roman soldiers, I cannot rule out bony facial injury, particularly to the jawbone and the sides of the face. The second group of injuries was caused by the flogging or scourging process. This was designed to cause extreme pain and to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death; indeed, some victims did actually die from the scourging process. The scourging was probably carried out by two Roman soldiers, each using a scourging implement consisting of a thick rope or leather whip—we'll see one here—up here—to the end of which were fastened a number of broad leather thongs. Fastened to each thong were a number of bits of metal and fragments of bone. As the thongs whipped around the victim's body and down onto the legs, these embedded fragments would initially cause dozens of deep, stripe-like lacerations, and as the process—scourging process—continued, thick strips of skin and tissue would be flayed off the victim. Such injuries would lead to a large amount of blood loss, contributing substantially to the development of hypovolemic shock. Indeed, the extent of blood loss and tissue damage may well have determined how long the victim would survive on the cross, as dehydration and exhaustion deepened by the hypovolemic shock. We continue. The third group of injuries consisted of many small lacerations on Jesus's scalp caused by a crown woven from branches bearing 4-in thorns being forced onto his head, followed by repeated beatings on the head with a pole. Now, we have a—almost like lily type crown of thorns here—possibly the thorns would have been much bigger than this. If you'd like to come and look at this later, I will leave it up here for you to have a look at—at closer detail. So we find that this—this crown may have caused bony injury to the skull but does not appear to have caused any bleeding in the brain. After receiving all these injuries, the man Jesus was forced to shoulder the heavy patibulum—and that is the roughly cut crossbar—the crucifixion cross. Now, this weighed about 45—sorry—45 kg—that's nearly 100 lb—and he carried this to the place of execution—Skull Hill—which we have said was Golgotha. This would cause multiple abrasions over the shoulder blades. On the way to his execution, it would appear that Jesus did stumble and fell, possibly on several occasions, leading to cuts and bruises on both knees and elbows. Shouldering the heavy patibulum again would further damage his injured back, which, as you remember, was already deeply scarred from lacerations. It seems clear that Jesus was going into progressive hypovolemic shock at this stage from the trauma of his multiple injuries, his blood loss, and the dehydration. This is confirmed by the fact that he became too weak to carry the crossbar and needed help to do so. And so we come to the fifth group of injuries. This was caused by the crucifixion itself. Rough iron nails—about 1 ft long—were driven into the patibulum—crossbar—through his wrists. Before I go any further, let me just show you some examples of some nails—the longest one there—probably about—not quite a foot, but we are looking at probably a bit bigger than that. I would—again, I will leave this up—this is evidence that you can have a look at afterwards. Feel free to come up and have a look. So they were driven into the patibulum—crossbar—through his wrists, severing the median nerves and transfixing the flexor retinaculum and the palmaris longus and the flexor pollicis longus tendons. After the crossbar had been lifted up onto the upright post—probably producing a T-shaped cross—both the victim's feet were then similarly nailed to the upright using a single—single long iron nail. The pain produced by this cruel process is unimaginable. I will now go through the effects of those injuries. Death from crucifixion results in part from dehydration and exhaustion, which compound any hypovolemic shock caused by previous injuries, as in the case of Jesus of Nazareth, and in part from asphyxiation. This is due to hanging from the outstretched arms, which interferes with the respiratory movements of the chest cage and the diaphragm, as well as leading to pleural effusions of fluid around the lungs. Crucifixion victims go through a cycle of position changes. Initially, they take their full weight on the outstretched arms, but this leads to progressive asphyxiation through an inability to draw breath properly, as well as intolerable pain in the shoulders, arms, and wrists. Eventually, the victim is forced to take their—their weight on the nail driven through the feet, which eases the breathing and arm pain, but equally causes intolerable pain in the feet and ankles, as well as further blood loss. Eventually, the victim can no longer tolerate this and sags, taking the full weight on the arms and wrists again, and the cycle of asphyxiation and pain begins again. It is endlessly repeated, in many cases, for some considerable time until death eventually occurs, frequently accompanied by a final marked exhalation of breath. I will continue. Often, to hasten death, the legs of victims are broken so that the full weight has to be taken on the arms, as well as quickly producing fatal asphyxiation, which the victim can no longer ease by standing on the footnail. Breaking the legs causes massive bleeding from the broken leg bones and leads to circulatory failure and death. In the case of Jesus, breaking the legs proved unnecessary as the soldiers apparently discovered that he was already dead. Considering his pre-existing injuries, this to me is not entirely surprising, though it is somewhat unusual. However, to make doubly sure, a large-headed Roman spear was thrust into his side. The Greek word here is plēgē, so it was in all probability up into the side of the chest—usually thought to be the right-hand side. The enlarged head of the Roman spear would make a large open wound in the large chest wall before traveling—sorry—traveling through the right lung and into the right side of the heart. This would cause massive internal damage, as well as releasing watery fluid from the ruptured right ventricle of the heart. Had Jesus been alive at this point, the massive chest and lung injury would have grossly interfered with respiration, as well as producing bleeding into the airway. Moreover, the rapidly progressive blood loss from the enormous heart injury would quickly lead to exsanguination as most of Jesus's circulating blood volume poured into his chest cavity and then out of the chest wound. Had he still been alive, the circulation to the brain and other vital organs would have failed rapidly, after which irreversible brain death would have taken place. So, following these final injuries, however, it would seem that the body of Jesus remained untouched, hanging on the cross for upwards of another hour or more before it was finally taken down for disposal. Is it your professional view that the result of the crucifixion of Jesus would have been his death? So, can I just clarify: given the nature and extent of Jesus's injuries, and the conditions under which they were inflicted; one, the massive additional injury from the spear thrust; and two, the fact that his body remained on the cross for some considerable time after all signs of life had ceased, then I feel confident that the suggestion that he swooned or had this ability to come back and be made alive again by his own or somebody else's way—then I find that it—the—there is no credible explanation. The reason I can say that is that even with present-day knowledge and technology, resuscitation has to take place within a very few minutes of circulatory collapse. If we took that to be the—the cause of the loss of consciousness, which the swoon theory requires—since a swoon is simply a loss of consciousness caused by temporary fall in blood pressure—then this remaining upright on the cross for the length of time required by the Gospel records would have been fatal in any case, even without the spear thrust. So to suggest that someone in this condition could then recover spontaneously in a cool tomb requires either a complete ignorance of medicine and insight into crucifixion or a determination not to accept the truth. Finally, further, if it were possible for Jesus to have recovered without God's intervention in the tomb, he could not have escaped from it. What you have to understand is that anyone who's had a nail of a diameter and length suggested driven through his wrist and had hung with part of his weight on it for even six hours, he would be unable to use that hand for several months, even if he did recover any use of it. The main tendons controlling the hand would be—would have been divided, and if anyone had a nail of that diameter driven through their feet for the same length of time, he would not be able to walk for some shorter period of time. Jesus would therefore be in no condition to escape from the tomb by his own efforts. In other words, Jesus would not only have…

Been alive would not only have had to have been alive to escape from the tomb; he would have also had to been healed. Thank you, Dr. James. Our next witness is Mary Magdalene. Mary, you were a close friend of Jesus. Where were you at the time of Jesus' death?

I was stood at the foot of the cross with Mary, Jesus's mother, and a few of her friends and family, and also one of his disciples, John.

After the crucifixion, where did you go?

We followed the body to see if it if it was safely in the tomb.

Were you able to identify the tomb in which Jesus was laid?

Yes, it it was a new tomb, and it belonged to Joseph of Arimathea.

Oh yes, we've heard of him already. So on the first day of the week, what did you do?

Myself and Jesus's mother went to anoint the body. There was such a rush to get the body into the tomb before the Sabbath; we didn't have have time. This is the first opport opportunity we had, and we went as soon as day broke. We were discussing how we were all going to roll away the stone, but when we got there, the tomb was open and completely empty.

What did you do after you saw that the tomb was empty?

I sobbed. I was so I was so upset. I had gone to anoint him, and his body was gone. I assumed that the body had been stolen. There was so much hatred at this crucifixion; anything could have happened, and the Roman the Romans may have moved it; the mob have stolen it. I was distraught. Then we saw two men who said that Jesus had risen from the dead.

What did you do after that?

I couldn't believe it. When I came out of the tomb, a man who I assumed was the gardener asked me why I was crying. I was so distraught; I begged him to tell me that I knew what happened to the body. Then he simp simply said my name, and I realized it was him; it was Jesus. He had risen, just as he said he would. I threw myself onto him to hug him, and he pushed me away and said I had to wait, but I needed to tell the rest that I'd seen him alive.

Are you certain that the man with whom you spoke was Jesus of Nazareth?

Yes.

I mean, in your distress, could you have been mistaken? Is is there any doubt in your mind that it was Jesus and that he was alive?

Not at all. Thank you. Please sit down. Our next witness is Cleopass, a follower of Jesus. You were one of two disciples who is reported as having seen Jesus after he was alive after his death. Is that correct?

Yes, that's correct. So please tell us what happened.

Well, it was the first day of the week, and we were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It's about seven miles, so a good afternoon's walk, and me and my friend had plenty to talk about because only a couple of days before Jesus, a man who we had listened to and and actually we thought might overthrow the Romans, he'd been put to death. And as we were talking about this, a stranger came up and walked alongside us, and he asked us what we were talking about because we looked so sad. So we explained that these things had happened, and we were surprised that he hadn't heard because this was such um a shocking event for all of us, and we just didn't know what to do. And then he said something to me that I'll never forget. He said, "Did you not know it was necessary for the Christ to suffer these things to enter into his glory?" And then from there he went on to open all of these scriptures and tell us that they all spoke of Christ and how he was to die and be raised again. And as the day went on, we kept talking; we talked about so many different scriptures, and we came to a house in Emmaus. And as the day was it was getting dark, and uh we didn't want him out on the road on his own, this amazing man who was telling us so many amazing things, so we we begged him to come in and share bread with us. And as we did, he blessed the bread and shared it with us, and it was at that moment that we realized that the man we were talking to was Jesus of Nazareth.

What did he say to you?

Nothing. He vanished from our sights. We just vanished like a ghost.

Are you sure it was Jesus? Not like a ghost?

This man spoke to us for hours on the road, and we saw him again later that night because we were so amazed that we we ran all the way back to Jerusalem through the night. And when we got there, very out of breath, we met up with some other people who've been following Jesus over the last couple of years, and we told them that we had seen Jesus, and then he appeared to us again, and this time we shared food with him; we touched the holes in his hands and his feet from the crucifixion only days before. But just to be clear, this point about the ghostly appearance, was there anything he did that proved he wasn't a ghost or a spirit?

Well, as I say, he he ate; he drank; we we touched him; we and he spoke to us words that we could no one could make up; words words that explained everything about him and his purpose.

And you're absolutely sure it was Jesus?

Yes. Thank you. Please. And and I should say also that there are hundreds of others who you could call on who who saw Jesus at this time. Thank you. Our final witness is one of Jesus' close group of disciples called Thomas. Thomas, you were one of the close group of disciples who followed Jesus during his ministry around the towns and villages of Israel. Is is that right?

Yes, that's correct.

Yeah, I understand that when Jesus joined the other disciples and those on the road to Emmaus, you were not present, and when you were told about Jesus' resurrection, you didn't believe him. Is that right?

Yes, that's correct. I um actually I I wasn't there when when the other disciples saw him. Um, I didn't see him until 8 days later. Um, but at the time that um the previous witness saw saw him, I wasn't there. Um, they had seen him that night, and then they came and told me about him, that that he he was risen. I said I didn't I couldn't believe; I wouldn't believe unless I saw the marks in his hands and in his side.

But why wouldn't you accept? You'd seen the miracles; you'd seen Lazarus raised from the dead.

I was I was broken. I should have believed; I should I I had seen all of those miracles, um, but I doubted; I I I couldn't hold my faith, um, and so that was that was why I said what I said. I I felt like I needed to see evidence.

So what changed your mind?

Well, I did see; I did see the evidence. I saw Jesus. So the eight eight days later after I was told um the other disciples had uh they'd got me into the upper room; they had kept me there; they wouldn't let me go away; and um and while we were there, he appeared in front of us, right in the middle of us. He appeared, and we saw him, and he said to me, "Put your hand here; see my See my hand; in my side; see the marks." And I just knew; I could see him before me, and I knew he was alive. He is alive.

Thomas, what would you say to those who find it hard to accept the idea that Jesus rose from the dead?

I can understand wanting to see evidence yourself; uh, that's what I wanted, but you have to just believe. I should have believed, and I I did see him, and it is true; he is alive. Thank you.

So let's sum up what we've seen during our inquiry. We've heard evidence of Jesus' treatment after his arrest; we've heard the evidence of the crucifixion of the man Jesus of Nazareth; we've heard evidence of his death on the cross; we've heard the presentation of the medical expert about Jesus' experiences and the injuries he received and the effect of that. We've had it powerfully demonstrated that there was no question that he died; the combined effect of those injuries and of crucifixion itself could have left no other option; there was no possibility that he could have in some way come back, well, could have swooned or in some other way been alive in the tomb. We've had evidence that Jesus, however, was seen after his death. We unfortunately don't have time to hear the evidence of others who saw him alive; one of our witnesses referred to others. There is evidence of up to 500 people who saw him alive after his death. The evidence has been placed before the inquiry; it is up to us each to decide whether we think there is evidence to believe beyond all doubt that Jesus both died and rose from the dead. Thank you. [Music]

Well, many thanks to the inspector. Thank you to all the witnesses for coming and joining us this evening at this public inquiry. So as we have heard, we have seen some of the evidence from people who saw the events in Jerusalem that Passover. These were real events; they were real people, and their belief in the death and the resurrection of Jesus changed their lives forever for the better. Belief in Jesus's death and resurrection can change our lives for the better as well. You have to make the judgment for yourself; is it reasonable to believe that Jesus rose from the dead? And that's the question we will leave you with. So many thanks for all of you for coming along, for joining us at this public inquiry. Um, as Dr. James mentioned, we've got some uh exhibits at the front, and we'd like to welcome you to come and have a look at at those. Also at the rear of the hall, we have um part of our Bible exhibition, and the stewards will be very happy to help you look through uh th those Bibles and what we can learn from those. And obviously, the inquiry we've been thinking about this evening is based on the events that we read in the Bible that we have preserved for us. We'd like to invite you to come back if you're able next Sunday or this Sunday afternoon at 2:15 when we're going to have a concluding talk in our series on the Bible, Jesus, and you, and it's going to be looking at that subject of the impact of Jesus in our lives. And if you're able to, we're going to have some refreshments at the end, and you'll be welcome to ask any of our witnesses or the inspector any further questions that you might have regarding this public inquiry. But thank you very much for coming along; we've really uh appreciated your company this evening, and thank you again to the inspector and the witnesses.