I have heard the Jewish rebuttal story re. the stealing of Jesus’ body on numerous occasions, but I am certain it is false. The guards would have been executed in normal Roman practice if they had slept, and they were accused by the Sanhedrin of that. To avoid the obvious accusations, the bribery story became the standard rebuttal!
The disciples of Jesus went on to see the Risen Jesus, and in Acts1 appointed Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot, because he had seen the Risen Jesus!
After receiving the promised Power of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, they went on to fearlessly witness to the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and the Kingdom of God on Earth.
However, at Acts 28:25–28, Paul was forced by the Holy Spirit to announce the prophecy of Isaiah 6:9–10, which put the Jews into the God decreed position of “Lo-Ammi”, for a period of time (Hosea 1&2), and the Gentiles became first priority from then on in God’s Plan.
That event, which coincided with God’s infliction on the minds of the Jews of a “vail on their understanding” (2Cor. 3:14–16), is still in place, and will be until Jesus returns to rescue Israel from near total destruction by Satan and his forces; and then places them into the prophecy of Ezek. 39:21-29!
That prophecy is in Zech.12:10, and “they will look on Him whom they pierced” and mourn for Him like for an only son”!
I was on a long flight with a Rabbi from Melbourne, who by chance (?) was seated next to me. We entered into many points of Scripture over the time period, and he always had what he considered a solid answer from Jewish Orthodox teaching to many of my comments re. Jesus, Apostle Paul, Jesus' father, etc.
I raised the Zech.12:10 point with the Rabbi on the plane, and he went white and refused to discuss further. We parted company hours later with a handshake. I tried to look him up on a later trip to Melbourne, but he seemed to have died.
True, I base my belief on my trust in the veracity of the Word of God and my own experience of my Lord’s veracity, (2Tim. 3:16–17).
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