A live map of reasons and replies
Would Christians disfavor this report: “Mary and the women are Jesus’s empty tomb discoverers”
Trace the strongest lines of support, challenge each claim, and follow every response as far as the reasoning goes.
supporting
challenging
Before you begin
Orient yourself to the question
01 Clarifying the question
Several sources say that after Jesus’s crucifixion and entombment, a group of Jesus’s women followers—including Mary Magdalene—discovered Jesus’s tomb empty. (E.g. see Mk 16, Mt 28, Lk 28, Jn 28).
So here is our question:
Would Christians—with their biases and goals—see more reason to wish it false that it was these women who discovered Jesus’s tomb empty? Would many judge partially irksome or unpalatable the circulation of the women's reported role in it?
The argument field
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Open any reason to read its case. Linked claims take you deeper into the tree.
For
Supports this claim
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They’d hate them as first witness-heralds
01 Supporting reason They’d hate them as first witness-heralds Read argument · 1 path deeper
In general, Christians would disfavor Mary & women being first witness-heralds of the resurrection.[Full page]
This full page analysis 3 arguments:
- It’d clearly be self-stigmatizing for their Gospel.
- It’d clearly be subpar as an evidence source (in their origin story).
- Later Christians downplayed their role.
Against
Challenges this claim
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They’d like "missing body" evidence
01 Challenging reason They’d like "missing body" evidence Read argument · 1 path deeper
Early Christians would have found favorable—to acquire and use—evidence for their belief that Jesus’ body went missing (to ultimately support Jesus’ resurrection) [Full page.] This is relevant because they may consequently find this argument evidentially valuable: “The testimony of Mary et. al. proves Jesus’s tomb was empty!”
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They’d judge it valuable for story reasons
02 Challenging reason They’d judge it valuable for story reasons Read argument · 5 paths deeper
Given early Christians believed in an empty tomb discovery, they would have valued a report of women as it discoverers in order to preserve the coherence and story virtue of narrating that discovery.
This page analyzes 4 arguments: