Other evidence aside, the apostles choosing to flee to Galilee in the way supposed is highly implausible.
• …the apostles wouldn’t leave the women.1
• …the apostles would obviously prefer to hide amidst a large crowd.2
• …the apostles would not choose to conspicuously leave.3
• …the apostles—as Jews—wouldn’t travel on the Sabbath.4
• Dale Allison: “…one wonders whether the disciples would in fact have abandoned the women who had gone to Jerusalem with them. Would they, even if afraid, have left them without escort?” [Resurrecting Jesus (Continuum, 2005), 330.]
• P. Gardener-Smith: “The disciples may have deserted Jesus, but they can hardly be supposed to have deserted all their womenfolk.” [The Narratives of the Resurrection (Meuthn & Co., 1926), 144.]
• P. Gardener-Smith: “A man who wishes to hide himself generally chooses a crowded city, and it must have been easy for a dozen Galileans to escape notice among the enormous population of Jerusalem at the Passover season.” [The Narratives of the Resurrection (Meuthn & Co., 1926), 144.]
• A.J.M. Wedderburn: “Traveling in haste on the Sabbath that lay between the date of Jesus’ crucifixion and the third day would have been the worst possible tactic. Common sense would rather dictate that it would be better to mingle with the crowds of departing pilgrims leaving Jerusalem after the feast, if that were at all possible — as indeed the Gospel of Peter suggests that they did (14.58).” [Beyond Resurrection (Hendrickson, 1999), 54.]
• P. Gardener-Smith: “On the day before the feast the most conspicuous thing they could have done would have been to leave Jerusalem, and journey in a direction opposite to the stream of traffic.” [The Narratives of the Resurrection (Meuthn & Co., 1926), 144.]
• Richard Bauckham: “[t]here is no convincing evidence that the male disciples were ever thought to have returned to Galilee immediately after Jesus’ death. They would, in any case, not have traveled on the Sabbath.” [Gospel Women (Eerdmans, 2002), 258.]
Rather than feeling to Galilee at Jesus’s arrest, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John are very clear and invest time in narrating Peter’s staying in Jerusalem and denying Christ in the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. This is relevant because the Gospel writers are competent historians. Their reports all had ample opportunity to preserve a tradition wherein the apostles fled to Galilee, and yet instead it matches the unanimous attestation that the apostles stayed in Jerusalem.
But against the relevance of that first claim,…
• …the story of Peter’s denials is fictional.1
After Jesus’s arrest, Peter stayed in Jerusalem, specifically following the events of Jesus from a distance, and ultimately denying being a disciple of Jesus’s multiple times because of it.
• Mk etc. say Peter stayed.
• This is multiply attested in all four Gospels.1
• This is unlikely to have been lyingly invented;2 memory is a far more likely source.
This is relevant because if Peter stayed, then not all the disciples fled. (And the presumption is sooner the none of them fled.)
John says that the Beloved Disciple was at the cross with Jesus’ mother and bore witness to what happened there. (Jn 19. 26-27, 35.)
We read in Jn 18:15 — “Simon Peter was following Jesus, and so was another disciple”, listing off several detail about this disciple.1 This is relevant because John was a competent history which aimed to getting things right, and grounded its reports in eyewitness testimony. [All forthcoming] This was very much an opportunity to preserve a tradition wherein the apostles fled to Galilee, and yet instead it matches the unanimous attestation that the apostles stayed in Jerusalem.
We read in Lk 23:49 — ‘[Jesus breathed his last and] all his [Jesus’] acquaintances … stood at a distance and saw these things’ This is relevant because Luke was a very competent historian who was dedicated to getting things right, and grounded his reports in eyewitness testimony. [All forthcoming] This was very much an opportunity to preserve a tradition wherein the apostles fled to Galilee, and yet instead it matches the unanimous attestation that the apostles stayed in Jerusalem.
In both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, the women visit Jesus’s tomb (in Jerusalem) on Sunday morning, and are Divinely instructed to tell the apostles to go from where they are to Galilee.
• Mk 16:7 — But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.’”
• Mt 28:7 — “tell His disciples that… He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him;. … Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.’”
This is relevant because the underlying assumption is the apostles have not yet gone to Galilee; they are still staying at a home in Jerusalem; the women accompanying have simply just re-visited Jesus’ tomb via a morning walk. The Divine message implies those women know right where the apostles are—gathered together at home—and can simply walk over and inform them what everyone is do next: “go to Galilee.”1
In c. AD 30-75, Jews complained, “The apostles stole Jesus’s body” Starting some time between AD 30 and 70, at least some Jerusalem Jews were publicly maintaining that Jesus’s body went missing because it was stolen by the apostles. This is relevant because their complaint reflects an early believe—even by the local Jews—that the apostles were still in Jerusalem during Jesus’ crucifixion and the following days. This was an opportunity to preserve a competing tradition, and yet it instead matches the unanimous tradition that the apostles stayed.
The pseudonymous Gospel of Peter reports that the the apostles returned to Galilee after the feast, since like everyone else they had no reason any longer to stay in Jerusalem.
• The Gospel of Peter 14:58-59 — “Now it was the final day of the Unleavened Bread; and many went out returning to their home since the feast was over. But we twelve disciples of the Lord were weeping and sorrowful; and each one, sorrowful because of what had come to pass, departed to his home.”
This is relevant because it is yet another attention that they disciples did not flee to Galilee, and attestation which had a chance of preserving a competing tradition, but did not.
The Gospels say that at Jesus’ arrest, the apostles “scattered” and “fled”.
• Mk 14:27, 50-52 — Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.’ But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee. … [In Gethsemane] And they all left Him and fled. A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked.”
This is relevant because they inevitably fled to Galilee where they came from.
But against the relevance of that first claim…,
• …the word “scattering” best implies a mere dissembling from a central point: the Garden.1
• The texts say nothing about Galilee,1 and common sense says they hid in the vicinity of Jerusalem. (See above.)