Would Christians disfavor this report: “Mary and the women are Jesus’s empty tomb discoverers”

  • Clarifying the question

    A grumpy man stands in front of the empty tomb. Two women are on the left in right sides of the tomb with their arms out.

    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?

“Yes, after all…

  • They’d hate them as first witness-heralds

    An upset Christian has a thought bubble. In the bubble is a depiction of a woman with a megaphone, standing in front of Christ's empty tomb.

    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.
“No, after all…

  • They’d like "missing body" evidence

    Three men celebrate in front of the empty tomb.

    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!”

    But against the truth of that first claim,…

    And against the relevance of that first claim…