Was the AD 30 Jerusalem church saying “Jesus's body is gone”?

• James Dunn: “[The lack of veneration] is indeed striking, because within contemporary Judaism, as in other religions, the desire to honour the memory of the revered dead by constructing appropriate tombs and (by implication) by veneration of the site is well attested.” [Jesus Remembered (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2003), 837.]
• Gerd Lüdemann (Outspoken atheist, Early Christian history & literature professor): “Given the significance of the tombs of saints at the time of Jesus it can be presupposed that had Jesus' tomb been known, the early Christians would have venerated it and traditions about it would have been preserved.” [The Resurrection of Jesus (Fortress, 1994), 45.]
• William Lane Craig “[Jews] had an extraordinary interest in preserving the tombs of Jewish martyrs, prophets, and other saints by honoring them as shrines.” [Knowing the Truth about the Resurrection (Ann Arbor, 1988), 57.]
• Joachim Jeremias: “This world of sacred tombs was a real element of the environment in which the earliest community lived. It is inconceivable that, living in this world, it could have allowed the tomb of Jesus to be forgotten. That is all the more the case since for it the one who had lain in the tomb was more than one of those just men, martyrs and prophets.” [Heiligengräber in Jesu Umwelt (Mt 23, 29; Luke 11,47): Eine Untersuchung zur Volksreligion der Zeit Jesu (Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1958), 145.] (As cited by Lüdemann)
• Edwin Yamauchi (Ancient History prof. at Miami): “J. Jeremias has demonstrated that about fifty tombs were venerated by the Jews before the time of Jesus. In the view of such interest in the tombs of holy men, J. Delorme asks: 'In these circumstances, is it possible that the original community of Jerusalem could have been completely uninterested in the tomb where Jesus was laid after his death?… Can the existence of this tradition at Jerusalem, centered around a specific place, in a relatively short lapse of time after the events, be explained as a pure legendary creation? Could one show an ordinary tomb as being the tomb of Jesus?'.” [“Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or History?” in Christianity Today 10, no 12 & 13 (1974)].
• Murray Harris (NT professor at TIU Div., Cambridge Div.): “In the light of Jewish veneration for the burial places of prophets and other holy persons such as righteous martyrs (Mt 23:29), it is remarkable that the early Christians gave no particular attention to the tomb of Jesus. Remarkable, that is, unless his tomb were empty.” [Raised Immortal: Resurrection and Immortality in the New Testament (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1983), 40.]

• Craig Keener (NT professor at Asbury): “In the broader culture of Mediterranean antiquity, tombs were sacred and hence often linked with temples. See Plutarch, Themistocles 9.4 and 32.3. Tombs of famous persons were, like temples, tourist attractions. See Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.7.2 and 8.41.1. Veneration of holy persons’ and ancestral tombs is an ancient practice in the Middle East. See Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library 17.17.3; Dionysius Halicarnasus, Roman Antiquities 8.24.6 and 11.10.1.”
• Craig Blomberg (NT professor at Denver): “…there is no evidence that early Christians ever venerated any tomb of Jesus, as was the custom among mourners at the graves of other revered leaders in the ancient Mediterranean world and as has been the case with founders of religions in countless parts of the world over the millennia.” [The Historical Reliability of the Gospels 2nd ed. (IVP, 2007), 144-45.]

• Byron McCain (Religion professor at Wofford): “…the tomb of Jesus was not venerated until it was no longer remembered as a place of shame.” [“Where No one had yet been laid”, Authenticating the Activities of Jesus, eds. Chilton & Evans (E.J. Brill, 1998), 452.; Reproduced in The Historical Jesus, Vol 3, ed. Evans (Routledge, 2004), 268.] But it is very unlikely that Christians found the site too unpleasant to venerate. Consider three reasons: • First, remember the cross: James Dunn: “Christians soon venerated a cross, of all things!” [Jesus Remembered (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2003), 837.]; a fortiori they would be willing to venerate an unseemly grave. • Second, Jesus was buried privately in a rock-hewn tomb. [Forthcoming] (Specifically, in Joseph's family tomb [Forthcoming]). There was nothing unpleasant about that.
• Third, Jesus's loved ones could have entombed his bones wherever they wanted after about 6-12 months (during his “secondary burial”).

• Peter Carnley: “…a lack of early interest in the site of the tomb would also be congruent with the thesis that by the time the kerygma reached Jerusalem the site of the tomb could not be located…” [The Structure of Resurrection Belief (Oxford, 1987), 58.]