Do any ancient Greek or Roman writers mention Jesus' empty tomb?
Executive summary
No surviving ancient Greek or Roman pagan author is known to record or attest to the specific claim that Jesus’ tomb was found empty; the empty-tomb motif appears in Christian sources—the four Gospels and the fragmentary Gospel of Peter—and is debated among scholars about its originality and historicity [1] [2]. Some later Christian writers and modern apologists argue for very early, independent attestation of the empty-tomb tradition, while skeptics contend the episode could be literary invention drawing on wider Greco‑Roman motifs [3] [4] [5].
1. The textual landscape: who actually reports an empty tomb?
The primary ancient attestations of an empty tomb are internal to early Christian literature: Mark (probably written c. 65–70), Matthew, Luke (later), John (c. 90–110) and the fragmentary Gospel of Peter narrate a burial in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb followed by discovery of the body’s absence and post‑resurrection appearances [2] [6] [1]. Apologists and some historians argue the burial/empty‑tomb element is attested in multiple early traditions—Mark may preserve a pre‑Markan passion source and independent strands are claimed by defenders of historicity—which they present as evidence the tradition is ancient and not a late legend [3] [4].
2. What about non‑Christian Greco‑Roman writers?
Extant pagan Greek and Roman authors preserved in the modern corpus do not provide a direct, contemporaneous report that Jesus’ tomb was empty; modern summaries and specialist discussions show the empty‑tomb story lives in Christian narrative rather than in surviving pagan historiography [2] [1]. Some later Christian writers reference pagan chronographers on related signs—e.g., Christian authors citing Phlegon via Sextus Julius Africanus and Origen discuss an eclipse or unusual phenomena at the time of the crucifixion—but these references concern portents, not the discovery of an empty tomb by non‑Christian witnesses [6].
3. Parallels and possible influences from Greco‑Roman culture
Scholars and critics point out that empty‑body or ascension motifs occur in Greco‑Roman and other ancient stories—Richard Carrier and other skeptics collect parallels of heroes whose bodies disappear and are later venerated—meaning Mark or other evangelists could have shaped Christian narrative within common literary patterns [5]. Similarly, comparative literary work finds motifs shared with Roman fables such as the Matron of Ephesus; these parallels are used to argue for Greco‑Roman narrative influence while not proving pagan authors reported Jesus’ tomb as empty [1].
4. Competing interpretations among scholars and apologists
Defenders of historicity emphasize multiple, early attestations within Christian sources and argue that factors like the “criterion of embarrassment” (e.g., women being the primary witnesses) make invention less likely and point to the tomb’s emptiness as an early datum [3] [7]. Skeptical commentators maintain Mark may have invented or adapted the motif from broader traditions and stress the absence of independent pagan testimony as a reason for caution [2] [5]. Both positions are visible in the sources: apologetics sites press early independent status [4] [8], while critical scholars highlight literary parallels and the lack of external attestation [5] [2].
5. Archaeology, later church writers, and the evidentiary limit
Archaeology and early church tradition have been marshaled to point to a tomb in Jerusalem associated with Jesus, and some early church writers discuss related phenomena, but archaeological evidence cannot prove the historicity of the empty‑tomb claim itself, and no contemporary non‑Christian writer is cited in the surveyed sources as corroborating an empty tomb [9] [6]. The sources reviewed underscore that conclusions about whether the tomb was actually empty rest on interpretation of Christian texts and on weighing competing scholarly readings rather than on independent pagan reportage [9] [2].