Could someone have stolen Jesus' body?

Matthew's Gospel says this was one of the first explanations offered—religious leaders reportedly paid guards to say the disciples stole the body while they slept.

But a stolen body doesn't explain everything that needs explaining. An empty tomb alone wouldn't have convinced anyone Jesus had risen—people would assume grave robbery or a mix-up, not resurrection. Belief in the resurrection was driven by claimed appearances of a living Jesus, something theft can't produce.

The theory also runs into an odd detail: John's Gospel describes the burial cloths still lying in the tomb, with the head covering folded separately. Grave robbers in a hurry don't typically stop to neatly fold the wrappings.

And if opponents of the early Christian movement genuinely believed the body had simply been moved or stolen, producing it would have ended the movement almost immediately. No ancient source—friendly or hostile—ever claims that happened.