If Jesus's tomb was protected by a round rock - were the Bible's authors anticipating his resurrection?

The Bible doesn't tell us the shape of the stone. Therefore, it's most likely the stone was of a customary shape, size, and weight, rather than designed specifically for this event.

When Jesus was interred, his disciples were despondent because they didn't truly comprehend that he was to be resurrected:

"6Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. 8Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— 9for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead." - John 20 (NLT)

The Gospels were written decades after the events, and any dramatized depictions and documentaries you may have seen of the events were contrived two millinia later, using the imaginations of the producers, so if the stone looks round, it does so arbitrarily.

It's most likely that he did simply vanish from the tomb, since he didn't take any of the wrappings with him. It was an angel who rolled the stone - what ever its shape - away from the tomb:

'2There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

5The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.' - Matthew 28 (NIV)

The biblical accounts don't say that Jesus used the exit that the angel opened, so we may understand that he opened it for the women to look inside since the guards were in no condition to open the tomb for them. The fact that the angel opened the tomb, rather than leaving the task to the women, suggests that it was not an easy task.

A good question, Edward.

No, they weren't anticipating His resurrection. Among other traditions, it was a normal part of the Middle Eastern burial rituals that the family of the deceased would.need access to the body of their loved one. Initially, they would need to periodically reapply ointments to the body and the clothes it was wrapped in mummy-like (which is the reason that the women had gone to the tomb Easter morning) and after a year to put the person's bones into a stone box.

. All tombs were constructed so that the stone could be moved away (also see the story about Lazarus when Jesus raised him from the dead).

. The stones were rounded, set in trenches, so that people could get in, not with the idea that people would get out.

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If you are interested in researching this topic further, there are newer archaeological reports and films that explain ancient Middle Eastern burial traditions ..... channels like National Geographic, the Science Channel, and so on. They are VERY fascinating and enlightening about the things that the Bible talks about.

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I hope that answers your question, Edward.

It is an excellent question !!!!!

T

Have you considered maybe that the custom was that at the time?

I don't know if this is true but I'm just saying...it might have been that anyone at the time would put a round rock on a tomb for the first few weeks just to go visit the dead person?

Again, I don't know if this is true but you have to make sure you are not making a simple historical mistake.

It's like saying in 200 years: why would people use cars? isn't that giving the plot of what happened (i.e. environmental disaster) away?

Hope my thought is clear

Round rocks were not unusual at that time. Family's visited tombs and catacombs on feast days to hold a party surrounded by the remains of their loved ones.

At this time people believed that heaven was a material place high up in the sky. That is why Jesus ascended in the open air to this land beyond the clouds. If he had just de-materialised in the tomb this would have had no context in the myths and beliefs of the time.

It was the jewish burial rite. Exactly like crypts today. They dug a hole in rock put the body or bodies there and put a heavy rock at the entrance to prevent the small of decomposing corpse to spread out of the grave.

If the stone wasn't rolled away, how else would Lee Strobel be able to sell books?

Note: The stone is believed to have been round such that it could be rolled easily into place, but not out, like a marble in a groove.

No. The tomb was made years before and it has to be somehow protected from animals.

I will keep this simple, baby Jesus was born out of pregnant Santa who came in a flying saucer piloted by Spock and taking this into account, I am fairly sure that somebody that real would not die in the first place.

http://biblia.com/bible/esv/John%2014.1%E2%80%9331

It does seem as though it was thought about and planned in advance, the question is who planned it?

Why couldn't his skin become impervious to spears and nails...like superman