Nazareth Inscription

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The Nazareth Inscription is a 24" x 15" marble tablet with a 14-line "Edict of Caesar" prescribing capital punishment for tomb-breakers, acquired by the Frohner Collection in 1878 from Nazareth.

Michael Green [Man Alive, 1968, p. 36] cites a secular source of early origin that bears testimony to Jesus' empty tomb. This piece of evidence "is called the Nazareth Inscription, after the town where it was found. It is an imperial edict, belonging either to the reign of Tiberius (A.D. 14-37) or of Claudius (A.D. 41-54). And it is an invective, backed with heavy sanctions, against meddling around with tombs and graves! It looks very much as if the news of the empty tomb had got back to Rome in a garbled form (Pontius Pilate would have had to report: and he would obviously have said that the tomb had been rifled). This edict, it seems, is the imperial reaction."

Translation from the Koine Greek by Clyde E. Billington:

1. EDICT OF CAESAR

2. It is my decision [concerning] graves and tombs--whoever has made

3. them for the religious observances of parents, or children, or household

4. members--that these remain undistrubed forever. But if anyone legally

5. charges that another person has destroyed, or has in any manner extracted

6. those who have been buried, or has moved with wicked intent those who

7. have been buried to other places, committing a crime against them, or has

8. moved sepulcher-sealing stones, against such a person, I order that a

9. judicial tribunal be created, just as [is done] concerning the gods in

10. human religious observances, even more so will it be obligatory to treat

11. with honor those who have been entombed. You are absolutely not to

12. allow anyone to move [those who have been entombed]. But if

13. [someone does], I wish that [violator] to suffer capital punishment under

14. the title of tomb-breaker.

Since its original publication in 1930 by M. Franz Cumont, no scholar has published evidence to disprove its authenticity.

Clyde Billington of Northwestern College (Minnesota) has dated it to A.D. 41, & interpreted it as evidence for the historicity of Christians preaching the resurrection of Jesus within a decade of His crucifixion.

[edit] References

  • Billington, Clyde E., "The Nazareth Inscription: Proof of the Resurrection of Christ?" in Artifax, Spring 2005
  • Cumont, M. Franz, "Un Rescrit Imperial Sur La Violation De Sepulture" in Reveu Historique CLXIII, 1930

[edit] External links

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