D. 33, found Jesus of Nazareth dead and in
the tomb. The hopes of his followers were dashed to the ground. Looking
back to the promises made by Jehovah to faithful Abraham, his disciples
and other associates had believed Jesus to be the promised Messiah and
trusted that he would be the deliverer of Israel from Roman bondage and
would also be the instrument for the blessing, through Israel, of all the
nations of the earth. But now he who they had hoped would redeem Israel
(Luke 24:21) was dead. They were perplexed and overwhelmed. Seemingly
they did not expect him to rise again from the dead, nor did they know
at that time that Jehovah would not suffer the flesh of his Holy One to
corrupt. The conduct of the disciples at this time, as well as of those
who were in full sympathy with them, shows that they did not expect his
resurrection. The body was carefully wrapped and placed in the tomb with
myrrh, aloes, and spices, evidently to prevent decomposition. The
subsequent great sorrow of the women at the tomb and their belief that
the body of Jesus had been wrongfully removed and hid elsewhere, also
the perplexity of the disciples, all tends to show that they did not
have any hope or expectation of the resurrection of Jesus. Then we have
the positive statement: "For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he
must rise again from the dead".
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