The First Strand of Evidence: The Empty Tomb All four Gospels report that on the third day after Jesus had been crucified and entombed his disciples discovered that his body had disappeared from the tomb in which it had been placed (Matt. 28:6; Mark 16:5–6; Luke 24:3, 6, 22–24; John 20:5–8). Almost immediately, as already noted, the disciples began to proclaim their conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead. Now if the tomb, in fact, had still contained his body—the women and later Peter and