In the early part of the 20th century, a tantalizing marble inscription was discovered upon the death of an archaeological collector. According to his own records, it was sent to him from Nazareth in 1878. It is thus called the Nazareth inscription which in the ancient Greek language reads:

"Edict of Caesar. It is my decision, graves and tombs, whoever has made them for the religious observances of parents, or children, or household members, that these remain undisturbed forever. But if anyone legally charges that another person has destroyed, or has in any manner extracted those who have been buried, or has moved with wicked intent those who have been buried to other places, committing a crime against them, or has moved sepulcher-seali ng stones, against such a person, I order that a judicial tribunal be created, just as concerning the gods in human religious observances, even more so will it be obligatory to treat with honor those who have been entombed. You are absolutely not to allow anyone to move. But if so, I wish that one to suffer capital punishment under the title of tomb-breaker.”

While secular leftist scholars have more recently been trying to promulgate that this inscription goes back to a certain king of Kos whose body was desecrated in the 20s B.C., this is very unlikely. The scholars who first examined the inscription initially agreed it was to be dated back to the first half of the first century A.D. that would have coincided with all of the controversies over the fact of the empty tomb which the Christians brought to the Roman world of that time. Concerning events which occurred around 50 A.D., Roman historian Suetonius wrote that Caesar Claudius evicted all the Jews from Rome because of all of the sharp controversies centered around the Christ. Luke also mentions this in Acts 18.

In a detailed section of his book, "Excavating the Evidence for Jesus," Dr. Titus Kennedy concludes, "the Nazareth Inscription was probably a reaction to rumors about the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth .... After hearing the story of Jesus and how widespread it had become, Emporer Claudius seems to have attempted to prevent any future claims of the resurrection of the dead that would spark religious revolution and departure from standard Roman beliefs. Therefore, the edict recorded on the Nazareth Inscription appears to be the Roman response to the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Indeed, the official story coming out of Jerusalem at the time was that the disciples stole the body at night while the soldiers were sleeping (Matthew 28:11-15) - which itself is also fraught with many incredulities on a par with the resurrection itself for a variety of reasons.

More to the point, the Nazareth Inscription is an edict which seems to be far more concerned about desecrating common graves in general than related to a very specific situation as seen in Kos. Meaning that the Nazareth Inscription is also strangely concerned about forbidding the practice of moving bodies from one grave to another, which again, does not match what happened at Kos. Further, the edict also forbids moving "sepulcher-seal ing stones” like that which would have covered the tomb of Jesus in Judea - and again - does not match the circumstances of Kos.

In addition to the New Testament documents where in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John affirm that Jesus was raised from the dead, there were many other eyewitnesses of His resurrection mentioned by the apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 15. Even Jewish and Romans historians like Josephus and Tacitus were well aware of the resurrection stories of Jesus being taught and spready by Christians. Whatever the controversies may be in all this, the facts are this: The tomb of Jesus is still empty today. Yet, the very bones of Caiaphas, one of the judges of Jesus at His fake show trial were recently found in an ossuary with his very name on it.