: If the Resurrection were lied about because those who did the telling would benefit, what benefit was there for the Roman soldiers who spread the false story that the body was stolen while they slept? Any soldier who admitted to sleeping on duty would be immediately PUT TO DEATH. No benefit there.: For the soldiers to lie in cooperation with both Roman and Jewish officials indicated that they were covering up the truth -- that Christ had indeed risen.
: Also, He was seen alive by over 500 people at one time. Did all of those people benefit by sharing some kind of group delusion? I dare say that any gathering of 500 people is going to have some scoffers or other unbelievers who would have spoken up if they didn't believe that the One Whom they saw was Christ.
It's easy for someone to tell you and I that Roman soldiers witnessed the event, or indeed that there were 500 witnesses to this event, since you and I (and the rest of the living world) were not there. In fact neither were the people who wrote about, as far as I know. Weren't the gospel accounts and the writings of Paul penned many years after the alleged event occurred?
None.
