The Stolen Body is the oldest theory against the empty tomb. To this day, there are still people teaching that the disciples stole the body of Jesus. However, if the Roman guards were sleeping, how would they know who stole the body? Nevertheless, considering this argument for a while, only two groups would have been interested in stealing the body of Jesus: his friends or his enemies. People who were noncommittal or neutral would not risk their lives in such an attempt.
If Jesus’ friends, the apostles, stole the body, why were they willing to suffer horribly as martyrs for what they knew to be a lie. Some were crucified, some were beheaded, one was flayed alive, another was thrust through with a spear, another had his head crushed with a club, another was stabbed to death, and another was thrown alive into a large pot of boiling oil. They were given opportunities to recant their faith in order to receive pardon or a merciful death, but they remained strong to the end and held fast to what they believed to be the truth.
If Jesus’ enemies, the Sadducees and Pharisees, stole the body, they could have instantly silenced the apostles’ preaching of the resurrection by simply producing his heavily disfigured corpse. Yet, it is obvious that they did not have the body either.
If you are interested to know more, a free copy of Ariel’s manuscript “The Resurrection of the Messiah” is available from this link: http://www.arielm.org/dcs/pdf/mbs075m.pdf.