What happened after Jesus died on the cross? Why were his disciples not in turn persecuted by the Romans? Why did they stay in Jerusalem? Were they still waiting for the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel? Did they expect it to be imminent, i.e. would the end of time also coincide with the end of Roman rule? Did Jesus himself expect to rise from the dead? To what extent does the Christian concept of the resurrection spring from Jewish tradition? How much credence should one give to the accounts of the discovery of the empty tomb? Why does the earliest Christian writer never mention this scene but only speak of the apparitions of Jesus after he has risen from the dead? Why are these apparitions so different from one text to another, despite the fact that all the texts speak about the women and the disciples seeing Jesus and not recognizing him at first? Can one still speak of "resurrection"? How would the fact that neither the apocalypse nor the Messiah had come, set the stage for the birth of Christianity?