Did Chris Cuomo Just Prove Jesus’ Resurrection?

Published: April 2, 2026

Easter, Empty tomb — Photo by Pisit Heng on Unsplash

By Movieguide® Contributor

This Easter weekend, NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo travels to the Holy Land on a mission that has captivated historians, archaeologists, and believers for two millennia: uncovering the truth about what happened after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

THE MYSTERY OF EASTER airs Saturday, April 4th at 8 p.m. ET on NewsNation. In the special, Cuomo digs into one of history’s most fiercely debated questions with on-the-ground reporting from Israel, rare archaeological evidence, and conversations with leading scholars — and what he finds may surprise even skeptics.

One of the documentary’s most striking moments comes inside an Israeli museum, where Cuomo examines an ancient ossuary — a stone bone box — discovered in a Jerusalem tomb. Inside were the skeletal remains of a young man, approximately 28 years old. But it’s one particular bone that stops Cuomo cold.

“The heel bone of that young man had a huge iron nail driven through it,” the Israel Museum curator explains on camera, via NewsNation.

It’s not a relic. It’s not a legend. It’s physical, archaeological proof that crucifixion victims in first-century Jerusalem were sometimes given formal burials — a discovery that directly challenges one of the most popular arguments against the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ burial and resurrection.

The documentary doesn’t shy away from the hard questions, according to a release from NewsNation. One prevailing scholarly theory holds that Jesus never received a proper burial at all — that Roman practice dictated crucified criminals be left exposed or discarded. Cuomo takes that argument directly to biblical scholar and author Michael Licona, who doesn’t flinch.

“In antiquity, you’re correct, that the Romans typically did not allow a crucified or condemned person who had been executed by them to receive a proper burial,” Licona acknowledges. “But the Romans, in order to keep peace with people they had conquered, would often allow them to maintain some of their customs. And we have evidence that they did this in Jerusalem.”

Cuomo also visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, venerated by Christians worldwide as the site of both the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus. There, Reverend Dr. Petra Heldt of the Research Fraternity in Israel walks him through the remarkable historical layers embedded in its walls.

Perhaps most compelling is the story of second-century Roman Emperor Hadrian, who — far from disproving the site’s significance — may have inadvertently confirmed it.

“Hadrian hated the Christians,” Rev. Dr. Heldt explains. “He didn’t want to have that question of the Jews believing in the Messiah.”

Cuomo draws the logical conclusion on camera: “So you know the place that he thought he needed to destroy is the right place.”

Do you believe Jesus rose from the dead?

“Absolutely,” Rev. Dr. Heldt replies. “And what’s more, he tried to destroy the grave.”

An emperor’s attempt at erasure becomes, ironically, one of the strongest historical arguments for the site’s authenticity.

For those who have encountered the fringe claim that Jesus of Nazareth never existed at all, the documentary delivers clear, scholarly pushback.

“Oh, yes — we have evidence that Jesus was alive. He was a man. He was teaching. He was healing,” says Rev. Dr. Heldt.

Licona goes further, pointing to sources well outside the pages of Scripture: “We have a number of non-Christian sources early on who mentioned Jesus as a historical person. Josephus, Jewish historian, first-century. Tacitus, Roman historian, early second-century. So yeah, you got non-Christians in antiquity who mentioned him relatively close to Jesus.”

Rev. Dr. Heldt puts it simply: “Jesus is a real person. And if he were not a real person, people would not have cared about him.”

You can watch Cuomo’s Easter Special on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on NewsNation.

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