Matthew 27:52-53?

I read Matthew again last year and I noticed something that I'd never seen before. This account is not in the other 3 gospels.

Matthew 27:

52, And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
53, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

After thinking on it, and bringing it up in bible study, and talking to several of my respected friends about it, I'm still just as stumped.

One person said they thought it was spirits that arose, and not the physical bodies. I disagree with that.

Did these people continue to live their lives and then die again at a ripe old age? Did they go back to the grave shortly after appearing in the city? Did the people in the town there that wanted Jesus dead, martyr these risen people to keep them from spreading the news?


Wondering what everyone else thinks.

Hard telling. The word "soma," translated to "bodies" here, can be literal or figurative.

I believe this was actual bodies...and it was a ONE TIME event. Christ had just defeated death. Here's a little evidence for the skeptics in the area.
These scriptures make me wanna bang my head against the wall when people start carrying on how this is the 'resurrection' when graves burst open and they rapture away totally ignoring Ecclesiastes 12:7 not to mention the actual subject of these scriptures.


What a sight this must have been! Hey that's Aunt Grace walking up the street! She died 30 years ago! It's such a mystery to me how people could live back then and NOT believe...we all believe and have seen nothing [physically]

The resurrection power was so strong that others around Jesus came back too is one theory proposed, and I think it's the most likely. I would think that those people who came back would have been prominent leaders in the early Christian church.

I always figured this was a foreshadowing of the coming resurrection, where we all get new bodies. I believe GOD uses miracles for his purposes. I also figure they were taken up into Heaven with Jesus. I’d feel bad for them if they had to live another 80 years on this rock.
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That’s all just figuring though. No telling what happened if the Bible doesn’t say.

Thanks Justin, that's an angle I had not considered, that they might have been taken up with Jesus.

I too saw it as a foreshadowing of the resurrection, but also the other things that happened at the time of crucifixion seem to be a foreshadowing of the tribulation and second coming.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by justindad

I’d feel bad for them if they had to live another 80 years on this rock.

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Amen to that.
Father said it grieved him to put us in flesh....grieves me too Father.
I hope for their sakes you're right and they left with Christ.
I can't wait to get my celestial body back.

I've always accepted it as the dead leaving their graves and walking about.
Basically, functioning zombies.
When the moment had passed, they just stopped where they were.
It was a tumultuous time. Great upheaval and anger at the death of the Lord.
My 2 cents anyways.

Here is a thought. Before the death of Jesus, people did not go to heaven. Instead, they went to Paradise. Paradise was a "holding area" in Hades where those who were going to go to Heaven waited for their sins to be cleansed. John 14:6 "No man goes to the Father but through me".

Until Jesus died for the sins of man, no person would be worthy of eternal life with God in Heaven.

It is proposed that during the three days between the death of Jesus on the cross and rising from the grave, Jesus was in Paradise. When speaking to the thief next to Him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43

There is further evidence to support this interpretation. Luke 16:22-23

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.

How could the rich man have seen Lazarus and Abraham from Hades if Paradise was not close to Hades?

One could infer that Hades, a place for the dead, held both those who were going to Hell and those who had been blessed and would one day be resurrected. There was a gulf between those two areas that could not be crossed, but they were adjacent.

That's not something I've heard before, and is interesting, thanks Don.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dverna

Here is a thought. Before the death of Jesus, people did not go to heaven. Instead, they went to Paradise. Paradise was a "holding area" in Hades where those who were going to go to Heaven waited for their sins to be cleansed. John 14:6 "No man goes to the Father but through me".

Until Jesus died for the sins of man, no person would be worthy of eternal life with God in Heaven.

It is proposed that during the three days Jesus between his death on the cross and rising from the grave, Jesus was in Paradise. When speaking to the thief next to Him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43

There is further evidence to support this interpretation. Luke 16:22-23

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.

How could the rich man have seen Lazarus and Abraham from Hades if Paradise was not close to Hades?

One could infer that Hades, a place for the dead, held both those who were going to Hell and those who had been blessed and would one day be resurrected. There was a gulf between those two areas that could not be crossed, but there were adjacent.

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Good post, right on.

Don I would say that is a very good post, with lots of food for thought.

Do some studying on how the ancient Jews thought about death and the soul, contrasted with the Greek concepts of after life, and you'll see that the concept of hades was adopted from the Greeks. These old concepts of after death where what the Saduceees where clinging to (no afterlife). Jesus was using the concept that was prevalent among the population in his time, and I'm convinced the afterlife is beyond our actual comprehension. The real moral of the story, or account, was that nonbelievers won't be swayed even if someone where to rise from the dead to testify to them. Jesus was prophesying about himself, and it's still true today!