“Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many” (Matt 27:50-53 NRSV).
Matthew’s account of the graves opening and the dead coming back to life and walking around Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ death and resurrection is a startling narrative, and one wonders why it is so lonely in scripture.
According to Matthew, at the moment Jesus died, the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom by invisible hands. This is confirmed by Mark (15:38) and Luke (23:45).
At the same time there occurred an earthquake which was so powerful that the rocks split and shattered and graves rocked and were split open. Those graves weren’t simply holes in the ground like the graves of our time and culture; they were more like chambers in the rock, and had great doors of stone rolled across the opening to seal them up. The corpse was smothered with perfumed ointment and then wrapped in cloth bandages to mitigate the foul odour that rotting flesh exudes (Jn 11:39; Lk 24:1).
Immediately following the earthquake, not only did the graves spring open but many corpses came back to life. These were faithful believers and servants of God who had died; or, as Matthew has it, “the saints”. There were no unbelieving sinners said to have been raised to life at this event.
The most recently dead of these resurrected saints would have still been wrapped in their grave cloths; the wrappings of those who had been interred for a long time, many centuries even, would have been in various states ranging from decomposition to merely dust.
This brings to the imagination hideous images of rotting corpses with filthy rags hanging from the bodies, with maggot-infested flesh falling away in chunks, and grinning skulls with empty eye sockets. Nevertheless, at this moment of resurrection, they could still only have been clothed in their decayed and filthy grave cloths.
After Jesus’ resurrection, these dead saints went into Jerusalem “and appeared to many” of the living inhabitants of Jerusalem. What an utterly bizarre and disturbing spectacle this must have been! One can only speculate as to what the citizens of Jerusalem must have thought when they saw these men and women walking around the city clothed in such macabre apparel.
How long had they been entombed? Were they all recently dead and buried so that they would still be recognised by living relatives and friends? Had some of them been buried such a long time ago that nobody would have been able to identify them? Where did they go? Were they brought back to their homes by their living relatives? What about the long-time dead saints among them – where did they go? As they were in this state for 40 days, where did they get food? Did they even need food? What about appropriate clothing? And where did they go after Jesus was resurrected? The speculative possibilities are almost endless.
The questions arising in consequence of resurrected saints at the time of Jesus’ death and resurrection present serious problems, and cast a question mark on the reliability of the whole of Matthew’s gospel itself. One major problem is that none of the other gospels mention it. Considering that it would have been a highly significant event, why didn’t they? Indeed, the other gospels writers don’t appear to have even been aware of this earthquake and resurrection. Because the other gospels omit this massive and noteworthy event, Matthew’s gospel is, at best, not an eye-witness of the crucifixion. But if he’s correct, and the earthquake and the resurrection of the saints did happen, then the other gospels are seen to not have been eye-witnesses to the crucifixion.
For an earthquake strong enough to split rocks and open the great stone doors of the graves to not be noticed is totally implausible. If it happened, all the gospel writers would have recorded it because, as with the supernatural darkness as Jesus hung on the cross highlighted the significance of Jesus – that he wasn’t merely a criminal or an ordinary man – the same would apply to the earthquake. Because of the events surrounding it, it too, would have been seen as a supernatural event from heaven to show the divinity of Jesus. The gospel writers would not have missed this because it was literally an earth-shattering occurrence with huge physical effects. If they were eye-witnesses, they would have recorded it; if they were inspired by God to write their gospels, they would have recorded it.
But only Matthew records it – so he must have been telling a porky, and his gospel is therefore seen to be unreliable as a witness and as a truthful account.
But if not the earthquake, the resurrected saints wandering the streets of Jerusalem was certainly bizarre and astonishing enough for inclusion in the other gospels. Where has anything like this ever been mentioned anywhere in any cultural or historical narrative? It hasn’t (that I’m aware of). Where such a thing does occur, however, is in fictional horror movies.
So, Matthew’s gospel cannot be inspired Scripture; it can only be a human product.
An imaginative defence
However, there is an explanation for this problem; but while it sounds plausible, when examined, is more fanciful or wishful thinking than a solid explanation. This explanation is based around Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians, in which he writes: “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men” (Eph 4:8 KJV). The marginal KJV reading for “captivity” is “a multitude of captives”, which is closer to our modern and more accurate bible versions.
Paul’s quote is from Psalm 68:18, again using the KJV: “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them”. These “captives” were somehow at some time liberated from the captivity of death by Jesus, and he took them with him into heaven when he ascended.
Commenting on the twenty-four elders in heaven, Uriah Smith (p. 369-370) says: “These are some of those who came out of their graves at the resurrection of Christ, and who were numbered with the illustrious multitude which He led up from the captivity of Death’s dark domain when He ascended in triumph on high. Matthew records their resurrection, Paul their ascension, and John beholds them in heaven, performing the sacred duties which they were raised up to accomplish” (Rev 4:4). But this explanation has to be read into Matthew’s text; there is no direct connection between Matthew and these other passages.
Smith then goes on to quote John Wesley, who wrote, “This, and their golden crowns, show that they had already finished their course, and taken their places among the citizens of heaven. They are never termed souls, and hence it is probable that they had glorified bodies already. Compare Matthew xxvii. 52” (Smith, p. 370 – emphasis mine).
Unfortunately for the explanation and for those who promote it, there is still no direct connection to Matthew’s account of the resurrection of the saints at his death. It is a good theory, but that’s all it is.
I’m not saying that it isn’t true; I’m saying that there is no place in scripture which definitely associates Matthew 27:50-53 with Ephesians 4:8; there is nothing written. Paul wrote: “Nothing beyond what is written” (1 Cor 4:6). So, in the absence of anything written, we can’t accept this explanation, plausible though it is. “I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments” (Col 2:4).
So my observation still stands, that Matthew’s inclusion of the resurrected saints in his gospel shows that his gospel is a human product rather than an eye-witness testimony and, in this passage specifically, a work of fiction.