A question about resurection?

Question

I have often wondered how they missed this one. When Jesus was crucified, according to Matthew, many of the dead saints arose from their graves and went into the city and appeared unto many. This must have created quite a stir. Imagine Uncle Morti knocking at the door wanting to check how things are going at the bakery, or the guy next door wanting his farm back, after all he’s back. How is it that Josephus and the other contemporary historians missed this one, probably the most news worthy thing that happened in the history of the world. I guess they had more important things to write about. By the way not a word about Jesus coming back either. Perhaps Matthew was stretching the story just a wee bit?


Matthew Chapter 27

51 ¶ And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
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

Answer 1

The resurrection of Jesus Christ has such significance to God's plan of salvation for mankind that God made it a spectacular day, so to speak. The veil, which was 60 feet tall, 30 feet wide, and three inches thick, was torn from TOP to bottom by God Himself because Christ's victory over sin and death gave all who believe direct access to the Father...no more veil between mankind and God!

Also, the resurrection of saints (those who died having had faith in God and the Messiah) was almost a celebration, or display of God's power to make the dead alive again, and of the new life all can have because of what Jesus Christ did. Matthew gives a very brief account of the matter and that's it.

What we CAN know is that these all lived in their fleshly bodies and died at the end of their life. It would be interesting to hear all the details of how happy and surprised their families were, etc., etc.. However, Matthew did not detract from the MAIN event, which was the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the implications to all of mankind because of it.

We must be CAREFUL TO NOTE that these newly raised saints did not go to heaven. This would conflict with scripture all over the place. Scripture is clear that NO MAN has ascended to heaven but the Son:

"No man has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.” John 3:13

God's plan of salvation is foreshadowed in His holy days. The resurrections of mankind are likened to the harvests. There will be two (not including Jesus Christ who is the first fruits of the resurrection). The saints are raised to life in the first resurrection. The rest of the dead will be resurrected AFTER the millenium. But no one has been resurrected to heaven or anywhere else or the resurrections would be silly. All "sleep" until their particular resurrection.

The two resurrections are found in Revelation 20:4-5:

"And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection."

The first thing we notice is that those in the FIRST resurrection refused the mark of the beast, indicating that no one has been resurrected yet and won't be until after the great tribulation. These are seen upon thrones because they are the saints (believers in Christ) that while they lived in this first age prior to Christ's return, believed on Him and had faith in God. These will be raised to glorified bodies like Christ and be given immortality and incorruptibility at Christ's return, just as I Corinthians 15 describes:

"Behold, I show you a mystery; We (saints) shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be rasied incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."

This resurrection occurs simultaneously with the catching away (rapture) of those alive when Christ appears. (The pre-tribulation rapture theory is just that...an unscriptural theory that is not supported any where in scripture.) I Thessalonians 4:16-17:

"For the Lord himelf shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archagnel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

The rest of the dead are raised to FLESHLY bodies AFTER the millenial reign of Christ, just as Ezekiel 37:1-14 describes. These are those who did not have an opportunity or chance to hear the gospel in their lifetime, no matter how long or short. It is also for those who did not understand the gospel, or were "blinded" to the truth.

Billions will be raised to flesh and blood and many will believe and be saved. This is the Eighth Day of the Feast, or Great Last Day that is spoken of in Leviticus 23, Ezekiel 37:1-14, John 7:37-38, and Revelation 21:6.

One point to keep in mind in the comment Lazarus' sister made regarding his resurrection: “I know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.” (John 11:24) This tells us that Martha had been taught of the return of Jesus at the end of this age, and that Lazarus would NOT go to heaven, but "sleep" until that day.

So, the Matthew account was to testify to God's power, but it was not to be over-glorified and diminish the greatest event of all, which was the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and Savior of all who believe.

Matthew was a divinely appointed author and inspired writer chosen by God to write his account. Josephus was a secular historian who was not inspired of God. Because I have faith that God has preserved His Word down through the ages (human translational errors acknowledged) I know that this Matthew 27 event took place, with or without Josephus' documentation.

Answer 2

"For Josephus and many historians of the ancient world, the ability to write authoritatively was directly related to how close you were to matters at hand. Since Josephus was not a contemporary of Jesus or his ministry, his methods were such that he naturally would write less about people like Jesus or John the Baptist, and only what could be corroborated by inquiry in his own day, writing in the 90s AD."

Bodies of the saints which slept arose and were made alive and went into the city. This was a resurrection to a natural life only to die again because no man has ascended to heaven but Jesus Christ, John 3:13 tells us. No other mention or description is given of this account. We don't even know how many were brought back to life. But what we can get from the passage is the incredible power of God to raise death to life, which only He can do. That is the message. It was a small foretaste of the powerful events in the resurrections to come. Josephus not recording it does not negate Biblical authenticity of the account.

Answer 3

What is important is in the Bible. Think of all the thing we don't know about that happened all those years ago. The rest of 53 says "....and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many."
So there is your answer. It was in the part you left out. This happened to show that Jesus was really the Son of God. In verse of 54 is says " Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly saying, Truly this was the Son of God." Matthew was not stretching the truth. He wrote what happened.

Answer 4

Each gospel has a different take on the same events, but because each gosepel has a different author, what is significant about the details is in the eye of the author. Remember, the bible is God inspired, each gospel is written as God had intended. There is no stretching of facts, you either believe them or you don't, you either trust God or you don't. I have been in church when my pastor has focused on this time, and talked about the proof of what Jesus said was true, and this was one of many examples. Those things don't happen everyday, and hasn't happened since. Try re-reading each gospel to gain each authors focus on those events. The events are the same, but the direction in which each gospel comes from and goes forward to are all different. Hence, that one thing was skipped in the other gospels.

Answer 5

Epiphanius and other early Church Fathers taught that the holy ones literally came to life and went with the resurrected Jesus to heaven. Augustine, Theophylactus, and Zigabenus believed that these dead ones received a temporary resurrection but later returned to their tombs. The latter opinion, however, “did not gain wide recognition,” comments scholar Erich Fascher.
First, whoever “the holy ones” were, Matthew did not say they were raised up. He said their bodies, or corpses, were. Second, he did not say these bodies came to life. He said they were raised up, and the Greek verb e·gei′ro, meaning to “raise up,” does not always refer to a resurrection. It can, among other things, also mean to “lift out” from a pit or to “get up” from the ground. The upheaval at Jesus’ death opened tombs, tossing lifeless bodies into the open. Such occurrences during earthquakes were reported in the second century C.E. by Greek writer Aelius Aristides and more recently, in 1962, in Colombia.

Answer 6

God has not yet revealed to mankind everything because we are not ready for it so it is very likely that there are some more dead sea scrolls or some such thing hidden away and will eventually be found, confirmed as real, and people will discover that it tells about that day when people rose from the dead, matthew was chosen by Christ as his disciple, as a person responsible for teaching the rest of the world. i find it highly unlikely that such a man would lie about something so important,

Answer 7

Did you not write all of the verses there in this context? I don't see anything about any dead people walking around the city, also no mention of any Uncle Morti either. Oh yeah, there were three other people who recalled Jesus coming back form the dead too. Can I say, out of context?

Answer 8

I'd have to say that the reason you don't hear much in historical records is the same reason you don't hear much from the Jewish historical records about Jesus' resurrection. The Jewish leadership were trying to suppress the religious uprising of Jesus' followers. That's why they requested that the Romans place a guard around the tomb of Jesus.

Answer 9

Uhm. yeah. The whole resurrection thing... Not possible. You are correct, if people rose from the dead, there would be a LOT MORE WRITING ABOUT IT. But people pay more attention when you say folks are rising from the dead cuz of this jesus fella. Catch my drift?

Answer 10

for one thing, the Bible doesnt specify how widespread that was. i dont think we really have much of an idea how many people there were or how long they hung around. i would say that a lot of people brushed it off as some kind of bad dream vision thing, like people might do today just saying o that cant happen. we dont often easily accept or prefer to dwell on things we cant understand and explain.

Answer 11

This is the problem many people have when reading the bible.
The bibile is not meant to relay HISTORICAL truth, it is meant to relay RELIGIOUS truth. This event most likley did not happen. Its up to the reader to figure out what the message is. Personally i believe its saying that it was a wonderful event that happened, and hes using hyporoble (OVER eggazeration [sp]) to relay this.

The bible is NOT meant to be taken literally for no means.
Example: the bibile tells you to drink your own piss... but again its suppose 2 relay a message
the bible also tells you to cut off the parts of your body that sin. again.. its not meant to be taken literally.. its transmitting a message.