Matthew 27:52

The original Koine Greek, according to Westcott and Hort, reads:[1]

καὶ τὰ μνημεῖα ἀνεῴχθησαν καὶ πολλὰ σώματα τῶν κεκοιμημένων ἁγίων ἠγέρθησαν,

In the King James Version of the Bible, it is translated as:

And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

The modern World English Bible translates the passage as:

The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.[lower-alpha 1]

The raising of holy people who had died points to 'the resurrection of the last days' (Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2) which starts with Jesus' resurrection.[2] It is only reported in Matthew, tied to the tearing of the temple curtain as the result of the earthquake noted in verse 51.[3] The temple area is located on a geological fault, and the tremors from time to time cause damage to the buildings until the modern times.[3][4]

Johann Bengel suggests that the "saints" or "holy people" were "those who had died either a long while before the birth of Christ, or not much after".[5]

There is no parallel record to this event in other gospels or contemporary documents, and the account in Matthew does not have enough detail, for example, no explanation is given for the delay between the opening of the tombs on the day of Jesus' death and the appearance of raised holy people in Jerusalem after Jesus' resurrection, so the story is mainly taken for its fairly clear symbolism.[2][6] The words of Matthew recalls the text of Ezekiel 37:13, "when I open your graves and bring you up out of your graves, my people", and 'the earthquake-like imagery' in Ezekiel 37:7.[7] Nonetheless, these signs were surely known by many, that Paul could say to King Agrippa, "this thing was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26).[8]

• France, R. T. (1994). "Matthew". In Carson, D. A.; France, R. T.; Motyer, J. A.; Wenham, G. J. (eds.). New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition (4, illustrated, reprint, revised ed.). Inter-Varsity Press. pp. 904–945. ISBN 9780851106489.
• France, R.T. (2007). Bruce, Frederick Fyvie (ed.). The Gospel of Matthew. New international commentary on the New Testament. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 9780802825018.