And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
At the moment Jesus yielded His life an earthquake opened the graves, and after His resurrection many sleeping saints arose in glorified form and went into the holy city and appeared to many. They were holy and faithful ones from every age whom Christ as Lifegiver summoned from the tombs by His own power and voice, leading them forth as His trophies and captives rescued from death, hell and Satan. Unlike those He had raised during His ministry who were still subject to death, these were raised to everlasting life and immortality never more to see death or sorrow. Before ascending they declared in Jerusalem that Christ had risen and that they had risen with Him, making the evidence of His resurrection doubly sure as a public testimony the priests could not silence by bribery. Their resurrection stands as the sign, pledge and foretaste of the final resurrection, when at Christ's second coming all the righteous dead from Abel to the last saint will be called forth to glorious immortal life.
Surroundings of Christ's Death
The graves were opened by the earthquake at the moment Jesus cried with a loud voice and yielded up His life, after the darkness and mocking at the cross, when the temple veil was rent from top to bottom, the earth quaked and the rocks rent. Many bodies of the sleeping saints arose, and coming out of the graves after His resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many as a testimony that Christ had risen and had called them from the grave by His power.
The opening belongs to a sequence of terror in which supernatural darkness covered the earth for three hours, then after the cry from the cross darkness again settled with a hoarse rumbling like heavy thunder and a violent trembling of the earth. The quaking shook the multitude together in heaps and brought wild confusion, consternation and terror, leaving them paralyzed and gazing with bated breath. In the surrounding mountains rocks burst asunder with loud crashing and many tumbled down crashing into the plains below, sepulchers were broken open and the dead were cast out of their tombs, as if creation were shivering to atoms and breaking apart. Priests, rulers, soldiers, executioners, spectators and people were left mute with terror and prostrate on the ground, while the heavenly host was present.
The earthquake that opened the graves marked the hour when Christ laid down His life, and it is distinct from another later earthquake that signaled the moment when He took up His life again in triumph. It happened publicly at Passover when Jews from all countries were assembled at Jerusalem and thousands came to behold Jesus on the cross at Calvary. Even the graves of Israel's prophets and judges were torn open, while the heavens, the earth, the rocks and the very atmosphere declared that the Son of God was dying. Together with the tearing of the veil, the opened graves were directed by God's almighty hand so that multitudes would search the Scriptures as never before and would never forget what they saw, awakening attention to the plan of redemption and making His trial, condemnation, crucifixion and resurrection matters of deepest interest, with the Old Testament searched for evidence of the work and character of the Messiah.
The verse belongs to the history of professedly pious Jews told in Matthew 27 and 28 and is to be read together with the whole of Matthew 28 containing Christ's commission to His disciples. It belongs to the scenes at the Saviour's death, together with the malignity and hostility of the priests, the rage of the people, the convulsions of nature and the supernatural darkness. These events struck such terror to the Romans that soon after the crucifixion the use of the cross in Judea was discontinued. One treatment places it among the signs at the cross, showing by earthquake and other events that the Son of God had died, without explaining the opened graves or the saints who arose.
The rent rocks, convulsed earth, mighty earthquake bursting open many graves, heaving earth, splitting rocks and commotion of all nature expressed sympathy with her dying Author and protested the murder of the Son of God. This came at the moment when the powers of hell seemed to prevail, yet Christ was conqueror over the power of darkness. In solemn display it marked God's justice and holiness in Christ's sacrifice for the world. As the innocent surety He bore the strokes due to sinners, and nature witnessed through earthquake, rent rocks and darkness that the Son of God had died and yielded up the life of the world's Redeemer.
The shaking earth, rending rocks, darkness and final cry troubled His enemies and made His murderers tremble. The disciples were left wondering, fearful and grieving, their hopes that Jesus would reign as a temporal prince dying with Him, and even His mother's faith wavered. Conflicting reports of the strange fearful events at Calvary reached Pilate even while the fact that Jesus was dead was kept from him. The centurion in command at the cross saw these scenes and afterward recounted them to Pilate, corroborating that Jesus truly died at the very moment the mysterious darkness over the earth passed away, proving Jesus was no ordinary man.
Identity of Risen Saints
Those raised were many sleeping saints, holy and righteous, chosen and faithful and loyal. They were faithful workers for God who had died bearing witness to the truth, who at the cost of their lives had borne unflinching testimony for truth and magnified Him, who had served God and risked their lives for the truth. They appeared to many, to their believing relatives, and testified to them.
They came from every age from creation to Christ's time, and they came forth glorified. They are described as a company and a multitude and many, and also as few, with a few graves opened. Only some who believed were raised then, as a specimen of what will be in a partial resurrection after Christ's resurrection, some sleeping saints arising when Christ led them captive.
To identify these resurrected saints as the 144,000 was an incorrect interpretation and a wrong identification.
Christ's Victory Over Death
They were summoned from their tombs by Christ Himself as Lifegiver, by His own power and at His command, for the voice from the cross declaring the work finished reached the dead and called them to life. That calling forth of many holy people when He rose demonstrated His power to call death's captives from the grave and stood as proof of His victory over death and the grave. The graves had been opened when He died, and the righteous dead came out when He rose, coming forth glorified to testify that His sacrifice for humanity was complete and that they had risen with Him. At His resurrection a few graves were opened and sleeping saints arose, and the same power that raised Christ will raise and glorify His church at His second coming when His voice reaches the graves and all the precious dead in Christ rise to immortal life.
Unlike the son of the widow of Nain and the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus, whom Jesus raised during His ministry still subject to death and decay, these saints were redeemed from Satan and raised in glorified resurrected forms to everlasting life and immortality never more to see death or sorrow. They were a few chosen, holy people who had lived from creation through Christ's time, coming forth glorified as witnesses to declare His glory. Their resurrection was God's testimony that could not be concealed, displaying Christ's victory over death and illustrating the prophecy that the dead will live and the earth will give them up.
Their raising shows Christ as the first-fruits of those who slept, who tasted death for every man yet did not long remain under the enemy's power but came forth from the tomb a triumphant conqueror leading forth from their graves a multitude of captives. They are His trophies over death and the grave and over Satan and the powers of hell, brought out as a company of the sleeping dead as a sample and assurance of the final resurrection. By this triumph the long-disputed question whether the dead can rise was settled forever.
When Jesus rose He opened the graves and brought up the multitude with Him, testifying to this world and to all creation that He has power over death and rescues the captives of death. At His ascension He led them upward as a multitude of captives following Him to the celestial courts, where they joined the heavenly host escorting Him with songs of joy and triumph to the portals of the city of God. There the escorting angels called for the gates and everlasting doors to lift up for the King of Glory, the waiting angels asked who the King of Glory is, the escorting angels answered that He is the Lord strong and mighty in battle and the Lord of hosts, and the portals were widely opened for the heavenly train to pass in amid angelic music as Christ took His position upon the throne of the Father. Only some who believed were raised then, as a specimen of what will be, to show that death and the grave will not hold their captives.
He took those raised saints to heaven with Him as trophies and presented them before the Father to the heavenly universe and the worlds God created as samples, symbols, representatives and examples of the redeemed. They were captives rescued from death's prison and led in triumph to His kingdom, receiving immortal crowns and a place with Him, representing those who will be redeemed from every nation and raised from their graves at His second coming. Their rising anticipates the resurrection of all who sleep in Jesus, when the Son of Man's voice calls the dead from their graves, and the same power will raise and glorify His church with Christ above all principalities and powers. Their raising rests on Christ's death, by which He brought Satan under the dominion of death and brought immortality to light, and it foreshadows His coming again with power and great glory when He will open the prison house of the graves and bring the dead forth to glorious immortality.
Witness That Christ Rose
Before ascending they entered Jerusalem and appeared to many, declaring that Christ had risen and that they themselves had risen with Him by His power when He called them from the grave. Their words, We be risen with Him, joined their resurrection to His, testifying that His sacrifice for humanity was complete and bearing witness through their lives to the power of the risen Saviour. They came forth in glorified resurrected forms as trophies of His victory over death and the grave, unlike those He had raised during His ministry who remained subject to death, for these were raised to everlasting life.
Their appearance made the evidence of His resurrection doubly sure and certain. Their resurrection was God's public testimony and public witness to His victory over death that could not be concealed, standing with the soldiers' testimony as witness the priests and elders could not silence by bribery and lying reports about a stolen body. That strong testimony spread from city to city and from town to town, providing many witnesses and leaving priests and rulers in continual dread day and night of coming face to face with Christ.
Reports from persons who saw the risen ones and spoke with them and heard their testimony reached the priests and rulers, confirming the resurrection. Those reports exposed as false the claim that the disciples had taken His body by night, defeating the lie put into the mouths of the Roman guard to conceal Christ's resurrection. They established Christ's claim as the divine Son of God and helped plant that truth in willing minds, so that the bribed false report of the guard had little effect and from that time men believed the crucified One was the Son of God.
The Roman guards at the tomb saw this resurrection of the multitude with Christ's own resurrection, fainted and became as dead men under the sight, then went into the city and bore truthful testimony to the chief priests and rulers of what they had seen before they were bribed. The strong testimony convinced Pilate, who trembled and believed, and his peace left him forever. He knew he was guilty not of the blood of a merely common innocent man but of the blood of the Son of God, whom he had delivered to die for worldly honor and for fear of losing his authority and his life, and he lived on in despair and anguish crushing every hopeful joyful feeling, refusing to be comforted, to a most miserable death, while the Jews, afraid for their lives, concealed the hatred they cherished toward the disciples and their only hope was to spread a lying report which those who wished the lie to be true believed.
Pledge of Final Resurrection
The rising of the saints is a sign and pledge and sample and assurance of the final resurrection of all the righteous dead, displaying Christ's victory and power over death and the grave and pointing forward to the resurrection to come. It gives believers light and assurance concerning the future life of those who sleep in Jesus, for it shows that His death has power over death. Unlike those He had raised during His ministry who remained subject to death, these were raised to everlasting life as trophies of His victory.
It was a foretaste and preview, a vivid preview, of the general resurrection of the just at Christ's second coming. At that time all the faithful dead, from Abel to the last saint who dies, will awaken to glorious immortal life. Their rising thus illustrates the prophecy that the dead shall live and the earth shall give them up.
As the voice declaring the work finished reached the dead and summoned them from their tombs, so at the last resurrection God's voice will penetrate and open the graves and Christ will call the righteous dead to immortal life. The voice from the cross summoned the dead to arise, and at Christ's second coming His voice will reach the graves and all the precious dead in Christ will rise. When the Son of Man's voice calls the dead forth, the same power that raised Christ will raise and glorify His church, anticipating the resurrection of all who sleep in Jesus.
Their raising rests on Christ's death, by which He brought Satan under the dominion of death and brought immortality to light, to show that death and the grave will not hold their captives. It foreshadows His coming again with power and great glory, when He will open the prison house of the graves and bring the dead forth to glorious immortality. Only some who believed were raised then, as a specimen of what will be, and at God's trumpet all who have fallen asleep in Jesus will be raised to glorious immortality, ascend to God's city, and see the King in His beauty.
Those raised represent those who will come out of their graves after the time of trouble to come upon the world. They represent those who died faithful to the third angel's message and kept the Sabbath, who will rise glorified to hear God's covenant of peace with those who kept His law. As captives rescued from death and presented before the Father, they represent those who will be redeemed from every nation, receive immortal crowns, and be freed from the grave and restored to life at His second coming. The same scene is connected with Jesus' return, when graves open and saints come forth clothed with immortality proclaiming victory over death and the grave, joining the living saints who are changed in a moment, and together they are caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
At the moment Jesus yielded His life an earthquake opened the graves, and after His resurrection many sleeping saints arose in glorified form and went into the holy city and appeared to many. They were holy and faithful ones from every age whom Christ as Lifegiver summoned from the tombs by His own power and voice, leading them forth as His trophies and captives rescued from death, hell and Satan. Unlike those He had raised during His ministry who were still subject to death, these were raised to everlasting life and immortality never more to see death or sorrow. Before ascending they declared in Jerusalem that Christ had risen and that they had risen with Him, making the evidence of His resurrection doubly sure as a public testimony the priests could not silence by bribery. Their resurrection stands as the sign, pledge and foretaste of the final resurrection, when at Christ's second coming all the righteous dead from Abel to the last saint will be called forth to glorious immortal life.
Surroundings of Christ's Death
The graves were opened by the earthquake at the moment Jesus cried with a loud voice and yielded up His life, after the darkness and mocking at the cross, when the temple veil was rent from top to bottom, the earth quaked and the rocks rent. Many bodies of the sleeping saints arose, and coming out of the graves after His resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many as a testimony that Christ had risen and had called them from the grave by His power.
The opening belongs to a sequence of terror in which supernatural darkness covered the earth for three hours, then after the cry from the cross darkness again settled with a hoarse rumbling like heavy thunder and a violent trembling of the earth. The quaking shook the multitude together in heaps and brought wild confusion, consternation and terror, leaving them paralyzed and gazing with bated breath. In the surrounding mountains rocks burst asunder with loud crashing and many tumbled down crashing into the plains below, sepulchers were broken open and the dead were cast out of their tombs, as if creation were shivering to atoms and breaking apart. Priests, rulers, soldiers, executioners, spectators and people were left mute with terror and prostrate on the ground, while the heavenly host was present.
The earthquake that opened the graves marked the hour when Christ laid down His life, and it is distinct from another later earthquake that signaled the moment when He took up His life again in triumph. It happened publicly at Passover when Jews from all countries were assembled at Jerusalem and thousands came to behold Jesus on the cross at Calvary. Even the graves of Israel's prophets and judges were torn open, while the heavens, the earth, the rocks and the very atmosphere declared that the Son of God was dying. Together with the tearing of the veil, the opened graves were directed by God's almighty hand so that multitudes would search the Scriptures as never before and would never forget what they saw, awakening attention to the plan of redemption and making His trial, condemnation, crucifixion and resurrection matters of deepest interest, with the Old Testament searched for evidence of the work and character of the Messiah.
The verse belongs to the history of professedly pious Jews told in Matthew 27 and 28 and is to be read together with the whole of Matthew 28 containing Christ's commission to His disciples. It belongs to the scenes at the Saviour's death, together with the malignity and hostility of the priests, the rage of the people, the convulsions of nature and the supernatural darkness. These events struck such terror to the Romans that soon after the crucifixion the use of the cross in Judea was discontinued. One treatment places it among the signs at the cross, showing by earthquake and other events that the Son of God had died, without explaining the opened graves or the saints who arose.
The rent rocks, convulsed earth, mighty earthquake bursting open many graves, heaving earth, splitting rocks and commotion of all nature expressed sympathy with her dying Author and protested the murder of the Son of God. This came at the moment when the powers of hell seemed to prevail, yet Christ was conqueror over the power of darkness. In solemn display it marked God's justice and holiness in Christ's sacrifice for the world. As the innocent surety He bore the strokes due to sinners, and nature witnessed through earthquake, rent rocks and darkness that the Son of God had died and yielded up the life of the world's Redeemer.
The shaking earth, rending rocks, darkness and final cry troubled His enemies and made His murderers tremble. The disciples were left wondering, fearful and grieving, their hopes that Jesus would reign as a temporal prince dying with Him, and even His mother's faith wavered. Conflicting reports of the strange fearful events at Calvary reached Pilate even while the fact that Jesus was dead was kept from him. The centurion in command at the cross saw these scenes and afterward recounted them to Pilate, corroborating that Jesus truly died at the very moment the mysterious darkness over the earth passed away, proving Jesus was no ordinary man.
Identity of Risen Saints
Those raised were many sleeping saints, holy and righteous, chosen and faithful and loyal. They were faithful workers for God who had died bearing witness to the truth, who at the cost of their lives had borne unflinching testimony for truth and magnified Him, who had served God and risked their lives for the truth. They appeared to many, to their believing relatives, and testified to them.
They came from every age from creation to Christ's time, and they came forth glorified. They are described as a company and a multitude and many, and also as few, with a few graves opened. Only some who believed were raised then, as a specimen of what will be in a partial resurrection after Christ's resurrection, some sleeping saints arising when Christ led them captive.
To identify these resurrected saints as the 144,000 was an incorrect interpretation and a wrong identification.
Christ's Victory Over Death
They were summoned from their tombs by Christ Himself as Lifegiver, by His own power and at His command, for the voice from the cross declaring the work finished reached the dead and called them to life. That calling forth of many holy people when He rose demonstrated His power to call death's captives from the grave and stood as proof of His victory over death and the grave. The graves had been opened when He died, and the righteous dead came out when He rose, coming forth glorified to testify that His sacrifice for humanity was complete and that they had risen with Him. At His resurrection a few graves were opened and sleeping saints arose, and the same power that raised Christ will raise and glorify His church at His second coming when His voice reaches the graves and all the precious dead in Christ rise to immortal life.
Unlike the son of the widow of Nain and the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus, whom Jesus raised during His ministry still subject to death and decay, these saints were redeemed from Satan and raised in glorified resurrected forms to everlasting life and immortality never more to see death or sorrow. They were a few chosen, holy people who had lived from creation through Christ's time, coming forth glorified as witnesses to declare His glory. Their resurrection was God's testimony that could not be concealed, displaying Christ's victory over death and illustrating the prophecy that the dead will live and the earth will give them up.
Their raising shows Christ as the first-fruits of those who slept, who tasted death for every man yet did not long remain under the enemy's power but came forth from the tomb a triumphant conqueror leading forth from their graves a multitude of captives. They are His trophies over death and the grave and over Satan and the powers of hell, brought out as a company of the sleeping dead as a sample and assurance of the final resurrection. By this triumph the long-disputed question whether the dead can rise was settled forever.
When Jesus rose He opened the graves and brought up the multitude with Him, testifying to this world and to all creation that He has power over death and rescues the captives of death. At His ascension He led them upward as a multitude of captives following Him to the celestial courts, where they joined the heavenly host escorting Him with songs of joy and triumph to the portals of the city of God. There the escorting angels called for the gates and everlasting doors to lift up for the King of Glory, the waiting angels asked who the King of Glory is, the escorting angels answered that He is the Lord strong and mighty in battle and the Lord of hosts, and the portals were widely opened for the heavenly train to pass in amid angelic music as Christ took His position upon the throne of the Father. Only some who believed were raised then, as a specimen of what will be, to show that death and the grave will not hold their captives.
He took those raised saints to heaven with Him as trophies and presented them before the Father to the heavenly universe and the worlds God created as samples, symbols, representatives and examples of the redeemed. They were captives rescued from death's prison and led in triumph to His kingdom, receiving immortal crowns and a place with Him, representing those who will be redeemed from every nation and raised from their graves at His second coming. Their rising anticipates the resurrection of all who sleep in Jesus, when the Son of Man's voice calls the dead from their graves, and the same power will raise and glorify His church with Christ above all principalities and powers. Their raising rests on Christ's death, by which He brought Satan under the dominion of death and brought immortality to light, and it foreshadows His coming again with power and great glory when He will open the prison house of the graves and bring the dead forth to glorious immortality.
Witness That Christ Rose
Before ascending they entered Jerusalem and appeared to many, declaring that Christ had risen and that they themselves had risen with Him by His power when He called them from the grave. Their words, We be risen with Him, joined their resurrection to His, testifying that His sacrifice for humanity was complete and bearing witness through their lives to the power of the risen Saviour. They came forth in glorified resurrected forms as trophies of His victory over death and the grave, unlike those He had raised during His ministry who remained subject to death, for these were raised to everlasting life.
Their appearance made the evidence of His resurrection doubly sure and certain. Their resurrection was God's public testimony and public witness to His victory over death that could not be concealed, standing with the soldiers' testimony as witness the priests and elders could not silence by bribery and lying reports about a stolen body. That strong testimony spread from city to city and from town to town, providing many witnesses and leaving priests and rulers in continual dread day and night of coming face to face with Christ.
Reports from persons who saw the risen ones and spoke with them and heard their testimony reached the priests and rulers, confirming the resurrection. Those reports exposed as false the claim that the disciples had taken His body by night, defeating the lie put into the mouths of the Roman guard to conceal Christ's resurrection. They established Christ's claim as the divine Son of God and helped plant that truth in willing minds, so that the bribed false report of the guard had little effect and from that time men believed the crucified One was the Son of God.
The Roman guards at the tomb saw this resurrection of the multitude with Christ's own resurrection, fainted and became as dead men under the sight, then went into the city and bore truthful testimony to the chief priests and rulers of what they had seen before they were bribed. The strong testimony convinced Pilate, who trembled and believed, and his peace left him forever. He knew he was guilty not of the blood of a merely common innocent man but of the blood of the Son of God, whom he had delivered to die for worldly honor and for fear of losing his authority and his life, and he lived on in despair and anguish crushing every hopeful joyful feeling, refusing to be comforted, to a most miserable death, while the Jews, afraid for their lives, concealed the hatred they cherished toward the disciples and their only hope was to spread a lying report which those who wished the lie to be true believed.
Pledge of Final Resurrection
The rising of the saints is a sign and pledge and sample and assurance of the final resurrection of all the righteous dead, displaying Christ's victory and power over death and the grave and pointing forward to the resurrection to come. It gives believers light and assurance concerning the future life of those who sleep in Jesus, for it shows that His death has power over death. Unlike those He had raised during His ministry who remained subject to death, these were raised to everlasting life as trophies of His victory.
It was a foretaste and preview, a vivid preview, of the general resurrection of the just at Christ's second coming. At that time all the faithful dead, from Abel to the last saint who dies, will awaken to glorious immortal life. Their rising thus illustrates the prophecy that the dead shall live and the earth shall give them up.
As the voice declaring the work finished reached the dead and summoned them from their tombs, so at the last resurrection God's voice will penetrate and open the graves and Christ will call the righteous dead to immortal life. The voice from the cross summoned the dead to arise, and at Christ's second coming His voice will reach the graves and all the precious dead in Christ will rise. When the Son of Man's voice calls the dead forth, the same power that raised Christ will raise and glorify His church, anticipating the resurrection of all who sleep in Jesus.
Their raising rests on Christ's death, by which He brought Satan under the dominion of death and brought immortality to light, to show that death and the grave will not hold their captives. It foreshadows His coming again with power and great glory, when He will open the prison house of the graves and bring the dead forth to glorious immortality. Only some who believed were raised then, as a specimen of what will be, and at God's trumpet all who have fallen asleep in Jesus will be raised to glorious immortality, ascend to God's city, and see the King in His beauty.
Those raised represent those who will come out of their graves after the time of trouble to come upon the world. They represent those who died faithful to the third angel's message and kept the Sabbath, who will rise glorified to hear God's covenant of peace with those who kept His law. As captives rescued from death and presented before the Father, they represent those who will be redeemed from every nation, receive immortal crowns, and be freed from the grave and restored to life at His second coming. The same scene is connected with Jesus' return, when graves open and saints come forth clothed with immortality proclaiming victory over death and the grave, joining the living saints who are changed in a moment, and together they are caught up to meet the Lord in the air.