Matthew 27:50-53 resurrection

Were these saints resurrected with glorified bodies or like Lazarus?

Great question! I would add: who were these saints; the OT saints?

I certainly don't have answers for you; but am waiting with you as well!

 

We know that from 1 Cor. 15 that the Lord Jesus Christ has preminance in resurrection. Hence the scripture carefully tells us that these saints came out of the graves "after his resurrection"

We know that Enoch and Elijah were both translated or changed and taken up into heaven. They of course are pictures of the saints who will be alive at the coming of Christ.

When I read Matt. 27 it reminds me of the awsome power of God. The Lord Jesus gave that loud triumphant cry "finished" - the veil was rent, an earthquake and the graves were opened.

These graves would remain open for the time which the Lord Jesus was buried. But God raised him from the dead! And after his resurrection, many bodies of the saints arose and came out of the graves, went into the city and appeared to many.

One view I have enjoyed is the picture we have of the Lord Jesus Christ as the "wave sheaf" offering as found in Lev. 23. 10-12 and also the words of Christ "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringth forth much fruit" John 12:24

If we consider the offering of old, we have the picture of the single kernal of corn in death and yet plural in resurrection. The sheaf was offered unto the Lord and was representative of a large field of corn yet to be harvested. In picture we see the Lord Jesus die upon the cross, buried and on the third day he arose from the dead. After his resurrection we see others who have been raised because of his death, buriel and resurrection.

Were these saints given bodies like unto his glorious body? Or did they simply return to the graves? I don't know. My personal opinion is that they were given changed bodies and that they ascended with Christ into heaven as "the wave sheaf" or sample of those yet to come.

One thing we know for sure is "that Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming" 1 Cor. 15:23

 

We know that from 1 Cor. 15 that the Lord Jesus Christ has preminance in resurrection. Hence the scripture carefully tells us that these saints came out of the graves "after his resurrection"

We know that Enoch and Elijah were both translated or changed and taken up into heaven. They of course are pictures of the saints who will be alive at the coming of Christ.

When I read Matt. 27 it reminds me of the awesome power of God. The Lord Jesus gave that loud triumphant cry "finished" - the veil was rent, an earthquake and the graves were opened.

These graves would remain open for the time which the Lord Jesus was buried. But God raised him from the dead! And after his resurrection, many bodies of the saints arose and came out of the graves, went into the city and appeared to many.

One view I have enjoyed is the picture we have of the Lord Jesus Christ as the "wave sheaf" offering as found in Lev. 23. 10-12 and also the words of Christ "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringth forth much fruit" John 12:24

If we consider the offering of old, we have the picture of the single kernal of corn in death and yet plural in resurrection. The sheaf was offered unto the Lord and was representative of a large field of corn yet to be harvested. In picture we see the Lord Jesus die upon the cross, buried and on the third day he arose from the dead. After his resurrection we see others who have been raised because of his death, buriel and resurrection.

Were these saints given bodies like unto his glorious body? Or did they simply return to the graves? I don't know. My personal opinion is that they were given changed bodies and that they ascended with Christ into heaven as "the wave sheaf" or sample of those yet to come.

One thing we know for sure is "that Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming" 1 Cor. 15:23

 

I know this is speculation because there is really nothing in scripture to say who they were. Personally I don't think they were O.T. saints for this reason they appeared unto many. The many that the appeared to surely would have been people they had known while alive. If not how would they have known who they were? Then again what would set them apart from the other living even though being resurrected from the dead? Would they have introduced themselves saying I am so and so how would other have known them? Would they be as Moses and Elijah during the tranfiguration? I've seen it written by other writters that one of those was Job and according it was the last days of the Jewish dispensation of time. The Law Dispensation of time was on its way out being fulfilled in Jesus Christ and the Grace Dispensation was on its way in. For the next almost forty years the Gospel of the Grace of God would go forth unto the world at that time like no other time before it and spread out to the then known world... Both Jew and Gentile by the Apostles of Jesus Christ!... Brother Glen

[ August 31, 2002, 12:28 PM: Message edited by: tyndale1946 ]

 

Hank D I thought maybe you would enjoy the interpretation on some of your scriptures from John Gill from Matthew 27:52-53... Ver. 52. And the graves were opened,.... Which were near the city of Jerusalem: this was a proof of Christ's power over death and the grave, by dying; when he through death, destroyed him that had the power of it, and abolished death itself; and became the plague of death and the destruction of the grave, taking into his hands the keys of hell and death:

and many bodies of saints which slept, arose: not that they arose at the time of Christ's death: the graves were opened then, when the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent; but the bodies of the saints did not arise, till after Christ was risen, as appears from the following verse; but because the other event now happened, they are both recorded here: these were saints, and such as slept in Jesus; and of whom he is the first fruits that now rose; and not all, but many of them, as pledges of the future resurrection, and for the confirmation of Christ's, and the accomplishment of a prophecy in
Isa 26:19. And they rose in the same bodies in which they before lived, otherwise they could not be called their bodies, or known by those to whom they appeared: but who they were is not to be known; some have thought them to be the ancient patriarchs, as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, &c. In the Septuagint on Job 42:17, Job is said to be one of them, and a tradition is there recorded, which runs thus:

"it is written, that he rose with whom the Lord rose.''

But it should seem rather, that they were some later saints, such as Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, John the Baptist himself, good old Simeon, Joseph the husband of Mary, and others, well known to persons now alive. Some think they were such, as had been martyrs in the cause of religion; and so the Persic version renders the words, "and the bodies of many saints who suffered martyrdom, rose out of the graves".

Matthew 27:53

Ver. 53. And came out of the graves after his resurrection,.... The resurrection of Christ; for he rose as the first fruits, as the first begotten of the dead, and the firstborn from the dead; for he was the first that was raised to an immortal life; for though others were raised before him, by himself, and in the times of the prophets, yet to a mortal life; but these saints came forth to the resurrection of life, and therefore it was necessary that Christ the first fruits, should rise first. The Arabic version indeed reads, "after their own resurrection"; and the Ethiopic version, "after they were raised"; both wrong, and scarcely sense:

and went into the holy city; the city of Jerusalem, which though now a very wicked city, was so called, because of the temple, and the worship of God, and his residence in it: the burying places of the Jews were without the city {a}, and therefore these risen saints, are said to go into it:

and appeared unto many; of their friends and acquaintance, who had personally known them, and conversed with them in their lifetime. These saints, I apprehend, continued on earth until our Lord's ascension, and then joining the retinue of angels, went triumphantly with him to heaven, as trophies of his victory over sin, Satan, death, and the grave.

{a} Vid. Gloss. in T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 80. 2. & Maimon. Hilch. Shemitta veyobel, c. 13. sect. 3.
... Brother Glen