Matthew 27:52-53:
And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
Notes on Matthew 27:52-53:
“Slept” is a Bible idiom for “were dead” – this does not refer to a bunch of people who just liked to sleep in graveyards because Matthew says explicitly that the graves were opened.
Punctuation was absent from the original Greek; it was added by the translators. I think it is safe to say that the verses would be better broken up as follows:
And the graves were opened;
And many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
As it would not make sense for the saints to hang out in the cemetery for 3 days before going elsewhere, it seems obvious that the graves were opened when Christ was on the cross, but the saints did not come back to life and come out of those opened graves until Christ’s resurrection. Because there was an earthquake, perhaps that earthquake opened the graves. It wouldn’t be the last time that an earthquake targeted specific things; the earthquake in Acts 16:26 broke the prisoners’ chains.
Also, the new birth was not available until Jesus rose from the dead because He had to be the firstborn of many brethren (Romans 8:29). It would not much sense for these people to be raised until the new birth was available.
Matthew is the only one who recorded this incident, but that doesn’t make it any less true. (Either you believe the Bible or you don’t.)
Did these resurrected saints die again or did they rise at some point with their permanent resurrected bodies? Nothing is mentioned about what ended up happening to these people, so any speculation is just that – speculation. Beware of filling in the blanks where the Bible leaves blanks. I would lean toward them dying again, as there is no indication that anyone will get a new body like Jesus’ current resurrected body until He returns. But I can’t be dogmatic about that issue because the Bible is silent on it.
See also: