Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Matthew 27:51-53

"And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent; and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised; and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many." — Matthew 27:51-53 (ASV)

(51a) On the tearing of the temple veil, see comment on Mk 15:38. In accordance with Matthew’s fulfillment themes (cf. comments on 5:17–20; 11:11–13), the tearing of the veil signifies the obsolescence of the temple ritual and the law governing it (cf. Hebrews 9:1–14). Jesus himself is the New Temple, the meeting place of God and humankind (see comment on Jn 2:19–21); the old is obsolete. At the same time, the rent veil serves as a sign of the temple’s impending destruction—a destruction conceived not as a brute fact but as a theological necessity.

(51b–53) Matthew implies that the earthquake (v.51b), itself a symbol of judgment and theophanic glory, was the means of tearing the veil as well as opening the tombs.

But the resurrection of the “holy people” (GK 41) remains difficult to understand. Perhaps the best explanation is to see a full stop after “broke open,” so that the words that follow form a parenthesis in the flow of the narrative. The resurrection of “the holy people” then begins a new sentence that is linked only with Jesus’ resurrection. Matthew does not intend his readers to think that these people were resurrected when Jesus died and then waited in their tombs till Easter Sunday before showing themselves. Instead, they were raised to life at the same time Jesus was. The language implies that these saints were certain wellknown OT and intertestamental Jewish spiritual heroes and martyrs. If so, then Matthew is telling us that the resurrection of people who lived before Jesus Messiah is as dependent on Jesus’ triumph as the resurrection of those who come after him.