Matt 27.52-53

The Raising of the Saints in Matthew 27: 52-53

Matthew 27:52-53, which seems to describe the raising of the saints immediately after the death of Jesus on the cross and their entry into the holy city after his resurrection, has long been recognized as one of the most puzzling and difficult passages in the New Testament and certainly the most perplexing in the Gospel of Matthew. It has been deservedly called a crux interpretum in the Gospel of Matthew. However, I would like to assist those who are investigating this text by calling attention to my article entitled MATTHEW 27:52-53 AS APOCALYPTIC APOSTROPHE: TEMPORAL-SPATIAL COLLAPSE IN THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW which appears in the JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE 122/3 (Fall 2003): 489-515. In this article I argue that when Matthew speaks about the raising of the saints and their entry into the holy city he is not talking about an event of the past. He is talking about an event that is still future. He is speaking of the same event that occurs in the Book of Revelation 21:2-27 and context where once again we see the entry of risen saints into the holy city. Therefore this passage is not a historical report, but a piece of apocalyptic prophecy such as we find in the Book of Revelation and other end-time literature. Matthew practices something called temporal-conflation, temporal-folding, or temporal-collapse. He takes an event of the apocalyptic future and pulls it back into the past in order to create a flash-forward effect in his narrative. Matthew 27:52-53 is best understood as a flash forward to the apocalyptic future. Those who are interested in how this approach solves the many problems of Matthew 27:52-53 might want to spend some time with this article.

Kenneth L. Waters, Sr.