John Bengel Commentary - Matthew 27:53 - 27:53

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John Bengel Commentary - Matthew 27:53 - 27:53


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Mat 27:53. Ἐξελθόντες, having come out) i.e. the saints whose bodies had been resuscitated, in stately procession.-μετὰ τὴν ἔγερσιν Αὐτοῦ, after His resurrection) This clause refers to the verb ἠγέρθη, were raised, to which the verbal noun ἔγερσις (the act of being raised), which does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament, is fitted in this passage; and yet this same clause is placed between the egress of the saints from the tombs, and their ingress into the city. This intermingling of the words admirably corresponds with the facts. Immediately on our Lord’s death, the veil was rent in twain, the earth shook, the rocks were rent; and St Matthew has woven together the other circumstances with these prodigies. From which we are able to gather that there was one continual earthquake from the death to the resurrection of our Lord, which first aroused the living (Mat 27:54), and afterwards the dead. There cannot be assigned any noticeable interval between the resurrection of the bodies of the saints, and their coming forth from the tomb. The first who rose from the dead to die no more was Christ; he had however companions. After His resurrection, that of the saints also took place; but it is recorded that their egress from the tombs, and their ingress into the Holy City, occurred after His resurrection; because those many persons, to whom the saints appeared, knew the time of their ingress and appearance, but had not seen their actual resurrection. The silence of St Paul, in 1Co 15:23, does not prove, as Artemonius has inferred, ad Init. Ev. Joh. p. 571, that the bodies of the saints came forth from the tombs without their souls, and that their souls afterwards ascended to heaven without their bodies.-ἐνεφανίσθησαν, appeared) singly to individuals, or several at once, to more than one. An instance of real apparition.