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Mat_27:53 Μετὰ τὴν ἔγερσιν αὐτοῦ ] is to be taken in an active sense (Psa_139:2; Plat. Tim. p. 70 C; comp. ἐξέγερσις , Polyb. ix. 15. 4; ἀνέγερσις , Plut. Mor. p. 156 B), yet not as though αὐτοῦ were a genitive of the subject (“postquam eos Jesus in vitam restituerat,” Fritzsche, which would be to make the addition of αὐτοῦ something like superfluous), but a genitive of the object, in which case it is unnecessary to say who it was that raised up Christ. The words are not to be connected with ἐξελθόντες (de Wette, following the majority of the earlier expositors), which would involve the absurd idea that those here referred to had been lying in their graves alive awaiting the coming of the third day; but, as Heinsius, with εἰσῆλθον . After life was restored they left their graves, but only after the resurrection of Jesus did they enter the holy city. Up till then they had kept themselves concealed. And this is by no means difficult to understand; for it was only after the resurrection of Jesus that their appearing could be of service in the way of bearing testimony in favour of Him in whose death the power of Hades was supposed to have been vanquished, and hence it was only then that their rising found its appropriate explanation.
ἁγίαν πόλιν ] is in keeping with the solemnity of the entire narrative; comp. Mat_4:5.