The writer of the biblical Book of Matthew was a brave man. He wrote some things, that when looked at more closely, were rather audacious. With this being said, I want to ask a question on one of the Bible’s greatest mysteries.

In Matthew 27:52-53, we read that when Jesus died and also when he was resurrected, the bodies of ‘the saints which slept arose.’ Now not only is this little bit of revelation not in any other of the Gospels, but in the book of Mark (the oldest of the Gospels), the same surrounding account is told, but without any mention of what Matthew claims happened. In fact, if you read the account in Mark 15:38-39, Mark has the same verses preceding and after Matthew’s startling revelation, but does not say anything about dead people rising up.

This is Mark’s account compared to Matthew’s:

And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:37-39)

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:50-54)

Luke tells the same account, but fails to mention what Matthew said about these dead people.

Here’s Luke’s account compared to Matthew’s:

“Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, “into Your hands I commit My spirit.”‘ Having said this, He breathed His last. So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous Man!” (Luke 23:46-47)

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:50-54)

The Gospel of John doesn’t even find any of this important to mention.

Now my question is, where did these dead people go? Matthew says they went into the ‘holy city’ (Jerusalem) and appeared to many, but we read nothing else about it anywhere else in the Bible. Did they die again? Did they eventually rise to heaven? Did they go back to their graves? What was the response of the people who saw them? To make the matter even more baffling, a few days later Peter preached his famous sermon on Pentecost and in all of his talking, trying to prove Jesus was the son of God and risen lord, he never once referenced the mircale of these dead people rising from their graves to bolster his argument and really bring home the point.