Did Dead Saints, Rise From Their Graves, When Jesus Died On The Cross?

© 2013 VVeasey Publishing

04.20.2013

What's up How ya doing?

Here’s something that occurred to me a while ago. So I was inspired to hub about it.

But first, let me say this. I'm not trying to prove the Bible is true or false. I'm just taking an open-minded look at what's written in it and reporting what I see.

Some people find certain verses in the Bible, difficult, contradictory and hard to understand. But just shrug and say "oh well!", and go on their merry way. I'm not one of those people.

So here we go,

"And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs. After His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many". Matt 27:50-53

Don't you find this story interesting? I find it very interesting. I never hear anyone, believers or preachers etc. talk about his scenario. Dead saints rising from their graves and walking among the living, like zombies in the "Night Of The Living Dead" zombie movie! Woe! How many times, have some of you read this story and just kind of glossed over the dead saints rising from their graves part?

Isn't Jesus supposed to be the only person to come back from the dead?

Isn't that a major reason why Christians believe in Jesus?

Isn’t that part of what they say makes him different from anyone else in history?

.But here you have dead saints rising from the dead before Jesus does! Uh Oh! Houston! I think we have a problem.

Why don't Christians and preachers talk about this incident? Why do they skip over it and only focus on Jesus' rising from the dead? Are we supposed to take this story literally? That multiple dead people, including Jesus "came" back from the dead and showed themselves to many people, but that news didn't spread beyond that area where the incident supposedly occurred? I don't think so.

No historians from those times mention this tale.

Here's the first clue that this story wasn't written during the time this incident supposedly occurred or by those who supposedly witnessed it.

Dead saints!

What dead saints are they talking about? Were there saints in the Judaism during that time? No. Were there saints in Christianity at that time? No.Christianity didn't exist until well after Jesus' supposed "ascension" to heaven. So they couldn't have been Christian saints. So whose saints were they?

Lets see what Eason's Bible Dictionary says about the word saint,

Saint

"one separated from the world and consecrated to God; one holy by profession and by covenant; a believer in Christ (Psalms 16:3, Romans 1:7 Phil 1:1;Hebrews 6:10).

(The "saints" spoken of in Jude 1:14 are probably not the disciples of Christ, but the "innumerable company of angels" ( Hebrews 12:22 ; Psalms 68:17, with reference to Deuteronomy 33:2.This word is also used of the holy dead (Matthew 27:52 ; Revelation 18:24). It was not used as a distinctive title of the apostles and evangelists and of a "spiritual nobility" till the fourth century. In that sense it is not a scriptural title".)

So, they couldn't have been Christian apostles and evangelists, because they weren't called saints until the fourth century AD, way after this story was supposedly written in the first century AD. So which brand of Christianity had saints in the fourth century AD?

El correcto! Catholic Christianity.

So I would say that this story had to have been written after the establishment of Catholic Christianity and the Catholic Church, in the fourth century AD, because that's when the apostle's and evangelists were first called saints, wouldn't you agree?

Do you really believe that if dead Saints (zombies) came out of their graves and walked among the living it wouldn't have made the "news" of day or even leave a blip on the radar screen of ancient history, except in this story? If you do...I want some of what you been smoking!

And what happen to these zombie saints?

The story says they showed themselves to many people after Jesus' resurrection, but after that we hear nothing about them. Did they climb back into their graves? Where did they go? The zombie saints seemed to be mentioned in this story, along with the temple cracking and the earth quaking, to make Jesus' death seem like a supernatural occurrence.

I think this is a made up story.

If Jesus was the "son of God" and contradictory, "God in the flesh". Why did he have to die? Believers might say to show he had power over death. Then why is it when he was dying on the cross he cried out "My, My God Why Have You forsaken me?

Do you think Jesus was crying out to himself for help or to someone other them himself for help? I think the obvious answer is someone other than himself for help. All of this places the authenticity of this story in the "great bin of doubt" for me, what about for you?

Either those who wrote this story were too stupid to see the glaring contradictions in this tale. Or thought those who would read it, were too stupid to see them. But then again, not many people could read or write during those times. Priests were the ones who could read and write and who educated the royalty and the nobles. Most of the common folks couldn't read or write.

You've heard how if you whisper something in someone's ear at party and tell them to whisper it in someone else's ear and they into someone else's ear and so on and so on. That by the time it gets back to you. It may sound nothing like what you originally said.

So imagine if some Hebrew speaking person, told a story like this one to one or more people thousands of years ago. Then those people told to it other people and they told it to other people and so on and so on. Then Greek speaking people learned the story and told it to others and they told it to others and so on and so on. Then Latin speaking people learned the story and told to others and so on and so on. Finally, Old English speaking people learned the story and told to others and so on and so on. And this went on for thousands of years. Then we learned the story in modern English from others who learned the story from others and so and so on.

Do you think that story would sound anything like the original story told in Hebrew? Or the one told in Greek? Or the one told in Latin? On the one told in Old English?
And your answer is......... I thought so!

What if this story about Jesus and the dead zombie saints rising from their graves and walking among the living, were about Buddha or some other non-Christian god-man, and you're a Christian would you believe this story was true? I didn't think so. Now apply that same logic to this story. Do you believe this story is true? And your answer is a resounding...........

To paraphrase the Buddha, those who accept tradition on faith, are like a chain of blind men, holding hands over time, passing along the message of what the first one said he saw.

And to quote Jesus, "... if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."

Don't be spiritually blind and don't follow the spiritually blind

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