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LEHRE UNO WEHRE
MAGAZIN FUER Ev.~LuTH. HOMILETIK
THEOLOGICAL QUARTERL Y ~ THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY
Vol. XII March, 1941 No.3
CONTENTS Page
The AltenbUl'g Debate. P. E, I{reizmalllt ---------------_ _ ______ 161
Making the Sermon Interesting. John H. C. Fritz 173
The Resurrection of Saints at the Death of Christ. Martin Graebner 182
New Validations of Theism, Theodore Graebner , _______________________ . __________ 188
Outlines on the WUerttembel'g Gospel Selections ____________ ,, ___________ 195
Miscellanea ____________________________________________________ ~ _________________ " ____________ 207
Theological Observcr. - Kirchlich-Zeitgeschichtliches . _________________ 219
Book Review. - Litel'atul' _______ " ___ "' __________________________ , ____________________________ ,, ____ 233
Ein Prediger muss nicht allein wei-
den, also dass er die Schafe unter-
weise, wie sie rechte Christen sollen
sein. sondern auch daneben den Woel-
fen wehren, dass sie die Schafe nicht
angreifen und mit falscher Lehre ver-
fuehren und Irrtum einfuehren.
Luther
Es ist kein Ding, das die Leute
mehr bei der K1rche behaelt denn
die gute Pred!gt. - Apologie, Art. 24
If the trumpet give an uncertain
sound, who shall prepare himself to
the battle? -1 Cor. 14:8
Published for the
Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States
CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE, St. Louis, Mo.
182 The Resurrection of Saints at the Death of Christ
The Resurrection of Saints at the Death of Christ
The death of Jesus on the cross was accompanied by some
astounding miracles, which are enumerated in Matt. 27: 51-53:
"And, behold, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the
top to the bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent, and
the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept
arose and came out of the graves after His resurrection and went
into the holy city and appeared unto many."
Much has been said, more can be said, about each of these
miracles; but this article concerns itself with, and restricts itself
to, the last-mentioned occurrence: the opening of the graves and
the resurrection of saints.
Did these saints arise with mortal bodies or with glorified
bodies?
If we read these words carefully, we find that the account is
very vivid, as evidenced by the interjection "behold" and the con-
nective "and" repeated after each miracle. Reading these verses
with simplicity of mind, we learn that, when Jesus yielded up the
ghost, there were a number of happenings: the veil of the Temple
was rent in twain; the earth did quake; the rocks were rent; the
graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept
arose. As far as we are able to find, there was never a voice heard
among the interpreters of Scripture which did not look upon these
events as happening simultaneously, and indeed that is the plain
meaning of vv.51 and 52.
Devoting our special study to the second part of v. 52 and
v. 53, we read that the bodies of the saints that slept arose. Later
on we read that they came out of the graves and went into the
holy city and appeared unto many. Our Bible therefore distin-
guishes between arising and coming out of their graves, and this
is in entire harmony with the original Greek. The Greek uses
the word lml!..rllllcra'V, the Pass. Aor. of EydQoo, "to rouse from sleep."
The form may be translated, "They were awakened" or, "They
woke up." Both fit well into the context. Only the body sleeps,
only the body can awaken. Since death is here called sleep, the
awakening from death can be nothing else than the return to life.
Thus we find that, when these graves were opened, the bodies
in those graves returned to life when they were awakened by God.
The words simply can mean nothing else, neither do we know of
anyone who interprets them otherwise.
V.53 makes three further statements concerning these saints.
The subject now is ot UYWL, as seen from the masculine form of the
participle. The sentence has two predicates: they "went into the
holy city"; they "appeared unto many." Besides these predicates
e
e
d
t
t
;e
If
,d
d
is
.e
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>t
d
:e
n
d
s
s
"
'f
I,
e
s
f
The Resurrection of Saints at the Death of Christ 183
is the participle ~;€A:t)6v"tE~. A translation that would give
force to the participle construction would read about as follows:
having come out of their graves, they went into the holy city."
note that the bodies were brought back to life - they came out
of their graves; they went into the holy city and appeared unto
So far everything is easy. But now we find the further
words IhS"to' "tilv liYEQCfW O'.\J"toll, after His resurrection. These words
are easy to translate, but harder to understand because they may
be connected with one of two verbs. They can be construed with
~;EA.Mv"tE~. Then we translate: "And when they had come out of
their graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city."
01' they can be connected with etcrijAitov, and we would then trans-
late: "And having come out of their graves, they went into the
holy city after His resurrection." Grammatically there would be
no objection to either of the renderings; and that being the case,
we look for other canons of interpretation which may guide us
to the proper understanding of this verse. It is an elementary
maxim of interpretation that, if two interpretations are gram-
matically possible, one of them, however, is ludicrous, the latter
should be rejected in favor of one that is not. An instance:
When we read, Luke 23:43, that Jesus said to the dying thief:
"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in
Paradise," we know that the word "today" can grammatically be
connected with the preceding words, making the entire passage
read thus: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee today, Thou shalt
be with Me in Paradise." We are perfectly right in rejecting
this interpretation, not because it is grammatically impossible but
because it is ludicrous.
Now, what picture do we get if we connect these words "after
His resurrection" with the participle "after they came out"? We
have seen that at the death of Jesus the graves opened and these
bodies were made alive. Now, if the words "after His resurrec-
tion" should go with t;EA.it6V"tE~, we have the impossible thought
that, after being made alive, these saints remained lying in their
graves unto the third day and that they then came forth! How
simple and reasonable is the situation that arises when we connect
the words "after His resurrection" with their following action of
coming into the city. They were made alive at the death of Christ
and, of course, came out of their graves; and after they had come
out of their graves, they did not at once enter the holy city, but
did so after three days, as witnesses of Christ's resurrection and
as an assurance of our own resurrection.
We next read, as the English Bible has it: "They appeared
unto many." The Greek word here used is i\1h(j)O'.vl~Et'V. We must
not only know what this word means, but we must also pay atten-
184 The Resurrection of Saints at the Death of Christ
tion to its voice and tense. It is evidently derived from the same
stem as the adjective e~