The dead saints that came out of their graves at the time of the Crucifixion

Pondering this passage ...

Matt 27:52-53

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.

Do you think “the many” includes the Old Testament people like Adam, Eve, King David, etc. or just the saints who had families still living in the holy city (Jerusalem)?  Do you think they got their glorified bodies at that time? Or was earthly skin put back on their bones and were they walking around in grave clothes or heavenly white robes?  Also how long did they appear before their loved ones and friends before dying again or do you feel they were raptured (part of the fulfillment of First Fruits after Jesus arose) and they were taken up to heaven in their glorified bodies?   I read someone posted they lived another 30 years before dying again ... but I don’t see that in Scripture.  Also when the rapture happens will the graves be opened worldwide for the unsaved to notice that the saved believers are gone?  How about the urns ... will the bottle cap be removed? ... and of course the dust will be missing. :mdrmdr:

Plus I wonder how many became believers after seeing the miracle of the Resurrection of Jesus and testimonies of the dead saints walking about once more?   And perhaps the rapture event ... will be what it takes to waken up our unsaved loved ones and friends to finally believe? :unsure:

Here are 2 sources that give some insight views

Per GARBC.org

People coming out of their graves after Jesus’ death.
Q.

Please comment on Matthew 17:52 and 53, which says that people were coming out of their graves and seeing people upon Jesus’ death.

A.
Verses 51–53 read,

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.

Here we have three signs given to people when Jesus died on the cross in our place. God never performs signs or miracles for no reason; each of these momentous events had significance.

First, the tearing of the veil of the temple “from top to bottom” indicated God’s doing; God was demonstrating that access to Him is now available to all; each believer is a priest and can go directly to the High Priest (Heb. 4:14–16; 10:19–23). Before this event, the veil had kept everyone except the human high priest from the Holy of Holies, where God dwelt. Incidentally, many Jews were in the temple area to witness the act of God’s rending the veil; remember that it happened during the bustling Passover week.

Second, earthquakes represented God’s visible judgment (see also Exod. 19:18; Judges 5:4; Rev. 6:12–17), so this case the earthquake showed divine displeasure with those who spurned Christ and gave proof that Jesus was and is God (Matt. 27:54).

Now we come to the sign that you asked about. This third demonstration showed that in His death, Christ triumphed over sin and the grave. We can dispel anything bizarre or mysterious about the happening by noting that in His earthly ministry, Jesus raised people from the dead. Examples include Lazarus, Jairus’s daughter, and the son of the widow at Nain. So we are not dealing with something strange here, especially when you think of the other miracles of the Bible.

When Jesus died, the bodies of many saints who had died (“had fallen asleep”) were raised. Notice the word “many,” because by no means did all of the saints get raised. There is some question who was raised: Some believe that the raised were recent believers who had died (e.g., Simeon, Anna, Zacharias). Others think that they were Old Testament believers who had been dead for centuries (e.g., the Patriarchs). We are simply not told. But when they came out of their graves, their spirits came from the compartment “Abraham’s bosom,” the abiding place of the righteous dead. That is, in contrast to those who inhabited the compartment known as Hades, the abiding place of the unrighteous dead.

Note that these resurrected believers didn’t come out of the tombs and appear to people until after Jesus was resurrected (“after His resurrection”; Matt. 27:53). First Corinthians 15:20 gives us the reason for this order: “Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” It was only right that Christ should be resurrected first, and it is significant that those risen saints demonstrated that Christ had indeed risen. The people who saw those risen saints were pointed to Jesus’ resurrection. The risen saints were living testimonies of God’s power, and God used them as special witnesses of that resurrection power. This is especially key as we think of the transition about to confront Israel as the nation moved from the dispensation of the Law to the dispensation of the Church Age.

Further, there is strong evidence that the resurrection of people in Matthew 27 constituted the fulfillment of the Feast of Firstfruits in the Old Testament (Lev. 23:9–14). For this feast the people under the law system brought a handful of grain to the priest, which indicated their assurance that God would give the needed harvest. So, after Christ’s resurrection, we see a reminder/picture of the trustworthiness of God’s promise of coming “harvest,” namely that all saints (all believers who have died) will be raised from the dead! It is a beautiful picture of reality to come.

Invariably the question comes up, Whatever happened to those “sleeping” saints who arose?The answer is that the Bible does not tell us whether they died again (like Lazarus and others) or if they went to Heaven with the Lord. It would seem likely that if they were a fulfillment of Firstfruits, they would have had new glorified bodies like Christ’s resurrection body. Then they may well have ascended at the same time that Jesus ascended back to Heaven.

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Our Daily Bread.org

The Miracles of Opened Graves

The midday darkness is the first of the six miracles that happened during Jesus’s crucifixion (Matthew 27:45). It is the beginning of the divine procession of signs that heralded the death of Jesus Christ. Second came the supernatural tearing from top to bottom of the curtain of the temple. The third miracle was the earthquake and the splitting of the rocks (v. 51), while the fourth was the opening of the graves in the vicinity (v. 52). The fifth miraculous sign was the condition of the empty tomb, and the last miracle was the resurrection of many saints who had died (v. 53). These were the six miracles of Calvary, all of them linked directly to the death of Jesus Christ.

Some of these miracles occurred in the heavens, others under the earth, yet they all established a unique class of miracles—each of these signs played a part in the miracle of Christ’s eternal act of redemption. Each miracle, in its own special way, elucidates the meaning and purpose of the depths of our Savior’s suffering. Together, all six surround Christ in His death, guarding carefully the truth of our deliverance.

Here we will look at the fourth of the Calvary miracles—the opening of the graves.

The disturbed graveyard has a distinct place among the miracles. It is the climax of all the previous miracles, even as it anticipates the miracles that will follow. Let’s consider the facts related to us in the gospel.

“When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.”

Each miracle, in its own special way, elucidates the meaning and purpose of the depths of our Savior’s suffering.

“At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life” (Matthew 27:50–52).

We can clearly see that it was by means of the earthquake that the graves were opened. We may also conclude that most of the graves were located at or around Calvary. The earthquake would likely have been the most violent at its point of origin—the epicenter of Jesus’s disturbing death. It is certain that a graveyard existed near Calvary, since Jesus was laid nearby in Joseph’s tomb (John 19:41–42).

The Locality
Where these resurrections took place is important. If this miracle was meant to be a testimony to the power of Christ’s death, it would necessitate the graves being in close proximity to the cross. Further indication that these graves were close to Jerusalem is seen from the fact that when the saints were resurrected, they immediately entered Jerusalem (Matthew 27:53).

It can also be reasonably implied that these particular graves were rocky tombs, holes carved into the rock whose entrances were sealed by large stones rolled in front of them. We can infer this because of the obvious connection between the two statements “the rocks split” and “the tombs broke open.”

As an event, the earthquake was not simply the means to open the graves but an independent miracle with its own distinct meaning.
Since it appears that the opening of the graves is so closely connected to the splitting of the rocks, why separate these two events? The reason is because there is a significant distinction between them. The splitting of the rocks was evidence of force, while the opening of the graves was evidence of design. The splitting of the rocks did not, by itself, foretell anything to come. The opening of the graves, however, was like the first budding of the coming resurrection glory.

As an event, the earthquake was not simply the means to open the graves but an independent miracle with its own distinct meaning. In the same way, the opening of the graves was not simply the logical result of the earthquake but an event with its own unique meaning and importance. It was the instantaneous result of the earthquake, in the same way that the earthquake was the instantaneous result of Christ’s shout of victory from the cross. And like the earthquake, it occurred in response to that shout. The moment Christ died, the graves opened.

Whose Graves Were They?
Significantly, it was only the graves of saints, God’s children, who were opened. Not one person’s grave was opened whose soul did not have a saving interest in the death of Christ, to which the opening of the graves was the marvelous answer.

It is such a beautiful picture. All those graves of God’s children, each and every one of them individually and lovingly selected, were to His eyes the most important places in the entire world!

While the graves were opened at the moment of Christ’s death, the bodies did not arise from them till after His own resurrection—on the third day. “They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection… ” (Matthew 27:53, emphasis added). The record makes it plain that they were not raised until He was.

Significantly, it was only the graves of saints, God’s children, who were opened.

For the moment we are not considering the resurrections themselves, but simply the opening of the graves. The opening of the graves had a significance beyond simply being necessary to release the resurrected from their tombs. The opening of the graves was not simply a physical necessity for the resurrections, any more than it was a mere physical consequence of the earthquake.

It was, in fact, a marvelous act of preparation that needed to be accomplished at the moment of Christ’s death and timed to occur at precisely the moment our Savior Himself entered among the dead. It could not be put off until He returned from the dead, although what He intended to accomplish among those who would be resurrected had to be delayed until then.

In view of all these circumstances, how powerfully does the miracle assert itself! We are overwhelmingly convinced that God’s intervention here is one of the clearest and most powerful of His precious testimonies to the death of Jesus Christ. The sense that something precious is being revealed to us seems warranted by the clear facts of the matter. The fact that the graves were opened at the instant of Christ’s death, but the resurrections did not take place until the third morning afterward, shows that the opened graves were intended to be an exhibition.

If the sealed rock tombs were opened by the earthquake merely to permit the resurrected bodies to escape, then the earthquake should not have taken place until the moment of their resurrection. But those graves were opened from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning and exposed to thousands of spectators. No attempts to seal them back up during the intervening Sabbath would have been permitted. Doesn’t it seem clear, then, that the opening of the graves was intended to be an exhibition—that it had a story to tell?

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Any thoughts on this?