It is as if a UFO had descended on Jerusalem and absolutely no one, apart from Matthew, thought it worthy of marking in historical memory. There are three pretty good reasons to doubt that this story actually happened:
Matthew says that there was, immediately following Jesus’s death, an earthquake, and this earthquake was accompanied by an astonishing mass resurrection in which “many bodies of the saints which slept arose.” And not only did they arise from the dead, Matthew claims that they entered the very city of Jerusalem, appearing “unto many.” It’s so wild a passage that I’ll quote it in full (from the King James version of the Bible):ĥ1And, 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 ĥ2And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,ĥ3And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Immediately after Jesus’s death, Matthew has this very, very strange Night of the Living Dead story that he includes in his gospel.
