Matthew 27:52

Myles Coverdale Bible

and the graues opened, and many bodies of the sayntes that slepte, arose,

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The tombs were also opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

King James Version (1611)
And the graues were opened, and many bodies of Saints which slept, arose,

King James Version
And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

English Standard Version
The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,

New American Standard Bible
Also the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;

New Century Version
The graves opened, and many of God's people who had died were raised from the dead.

Amplified Bible
The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints (God's people) who had fallen asleep [in death] were raised [to life];

New American Standard Bible (1995)
The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;

Legacy Standard Bible
And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;

Berean Standard Bible
The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

Contemporary English Version
Graves opened, and many of God's people were raised to life.

Complete Jewish Bible
Also the graves were opened, and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life;

Darby Translation
and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints fallen asleep arose,

Easy-to-Read Version
The graves opened, and many of God's people who had died were raised from death.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And the graues did open themselues, and many bodies of the Saintes, which slept, arose,

George Lamsa Translation
And the tombs were opened; and the bodies of a great many saints who were sleeping in death rose up,

Good News Translation
the graves broke open, and many of God's people who had died were raised to life.

Lexham English Bible
And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,

Literal Translation
And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

American Standard Version
and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised;

Bible in Basic English
And the resting-places of the dead came open; and the bodies of a number of sleeping saints came to life;

Hebrew Names Version
The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the holy ones who had fallen asleep were raised;

International Standard Version
the tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had diedfallen asleep">[fn] were raised.

Etheridge Translation
And the house of the buried was opened; and the bodies of many of the saints who had been asleep arose,

Murdock Translation
and graves were opened; and many bodies of saints who slept, arose,

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And graues dyd open, and many bodyes of saintes which slept, arose:

English Revised Version
and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised;

World English Bible
The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
and many bodies of holy men that slept were raised.

Weymouth's New Testament
the tombs opened; and many of God's people who were asleep in death awoke.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and many bodies of seyntis that hadden slepte, rysen vp.

Update Bible Version
and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised;

Webster's Bible Translation
And the graves were opened, and many bodies of saints who slept, arose,

New English Translation
And tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had died were raised.

New King James Version
and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;

New Living Translation
and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead.

New Life Bible
Graves were opened. Bodies of many of God's people who were dead were raised.

New Revised Standard
The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
and, the tombs, were opened and, many bodies of the holy ones who had fallen asleep, arose, -

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the graves were opened: and many bodies of the saints that had slept arose,

Revised Standard Version
the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
and graves dyd open: and the bodies of many sainctes which slept arose

Young's Literal Translation
and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who have fallen asleep, arose,

Mace New Testament (1729)
the graves opened, and the bodies of many saints who slept arose,

Simplified Cowboy Version
Graves were opened up and a bunch of cowboys who had rode for the brand got up and walked, raised back to life.

Contextual Overview

⁵⁰ Iesus cried agayne with a loude voyce, and gaue vp the goost. ⁵¹ And beholde, the vale of the temple was rente in two peces, from aboue tyll beneth, and the earth quaked, and the stones rent, ⁵² and the graues opened, and many bodies of the sayntes that slepte, arose, ⁵³ and wete out of the graues after his resurreccion, and came in to the holy cite, and appeared vnto many. ⁵⁴ But the captayne and they that were with him, and kepte Iesus, when they sawe the earthquake and the thinges that were done, they were sore afrayed, and sayde: Verely this was Gods sonne. ⁵⁵ And there were many wemen there lokynge to afarre of, which had folowed Iesus from Galile, and had mynistred vnto him: ⁵⁶ amonge whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of Iames and Ioses, and the mother of the children of Zebede.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

many: Isaiah 25:8, Isaiah 26:19, Hosea 13:14, John 5:25-29, 1 Corinthians 15:20

slept: Daniel 12:2, 1 Corinthians 11:30, 1 Corinthians 15:51, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, 1 Thessalonians 5:10

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 13:21 - touched Psalms 17:15 - I awake Jeremiah 10:10 - at Acts 9:32 - the saints 1 Thessalonians 4:13 - which are Revelation 8:5 - an

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the graves were opened,.... Which were near the city of Jerusalem: this was a proof of Christ's power over death and the grave, by dying; when he through death, destroyed him that had the power of it, and abolished death itself; and became the plague of death and the destruction of the grave, taking into his hands the keys of hell and death:

and many bodies of saints which slept, arose: not that they arose at the time of Christ's death: the graves were opened then, when the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent; but the bodies of the saints did not arise, till after Christ was risen, as appears from the following verse; but because the other event now happened, they are both recorded here: these were saints, and such as slept in Jesus; and of whom he is the first fruits that now rose; and not all, but many of them, as pledges of the future resurrection, and for the confirmation of Christ's, and the accomplishment of a prophecy in

Isaiah 26:19. And they rose in the same bodies in which they before lived, otherwise they could not be called their bodies, or known by those to whom they appeared: but who they were is not to be known; some have thought them to be the ancient patriarchs, as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, c. In the Septuagint on Job 42:17, Job is said to be one of them, and a tradition is there recorded, which runs thus:

"it is written, that he rose with whom the Lord rose.''

But it should seem rather, that they were some later saints, such as Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, John the Baptist himself, good old Simeon, Joseph the husband of Mary, and others, well known to persons now alive. Some think they were such, as had been martyrs in the cause of religion and so the Persic version renders the words, "and the bodies of many saints who suffered martyrdom, rose out of the graves".

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And the graves were opened - “Graves” or sepulchres were most commonly made, among the Jews, in solid rocks or in caves of rocks. The rending of the rocks, therefore, would lay them open. The graves were opened by this earthquake, but the dead in them did not rise until after his resurrection.

And many bodies of the saints arose - Of course, it is not known who these were, nor what became of them. It is probable that they were persons who had recently died, and they appear to have been known in Jerusalem; at least, had the ancient saints risen, they would not have been known, and would not so soon have been credited as those who had recently died.

Which slept - Which had died. The death of saints is often called “sleep,” Daniel 12:2; 1 Corinthians 15:18; 1 Thessalonians 4:15.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 52. And the graves were opened — By the earthquake; and many bodies of saints which slept, i.e. were dead, sleep being a common expression for death in the Scriptures.