Matthew 27:52-53 WTF!?!?!?!

by Cagefighter 54 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Cagefighter

  Honestly, I am a little pissed right now. I was a JW kid for 18 years. Sat through 2 dozen memorial services, numerous easter services and been a steady member of my church now for the last 2 years. AND NO ONE HAS EVER MENTIONED THIS PASSAGE!

  I fault myself for not noticing it, but forgive for me for finding the crucifixion my least favorite part of the bible to read becuase I thought I had read the story a million times before I was 12. It feels like the campaign drives on NPR every time someone has to re-hash the story. Sounds bad, but true.

  I honestly have felt the story gets a little "fantastic" after the cruxicificion with out this passage. Now, I don't know what to think and the fact that I found out about it through the "lego bible" is even worse.
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  tootired2care

  I fault myself for not noticing it, but forgive for me for finding the crucifixion my least favorite part of the bible to read becuase I thought I had read the story a million times before I was 12.

  Don't fault yourself mate, those bastards never discussed this in any of the 35 years of meetings that I went to for "the greatest bible education in the world"... My wife expressed similiar sentiments after I shared this with her today. They only talk about scriptures that achieve their controlling ends.
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  Cagefighter

  A freak'n zombie parade on Good Friday would seem a great part of the story.

  My thoughts on religion (which I still support the general concept of ) and Christ (who I think was a divine leader) have been evolving. This kind of fits in with everything else going on, I guess.
• 

  Christ Alone

  Many Christians have difficulty with this passage too. It's not easily explained away because it was DEFINITELY part of the original writings. Ignatious makes comments on the passage, and he lived in the 1st and 2nd century.
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  tootired2care

  Here is the watchtowers explanation on how the dead "entered the city". The amount of hubris in the their suppositional assertion "Matthew must" should make any dub want to vomit when they stop and think about this explanation.

  Verse 53 - "They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people." - NIV

  "Who were those that "entered into the holy city" a considerable time later, namely after Jesus had been resurrected? As seen above, the exposed bodies remained lifeless, so Matthew must refer to persons who visited the tombs and brought news of the event into Jerusalem. Thus, the rendering of the New World Translation deepens Bible understanding and does not confuse readers concerning the resurrection." - w90 9/1 p.7
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  Bobcat

  Despite the reworking of the text, viewing it as passer-by that saw the bodies and then report the seeing of them in the city makes some chronological sense:

  The earthquake happens when Jesus dies.

  Then the sabbath, when there would be no persons traveling.

  Then early after the sabbath Jesus is ressurrected.

  And with daybreak come the travelers into the city reporting what they had seen among the tombs.

  Of course, there is still alot left unexplained.
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  Cagefighter

  Here is what my paraphrased for meaning not literality bible says:

  51 At that moment the curtain in the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, 52 and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead 53 after Jesus' resurrection. They left the cemetery, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people. 54 The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, "Truly, this was the Son of God!" 55 And many women who had come from Galilee with Jesus to care for him were watching from a distance.

  Now becuase this translation is based on meaning instead of being literal it seems very clear the scholars agree the text clearly implies a few facts.

  1. There was a Zombie parade after the resurection.

  2. It freaked out an entire city including the soldiers.

  3. It was a big enough scene that some random Galilieans noticed the zombie apocalypse happening down in the city.

  I mean why isn't this almost as big a deal as the transfiguration? I assume the implication is Jesus took them to heaven with him upon his ascendtion.
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  Leolaia

  Bobcat....Again the problem there is that the gloss makes the centurion react on Friday to something (ta genomena) that didn't happen until Sunday. And indeed it takes a lot of reworking to achieve that particular reading. The NWT reading forces the reference to shift from those buried in the tombs to some mysterious other group of "persons coming out from among the memorial tombs". This is wrong on two counts. The NWT seems to take the aorist nominative participle as substantival (as "those having come out from the tombs") that then functions as the subject for the two active verbs in the next clause, but the participle is non-articular and there isn't any other nominative case noun in the same clause that it agrees with. It is rather a typical adverbial participle (always non-articular) that has a temporal function, e.g. "after they came out of the tombs they entered into the city and appeared to many". Even if it is defensible to take the participle as substantival, that is no reason to change the reference to some other group. "Those having come out from the tombs" would have to be those already inside tombs, and the previous verse already mentioned a specific group inside the tombs: the saints who are bodily raised. These are the ones who would then logically come out of the tombs. There is no other group mentioned in v. 52 that was already inside the tombs. The NWT muddies this further by referring to persons coming out from "among" the tombs, as if these were people walking through a cemetary who then leave the cemetary. The wording instead is of persons exiting the tombs themselves. And then there is the matter with the parentheses which separates the event of persons leaving the tombs and entering into the city from the "appearing to many" at the end of v. 53. There is another switch of reference here, with this verb (enephanisthèsan) no longer having reference to those entering the city but those in the tombs (and still in the tombs) mentioned in v. 52. This despite the fact that the most natural reading is that those who enter into a city would be seen by many (in the city).

  It is clear that the NWT rendering reflects harmonistic concerns with other texts, rather than what the passage says on its own terms. The Society is explicit about this in an article explaining how this passage was rendered in the NWT: "The way each translator would therefore render such texts would depend upon his understanding of the rest of the Scriptures. The Scriptural facts above set out dictate how they must be rendered to be consistent with the rest of the Bible" (1 January 1961 Watchtower, p. 30). Here concern for avoiding a contradiction with other scriptures results in a translation that overrides what in fact is stated in the pericope. This concern takes precedence over the actual wording and phrasing and concepts found in the passage being translated.
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  Cagefighter

  Leolaia- What about the posibility that this was a "grammar error" by one of the original authors? When do the text(s) used come from? I am sure if someone translated my posts here into German or Spanish 2000 years from now there would be many spelling and gramatical errors that might intially seem confusing, right?
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  vanyell

  I still like the KJV translation of those verses...

  http://kingjbible.com/matthew/27.htm

  50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51 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; 52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. 54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

  From MWHC (Matthew Henry's Commentary): There is a note there saying : "... we must not covet to be wise above what is written." Which , unfortunately, is what the WTS and its GB are precisely doing. Conjectures beyond what is written.