‘It seems to me that an understanding of the language in Matthew 27:52-53 as ‘special effects’ with eschatological Jewish texts and thought in mind is most plausible. There is further support for this interpretation. If the tombs were opened and the saints being raised upon Jesus’ death was not strange enough, Matthew adds that they did not come out of their tombs until after Jesus’ resurrection. What were they doing between Friday afternoon and early Sunday morning? Were they standing in the now open doorways of their tombs and waiting? . . . this difficult text in Matthew [is] a poetic device added to communicate that the Son of God had died and that the impending judgment awaited Israel.’ ~ Michael Licona
More zombies and the Bible:
“Many men and women who had died came back to life again” — zombies in the Bible?
The theology of zombies: the end of the world, resurrection and the nature of the human soul
