I'm still pondering this myself, but what's making sense in my mind is that this verse -below- is also relevant to this (except this passage only mentions "the saints"). My eschatological view is the "already inaugurated but not yet consummated" belief. Ray Vander Laan mentions in one of his videos that when these bodies were resurrected, it happened during the Feast of First Fruits (and these resurections may have represented a portion of what is yet to come):
Matthew 27:52 ~ The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
From this blog post ~ https://leviticalfulfillment.wordpr...filled-the-feasts-of-israel-during-holy-week/ :
Now one of the amazing signs that occurred when Jesus died—besides the earthquake and ripping of the veil in the Temple—was that holy people who had died were resurrected from the dead (Matt. 27:52-53). But then the Scriptures say something that, when you think about it, seems kind of strange. If it had happened to you, don’t you think you’d have run home and told everybody about it? Instead, those who had been resurrected remained hidden. They did not immediately present themselves in the holy city, Jerusalem; rather, they waited until Jesus rose from the dead. Why? In order that Jesus, the High Priest, could present them to the Father as a firstfruits offering after He had risen from the dead and in order to fulfill the Feast of Firstfruits on the 18th of Nisan, just after the weekly Sabbath (Lev. 23:9-14). More on that will follow.
Jesus was buried just before sundown at the end of the day, Nisan 14th, just before the “dawning” of the new day, the special Sabbath of Unleavened Bread, Nisan 15. Since Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, He entered Jerusalem as King on a Sabbath and then would be raised from the dead in victory on the Sabbath, in 3 days (72 hours), just as He said He would. Jesus fulfilled the sign of Jonah! In 1 Corinthians 15:3, we read: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
According to what Scriptures? The only Scripture they had at the time was the Old Testament! Jesus fulfilled Jonah 1:17, among other Scriptures.
Jesus rose at the very end of the weekly Sabbath, Nisan 17, “just before dawn.” Are there any other proofs of the double Sabbaths? Yes, in Matthew 28, we read: “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.” However, the word for Sabbath in this passage in Greek is a plural noun! The Greek for the word “Sabbath” is Sabbaton, which is actually a neuter plural noun. Most translators, not familiar with the Jewish Feasts, and thinking of the traditional Friday death and Sunday morning resurrection, translate it as singular. But when we look in Zondervan’s Parallel New Testament in Greek and English or in the NASB Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, we see that it is a plural noun: Sabbaths.
In Young’s Literal Translation we read:
28:1 And on the eve of the sabbaths, at the dawn, toward the first of the sabbaths, came Mary the Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the sepulcher.
The saints that came out of their graves did not resurrect before Christ did though, if that's what you are trying to say here.
Matthew 27:50 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.
55 And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him:
56 Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children.
When verse 50 and 51 occurred, in verse 52 this occurred at that time as well----And the graves were opened
After Christ intially rose, then this part in verse 52 and 53 was fulfilled----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.
The text clearly says they came out of the graves after His resurrection, His resurrection meaning Christ's. Christ did not resurrect the same day He died, so neither did the saints which slept rise the same day Christ died either. We have to keep in mind that a lot of times Scriptures are compressed, and what might appear on the surface to have taken place at the same time really didn't take place at the same time at all.
Speaking of compressed Scriptures, here's an example of one.
John 5:28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
On the surface it seems like these two resurrections happen at the same time, or at least close to the same time. But Revelation 20 shows this is not the case. The first resurrection is meaning unto the resurrection of life.When the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished, this is referring to the resurrection of damnation, and that Revelation 20 indicates there is a thousand years separating both events.
