Who are the saints that came out of the tombs in Matthew 27? Did those saints return to the tombs?
Regarding Matthew 27, we read:
The saints who have “fallen asleep” refers to Old Testament believers who had died. At the death of Christ, their bodies were brought back to life and walked out of tombs. They then went into Jerusalem and appeared to the man who knew them to have died previously. Clearly, this was a shocking miracle intended to testify to the reality of Jesus’ claims.
These saints are never named in scripture because their identity doesn’t matter. What mattered was that people in that day knew them, so there could be witnesses to testify to the truth of the miracle.
Later, these revived saints died a second time, as did Lazarus who was raised by Christ. The resurrection to new, eternal life will not happen for the Old Testament saints until the start of the Kingdom, according to Daniel:
Based on the context of Daniel 11-12, the time mentioned at the beginning of Daniel 12:1 is the end of Tribulation and the second coming of Christ. This will be the moment when all Old Testament and Tribulation saints will be resurrected. If you would like more information about the timing of these events, we recommend you listen to our Revelation Bible study, available for free here.