Noon of the Living Dead

As All Hallows' Eve fast approaches, Helen and Lloyd turn their attention to the spookiest episode in the gospel tradition – a story in which the dead are raised and enter Jerusalem (Matthew 27:52-53). The little episode has vexed scholars for centuries and raises many questions: what happened to the saints in between the crucifixion and resurrection? Who were these ‘holy ones’ who went into the city? And how do they fit into Matthew’s narrative as a whole?
To find out what this episode really means, Helen and Lloyd are joined by Dr Nathanael Vette, who has a spooky new theory about the 'resurrected saints', and why Matthew includes them in his gospel. In his forthcoming article, 'Noon of the Living Dead' (CBQ), Nathanael proposes that Matthew's saints should be seen against the backdrop of the 'shades of the dead', a Roman omen that preceded several national calamities, including the brutal murder of Julius Caesar.
Dr Nathanael Vette (kcl.ac.uk/people/nathanael-vette) is Lecturer in New Testament, Gender and the Arts at King's College, London. He is the author of Writing with Scripture: Scripturalized Narrative in the Gospel of Mark (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2022) and co-editor of A Theology of Gratitude: Christian and Muslim Perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).
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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 + 5 produced by John Nelson.