# What Happened to the Easter Zombies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 5, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887 "2015-04-05T16:41:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/1 "2015-04-05T16:41:39Z")
Though this question [has been posed before](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=541116&highlight=%22easter+zombies%22), we have never arrived at a biblical explanation for what happened to the Easter Zombies as described in[Matthew 27:50-53:](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27%3A50-53&version=NIV) > [@](#): > > [sup]50[/sup] And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. > > [sup]51[/sup] At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split [sup]52[/sup] and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. [sup]53[/sup] They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. They were not ghosts, they were bodily resurrections, so did they continue living after Jesus went to Heaven? Did they die again, or are they living still, as immortal Easter Zombies? ---
**Author:** ![Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/77aa72/32.png) [@Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fluffy_PickleSniffer)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/2 "2015-04-05T17:05:13Z")
Don’t have any answers for you, but this article touches on it: [What happened to the resurrected people?](http://www.answers2prayer.org/bible_questions/Answers/text_explanation/matthew27.html) > [@](#): > > 1. Only after Jesus’ resurrection did these resurrected saints enter Jerusalem, corroborating that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. Can you imagine living in that time period and seeing all these resurrected people walking in your streets? **The Scriptures do not tell us if these saints said anything about Jesus. It only points out that they walked the streets of Jerusalem.** Their presence alone was proof enough that Jesus was no ordinary man. Their resurrection could only be explained that Jesus was the Messiah. (bolding mine) …and the thought of immortal Easter zombies just gives me the screaming heebie jeebies! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/3 "2015-04-05T17:18:27Z")
The least embarrassing answer proposed by various biblical commentators seems to be that they ascended bodily to heaven when Jesus did 40 days later. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/4 "2015-04-05T21:31:53Z")
You are mixing up \*resurrection \* with reanimation. They werent zombies, they were living people. Just like when they shock you back to life, you’re never legally dead, and you are not a zombie. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/5 "2015-04-05T21:39:31Z")
Man, that’s a lot of diamonds! Who knew Jesus was loaded? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/6 "2015-04-05T21:47:35Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Man, that’s a lot of diamonds! Who knew Jesus was loaded? You get Epic enuf you can even eschew valuable material components. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/7 "2015-04-05T22:44:10Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > You are mixing up \*resurrection \* with reanimation. They werent zombies, they were living people. That’s the opposite of what the text actually says: > [@](#): > > At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2015, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/8 "2015-04-05T22:55:12Z")
The Jewish mothers tried to fix them up with their daughters, and the resurrected all went back to their tombs where it was safer. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/9 "2015-04-06T00:42:25Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > That’s the opposite of what the text actually says: > > > [@](#): > > > > The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. What you quoted is there verbatim in the original Greek: και πολλα σωματα των κεκοιμημενων αγιων ηγερθη kai polla somata ton kekoimemenon hagion egerthe ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/10 "2015-04-06T01:58:41Z")
But the bodies were raised to life and zombies are undead, not living. They might be [flesh golems](http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/golem.htm#fleshGolem) but then they’d have had to swap body parts so each was made of at least 6 bodies. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/11 "2015-04-06T02:57:09Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > That’s the opposite of what the text actually says: > > :eek: Yes,\* raised \*to _LIFE_, not \*animated \*to _undead_. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/12 "2015-04-06T03:14:11Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Man, that’s a lot of diamonds! Who knew Jesus was loaded? He spent those three days filling his Bag of Holding in the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Mineral. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/13 "2015-04-06T07:43:23Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Yes,\* raised \*to _LIFE_, not \*animated \*to _undead_. I think you’re splitting hairs - The zombies in [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Living_Dead) documentary are described as ‘living’ ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/14 "2015-04-06T12:57:34Z")
Jesus apparently retained the Stigmata post resurrection. Are the other people who were bodily resurrected supposed to have also retained the wounds that killed them? Depending on how traumatic their deaths were, I imagine Jerusalem might end up looking like the waiting room in Beetlejuice. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/15 "2015-04-06T13:07:39Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > The least embarrassing answer proposed by various biblical commentators seems to be that they ascended bodily to heaven when Jesus did 40 days later. I wonder why they didn’t just think the resurrected continued to live normal lives and died normally later. Does the Bible ever say what happened to Lazarus? Did he just live some more as if he never died and then die normally? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/16 "2015-04-06T13:16:25Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > The least embarrassing answer proposed by various biblical commentators seems to be that they ascended bodily to heaven when Jesus did 40 days later. Wouldn’t that be 43 days later? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/17 "2015-04-06T13:38:54Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Wouldn’t that be 43 days later? Point. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/18 "2015-04-06T15:13:09Z")
Of all the things the historians could have written about, you’d think they would have included that time the dead got up and walked around Jerusalem. Really, how would anyone know anything about some guy the Romans killed when on the same day the contents of a graveyard wandered into town? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/19 "2015-04-06T15:23:00Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Yes,\* raised \*to _LIFE_, not \*animated \*to _undead_. Maybe I’m missing your point. What’s the functional difference for the purposes of this question? If people, who had been entombed, thus presumably dead, came out of their tombs and started walking around, wouldn’t that be shocking and noteworthy? What happened to them- did they live years and die natural deaths (again) or were they immune to death having been raised from the dead before? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887/20 "2015-04-06T18:25:50Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Maybe I’m missing your point. What’s the functional difference for the purposes of this question? > > If people, who had been entombed, thus presumably dead, came out of their tombs and started walking around, wouldn’t that be shocking and noteworthy? What happened to them- did they live years and die natural deaths (again) or were they immune to death having been raised from the dead before? They were no more zombies than a persona who has been resuscitated in a ER is- this has nothing to do with zombies. However, what happened to them after is a point of biblical debate. Some say they went about normal lives then died normal deaths- other say they were apparitions only- others say “they must have gone to heaven with the Lord when He ascended.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-easter-zombies/716887.md?page=2)