3 Days 3 Nights Easter Eggs, Part 4

Matthew:

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.  And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.  The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.  Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

The clock is now started.  Jesus has officially "died" on the cross.  If we go by his prophecy, he will be dead tonight (Friday night), all day on Saturday, Saturday night, all day on Sunday, Sunday night, and alive again sometime on Monday.  Or, if we grant him the daytime of Friday, he will come back alive sometime Sunday night.  Wonder what we will see happen in the story?  Stay tuned!

[caption id="attachment_1061" align="aligncenter" width="428" caption="Heavy on the symbolism, the authors likely added details to make the story seem more significant when it likely was a minor event only at the time."][/caption]

This gives us an opportunity, however, to discuss some of the other elements of the story taking place at this time, notably events which are fantastical and would have a huge impact on the region for possibly years to come.  Let's start with two verses from Matthew 27, linked at the top of this post:

And the graves were opened; 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.

These two verses, just casually tossed into the story indicate a major event occurred which would have affected the entire city, and possibly even the region as the story spread.  People who had been dead, possibly for years or even centuries, were now back alive and wandering around Jerusalem.  The verses indicate they were seen by many people and yet, this seemingly minor plot point of the Jesus story has zero other mentions in any extra-Biblical reference or account.  No one wrote about it, least of the Romans, who liked to write down everything.  No merchant wrote a letter back home, no local historian jotted it down, no one marked the occasion by carving it into a stone somewhere.  It's just a one-off reference by Matthew, with no mention in Mark, Luke, or John.

That in itself indicates the story is an exaggeration or simply an event which grew mythic with each retelling among the line of adherents who passed it along.  A massive historical occurrence in that dead people are shuffling around Jerusalem and Matthews gives it a ho-hum mention in passing.