The Johannine Reception of a Matthean Legend

Abstract

Despite considerable interest in Matthew’s raising of the saints (27:50–54), relatively little attention has been paid to its potential reception in John. Some older scholarship noted parallels with John 5:25–29 but either uncritically conflated Matthew and John or assumed a common oral tradition. In light of renewed interest in John’s relationship to the Synoptics, a fresh analysis is warranted. Whereas prior studies focused narrowly on the uniquely Matthean material in 27:51b–53 and the isolated prophecies in John 5:25, 28–29, in this article I attend to narrative features of the gospels—namely, Markan elements in Matthew’s framing of the raising of the saints (27:50–51a, 54) and the partial fulfillment of John 5:25–29 in the Lazarus narrative (John 11:1–12:11)—revealing previously overlooked correspondences. Evaluating various possible explanations for these links, I contend that John’s familiarity with and creative transformation of Matt 27:50–54 offers the most satisfactory account of the evidence. The Gospel of Peter’s free rewriting of Matt 27:50–54 provides a compelling analogy, suggesting that John’s engagement with Matthew need not mimic Synoptic-like compositional strategies but may be fruitfully compared to the apocryphal gospels’ innovative adaptation of canonical texts.