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The "sleeping saints" (see I Thes. 4:14 and Matt. 27:52,53) are held to be Old Testament believers who, having served the Lord faithfully according to their lights, and who looked forward to the promise of the Messiah's coming, were quickened at the moment of Jesus' death, although they did not come out of their graves until his resurrection. The opening of the graves was symbolic proclamation that death was "swallowed up in victory"; and the rising of the saints after Jesus' resurrection fittingly showed that the Saviour of the world was to be the "first" that should rise from the dead. (See Acts 26:23; Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5.)
