The Graves Were Opened

When Samuel the Lamanite prophesied to the Nephites five years before the Savior’s birth, he included this sign as one they would see around the time of the three days of darkness: “And many graves shall be opened, and shall yield up many of their dead; and many saints shall appear unto many” (Helaman 14:25).  The Savior referred to this specific prophecy nearly 40 years later when He reviewed the Nephite records with Nephi, saying, “Verily I say unto you, I commanded my servant Samuel, the Lamanite, that he should testify unto this people, that at the day that the Father should glorify his name in me that there were many saints who should arise from the dead, and should appear unto many, and should minister unto them. And he said unto them: Was it not so?”  Nephi confirmed, “Yea, Lord, Samuel did prophesy according to thy words, and they were all fulfilled.”  The Savior then questioned, “How be it that ye have not written this thing, that many saints did arise and appear unto many and did minister unto them?”  Surely this not a comfortable position for Nephi—the prophet who had daily visits from angels—to be in as he realized he had not quite done what his stewardship required. 

               The Lord was referring to the fulfilment of Samuel’s prophecy that had not been written; it had not been recorded yet that saints did indeed arise from the dead and minister to the people.  After recounting this exchange Mormon confirmed that Nephi did include the fulfilment of this prophecy in the record: “And it came to pass that Jesus commanded that it should be written; therefore it was written according as he commanded.”  One thing this seems to suggest is that the arrival of the Savior in 3 Nephi 11 among them was not immediately after the three days of darkness but that significant time—i.e. weeks or months—had elapsed so that the appearances could have taken place and the record reasonably been written (3 Nephi 10:18 also seems to suggest the Savior’s visit was not directly after the three days of darkness).  This also may explain why the Nephites first thought the Savior was an angel descending from heaven; they may have had very recent visits from angelic resurrected beings—saints risen from the grave—therefore they mistook the Savior for another one of these visits (see 3 Nephi 11:8). 

               One immediate question, then, is why didn’t Mormon himself record the events of saints rising from the dead and ministering to the people?  Mormon recorded the prophecy, and he recorded the Savior’s admonition to Nephi to write down the fulfillment of the prophecy, but Mormon didn’t leave a record of the actual fulfillment that Nephi recorded in his record.  Nowhere besides in this encounter with the Savior are we told about the saints rising from the dead among the Nephites.  This is in fact similar to the Bible, for Matthew gave us nearly the same description of what happened in the Old World: “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” (Matt. 27:52-53).  But, like Mormon, Matthew didn’t give us any more detail about what happened.  Perhaps Mormon didn’t write them because the events themselves were so sacred; he did tell us that he did “write the things which have been commanded me of the Lord” and that he had to hold back—not writing even a hundredth part of the proceedings of the people at this time—because “the Lord forbade it” (3 Nephi 26:6-12).  Whatever the reason that he did not record more details for us, the important point is that it did occur and that, because of Christ, the resurrection will similarly occur for all of us.