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Et exeuntes de monumentis post resurrectionem ejus, venerunt in sanctam civitatem, et apparuerunt multis.

Why doesn't it say "resurrectiones eorum" instead of "ressurectionem ejus"? They came out of their tombs after their resurrections, not after "its resurrection". Is Jerome trying to be gender-neutral here and is using genitive singular (which doesn't differentiate between masculine and feminine forms) instead of genitive plural because of that?

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    Who would you say the pronoun eius refers to here? If it were the subject of the sentence, it'd be suam instead of eorum.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Commented Sep 7 at 12:05
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    @FlatAssembler: The net translation gives: "They came out of the tombs after Jesus' resurrection...". The resurrections are seen as one miraculous event that happened because of Jesus' resurrection, not as separate, individual resurrections.
    – tony
    Commented Sep 7 at 13:27
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    @tony Right. You should make that an answer.
    – cmw
    Commented Sep 7 at 15:50
  • You're right that its resurrection doesn't make much sense. Maybe it should be His resurrection, which is consistent with Tony's translation.
    – Figulus
    Commented Sep 7 at 22:03

1 Answer 1

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The previous verse, 52, might be worthy of mention:

"et monumenta aperta sunt; et multa corpora sanctorum, qui dormierant surrexerunt."

"The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life."

" (verse 53) They came out of the tombs after Jesus's resurrection. (net)

The "post resurrectionem eius", verse 53, part translates to "after his resurrection", referring specifically to Jesus's resurrection. The use of "eius" as opposed to "eorum" emphasises that the resurrection of the holy people occurred as a direct result of Jesus's resurrection.

In the context of the passage, the resurrection of the holy people is seen as a single, miraculous event that happened because of Jesus's resurrection, not as separate, individual events.

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