---
title: Matthew 27:51
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-27-51/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-27-51.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 27:51
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 27:51

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split.

## JW Usage

Jehovah's Witnesses acknowledge that the temple curtain was torn at Jesus' death but do not draw from it the conclusion of universal priestly access. The Watchtower maintains that direct access to God's presence — entering "the Most Holy Place" (Hebrews 10:19) — applies only to the 144,000 anointed Christians who have a heavenly hope. The great crowd relates to God through the mediating role of the anointed class and the organisation they superintend. The tearing of the veil is treated primarily as a sign that the Mosaic system of animal sacrifices had ended, rather than as a declaration that every believer now has unmediated access to the Father.

## Protestant Usage

The tearing of the temple curtain "from top to bottom" at the moment of Jesus' death is a decisive act of God — the direction (top to bottom) signals divine initiative, not human action. The curtain separated the Holy of Holies, where God's presence dwelt, from the rest of the temple. Its destruction signifies that the old system of restricted, mediated priestly access has been permanently dismantled by Christ's finished sacrifice. Hebrews 10:19-22 draws the explicit application: every believer now has "confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus." This is paired with 1 Peter 2:9, where Peter calls the whole church "a royal priesthood," and with Hebrews 10:11-14, where the contrast between standing priests (whose work was never done) and the seated Christ (whose work is finished) underscores the completeness of the atonement. Matthew 27:51 thus challenges both the Watchtower's two-tier mediator hierarchy and any system that interposes a human organisation between the believer and God.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- ["It Is Finished" — The Completed Atonement](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/tetelestai-finished.md) — John 19:30 / Hebrews 10:11-14 [Salvation]
- [A Royal Priesthood — Every Believer is a Priest](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/universal-priesthood-1peter29.md) — 1 Peter 2:9 / Revelation 1:6 / 5:10 — The end of mediating classes [Authority]
- [All Believers Will See Yahweh's Face](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/aaronic-blessing-unveiled-face.md) — Numbers 6:24-26 / 2 Corinthians 3:18 / 1 John 3:2 [Salvation]