- 18 Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying, 19 Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
- 20 Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. 21 And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise. 22 And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also. 23 In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.
- 24 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? 25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
- 26 And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.
- Compare: Matthew 22:23-33; Luke 20:27-40
Jesus’ Ideas About Resurrection
In the previous passage, Temple authorities sent Pharisees and Herodians to trap Jesus into saying something that would get him into trouble. They failed, evidently teaching the authorities that if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. Now several Sadducees meet with Jesus in order to pose a new challenge to him.
Who were the Sadducees? They were a class of aristocratic priests who controlled much of what went on with the Temple in Jerusalem. They held the reigns of power and they were a very conservative group. They followed the written law strictly and rejected efforts to introduce novel ideas or practices — something characteristic of the Pharisees of the time.
This renders Mark’s narrative rather curious because it would be unlikely for Sadducees and Pharisees to be working together in such a manner. It is possible, however, that Mark simply needed a new group of opponents for literary reasons.
Sadducees did not believe in resurrection — a doctrine not actually mentioned in the written law — so they were trying to show that the doctrine of resurrection was incompatible with the law by postulating a bizarre situation. The kind of Levirate marriage they describe did exist in written law, but even if the practice continued to be common during at that time it’s unlikely that anything approaching the circumstances they describe would occur.
The entire situation, though, exists so that Jesus can give an answer that relates to his mission — that’s what Mark’s audience would expect and the use of absurd questions wouldn’t have mattered. Jesus arguably gives two answers. The first denies that there is any problem because our post-resurrection existence is qualitatively different from our life now — things like marriage simply don’t exist as we understand them.
The second answer, phrased in an awkward manner, seems designed to support the idea that resurrection does indeed occur (remember that the Sadducees and others didn’t believe in it): God is the God of the living, God is also the God of the patriarchs, therefore the patriarchs can’t really be dead and the Sadducees err in denying the reality of resurrection. It’s a weak argument, to be sure, but it probably sounded convincing at the time.
