Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and put this question to him, 19 saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, ‘If someone’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’ 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants. 21 So the second married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise. 22 And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died. 23 At the resurrection [when they arise] whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her.” 24 Jesus said to them, “Are you not misled because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God? 25 When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven. 26 As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, [the] God of Isaac, and [the] God of Jacob’? 27 He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled.”
Jesus taught about resurrection, “The hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation (Jn. 5:28-29).” The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, angels, or spirits, but the Pharisees believed in all three (Acts 23:8). The Sadducees were comprised mainly of the priestly families and the upper classes (cf. 5:17). They were sympathetic to the Roman occupiers and at that time the high priest was frequently selected from that sect. They only accepted the authority of the Pentateuch and did not follow the traditions of the ancients.
The Sadducees tried to ridicule Jesus’ teaching by presenting him with an absurd situation. They cited the Mosaic Law (v. 19) concerning levirate marriage (Deut. 25:5-10) as support for their position. When one of the brothers married the dead man’s wife, the first son of that marriage was considered the offspring of the dead man thus continuing his line. The reason for levirate marriage was to keep property within the men of the family. Their question was that if seven brothers had the same wife whose wife would she be in the resurrection.
Jesus then explained the meaning of the scriptures and the power of God to them. They did not understand that those resurrected would experience a different kind of existence. God has the power to give life and to raise people from the dead. When they are raised from the dead they will not be as they were in their earthly life. They will be like angels and children of God so will have no need for marriage (Lk. 20:36). Jesus quoted from the Pentateuch (v. 26; Ex. 3:6). The Sadducees must listen to the God of Moses from the Pentateuch who is the same as the God of Abraham and the Patriarchs. God spoke about the Patriarchs in the present tense because he is the God of the living and continues to be their God. God will not abandon to death those who served him.
Almighty God, help us to understand and live your scriptures so that we may grow in holiness and attain the reward of eternal life. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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