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.”
After Jesus taught that God must receive what belongs to God, another group approaches Him with a challenge. This time the Sadducees come to Him. They were connected with the priestly leadership and the temple, accepted the books of Moses, the Torah, as their central authority, and denied the resurrection of the dead (v. 18). Their question is framed as a respectful legal problem, but it is meant to make belief in the resurrection look unreasonable.
They appeal to the law of Moses concerning a man who died without a child (v. 19). According to Deuteronomy, the brother of the deceased man was to marry the widow so that the family line of the dead man would continue (Deut. 25:5-10). This law protected the family name and inheritance in Israel. A similar concern for preserving the family line appears in the story of Judah and Tamar (Gen. 38:6-8) and in the story of Ruth (Ruth 4:1-10).
The Sadducees then present an exaggerated case. Seven brothers marry the same woman one after another, and each dies without descendants. Finally, the woman also dies (vv. 20-22). Their question is simple: “At the resurrection [when they arise] whose wife will she be?” (v. 23). They assume that resurrected life would be only a continuation of earthly life, with the same earthly relationships and needs arranged in the same way.
Jesus answers by going to the deeper error beneath the question. “Are you not misled because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God?” (v. 24). The Sadducees know the wording of the law they have quoted, but they have read it narrowly, as if life after the resurrection must be arranged according to the conditions of earthly life.
Jesus then teaches that risen life is different from earthly life. “When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven” (v. 25). He is speaking about the life of the resurrection, where death no longer rules. In this present life, marriage is tied to family, descendants, and the continuation of human life from one generation to the next. In the resurrection, God’s people live in the fullness of life that comes from Him. The needs that belong to mortal life have been fulfilled and surpassed.
The words “like the angels in heaven” mean that resurrected life is no longer subject to death or to the earthly need for marriage and descendants. Jesus is not describing human beings as angels. He is teaching that life after the resurrection belongs to a new order of existence brought about by God. Saint Paul later teaches that the resurrection body is raised in glory and power, transformed by God for the life to come (1 Cor. 15:42-44). The resurrection is bodily life made new by God, not a return to the same limits of earthly life.
Jesus then answers from the books of Moses, the Scriptures the Sadducees accepted most strongly. He points to the burning bush, where God said to Moses, “I am the God of Abraham, [the] God of Isaac, and [the] God of Jacob” (v. 26; Ex. 3:6). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died long before Moses. Yet God still identifies Himself as their God. Jesus draws out the meaning: “He is not God of the dead but of the living” (v. 27).
This is a profound answer because Jesus shows that the hope of resurrected life with God is rooted in God Himself. The patriarchs remain alive to God because God is living and faithful. His covenant does not end in the grave. The same God who called Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob into covenant with Him has power over death and remains faithful to those who belong to Him. The hope of resurrection rests on God’s character, His faithfulness, and His power to raise to new life.
Other Scriptures also bear witness to this hope. Daniel speaks of those who “sleep in the dust of the earth” awakening, some to everlasting life (Dan. 12:2). Isaiah says that the dead shall live and their corpses shall rise (Is. 26:19). Wisdom speaks of the souls of the righteous being “in the hand of God” (Wis. 3:1). Jesus’ answer gathers this hope around the living God who remains faithful to His people.
The Sadducees quote the law to challenge belief in the resurrection. Jesus reveals the life-giving meaning of God’s word. The resurrection is grounded in the power of God, who creates, sustains, and raises to new life. The God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush is the God of the living, and those who belong to Him are held by a life that cannot be destroyed by death.
Father, deepen our faith in Your power to give life. Help us trust in the resurrection promised by Your Son and live each day in hope before You, the God of the living. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Sources and References
- New American Bible, Revised Edition. Mark 12:18-27; notes on Matthew 22:23-33. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
- Hahn, Scott, and Curtis Mitch. The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010.
- José María Casciaro, gen. ed. The Navarre Bible: New Testament, Expanded Edition. Dublin: Four Courts Press; New York: Scepter Publishers, 2008.
- Brown, Raymond E., Joseph A. Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990.
- Aguilar Chiu, José Enrique, et al., eds. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. New York: Paulist Press, 2018.
- Collins, John J., Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid OP, and Donald Senior CP, eds. The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century. Third Fully Revised Edition, with a Foreword by Pope Francis.
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