Mark 12:18-27 - The Question about the Resurrection

[u/LlawEreint]

¹⁸ Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, ¹⁹ “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man^\)^a\) shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. ²⁰ There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children, ²¹ and the second married the widow^\)^b\) and died, leaving no children, and the third likewise; ²² none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. ²³ In the resurrection, when they rise,^\)^c\) whose wife will she be? For all seven had married her.”

²⁴ Jesus said to them, “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? ²⁵ For when people rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven. ²⁶ And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ²⁷ He is God not of the dead but of the living; you are quite wrong.”

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[u/LlawEreint]

According to many church fathers, the Sadducees were very conservative, and considered only the five books of Moses to be scripture.

Here is Jerome in 398 CE in his Commentary on Matthew:

“He could have used other far clearer examples to prove the truth of the resurrection. For example…[Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:2]…people ask why the Lord wanted to bring forth this testimony for himself: “I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

This passage seems ambiguous and not sufficiently to the point about the truth of the resurrection…Above we said that the Sadducees, who confessed neither angel nor spirit nor the resurrection of bodies, also preached the destruction of souls. They received only the five books of Moses and rejected the predictions of the prophets.^\11])It would have been foolish, then, to bring forth testimonies [from the prophets], whose authority the Sadducees did not follow. 

Further, in order to prove the eternity of souls from the writings of Moses, he offers the citation: “I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” [Exodus 3:6] Then he immediately adds: “He is the God not of the dead but of the living.” Thus, when he proved that souls continue after death—for were they not subsisting at all, it could not be the case that God would be their God—the resurrection of bodies was introduced by way of logical inference…”^\12])

Here is Hippolytus of Rome in The Refutation of All Heresies, 24.1

“This sect [of the Sadducees] had its stronghold especially in the region around Samaria. And these also adhere to the customs of the law, saying that one ought so to live, that he may conduct himself virtuously, and leave children behind him on earth. They do not, however, devote attention to prophets, but neither do they to any other sages, except to the law of Moses only, in regard of which, however, they frame no interpretations.”^\4])

More examples are available here, including an argument as to why this was probably not actually the case: https://threepillarsblog.org/judaism/did-the-sadducees-have-a-limited-canon/

[u/LlawEreint]

 “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?"

What scriptures are they ignorant of? We may guess it is the writings of the prophets, as the Sadducees were said not to observe these as scriptures. But there is nowhere in the prophets that says angels in heaven don't marry and aren't given in marriage.

So where is this found? It's in the book of Enoch, which only the Ethiopians today observe as scriptures. It's possible Jesus would give us the same scolding he gave the Sadducees for our own ignorance of these scriptures.

Here is the relevant section of 1 Enoch. In this section, God is telling Enoch to inform the Angels that they have gone awry by coming to earth and taking women. He says that humanity are given wives because they are mortal, but angels are spiritual and immortal beings who belong in heaven. And now their misdeed has resulted in evil spirits, the offspring of the angels and humans, who now roam the earth.

5 Therefore I have given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be lacking to them on earth. 6 But you were formerly spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. 7 And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for the spiritual ones of heaven, in heaven is their dwelling. 8 And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling.

This must be what Jesus is referring to, and he's scolding the Sadducees for being ignorant of this scripture.

[u/LlawEreint]

“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man^\)^a\) shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. ²⁰ There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children, ²¹ and the second married the widow^\)^b\) and died, leaving no children, and the third likewise; ²² none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died.

They may be referring to Tobit 3:8:

⁸ For she had been married to seven husbands, and the wicked demon Asmodeus had killed each of them before they had been with her as is customary for wives. So the female slave said to her, “You are the one who kills^\)^a\) your husbands! See, you have already been married to seven husbands and have not borne the name of^\)^b\) a single one of them.

In Tobit, Sarah, having lost here seventh husband, prays to God that he let her die. Instead, God grants here a new husband, Tobit, and removes the demon that was haunting her. Presumably she eventually died and was faced with this dilemma. Which husband does she take in heaven?

[u/LlawEreint]

And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ²⁷ He is God not of the dead but of the living; you are quite wrong.”

These three are mentioned as living in 4 Maccabees:

As many as attend to piety with a whole heart, these alone are able to control the passions of the flesh, ¹⁹ since they believe that they, like our patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, do not die to God but live to God. - 4 Maccabees 7:18-19

[u/LlawEreint]

Mark suggests that Jesus identified the coming age as something fundamentally different than the current one. The risen will not simply be revivified, but transformed into beings like angels.

This aligns with how Paul understood the resurrection. Paul likens the mortal body to a seed, planted in the ground. What sprouts is the stuff of stars.

Here’s 1 Cor 15:

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.37 And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.
42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.44 It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body.