Knowing The Word in Matthew 22:23-33

Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

23 The same day Sadducees [who only took the Pentateuch as their authority and not Isaiah and Daniel which the Pharisees used for their theology of resurrection] came to him, who say that there is no resurrection [Josephus: “The Sadducees hold that the soul perishes along with the body”], and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ [See Deuteronomy 25:5-6 and Genesis 38:8] 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”

29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. [A failure to understand Scripture means a failure to understand and appreciate what God can do.] 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? [Exodus 3:6. Jesus appeals to the Pentateuch to prove resurrection.] He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. [They had assumed that resurrection life was subject to the same conditions as life on earth. There will be no need for procreation in resurrection life.]