Verses 26-27
In concluding that the Old Testament did not teach the resurrection, the Sadducees had overlooked an important passage in the Torah (Pentateuch). They regarded the Torah as particularly authoritative. Exodus 3:6 taught continued human existence after death. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were still alive in Moses’ day. The Sadducees not only rejected the resurrection but also life after death. [Note: Josephus, Antiquities of . . ., 18:1:4; idem, The Wars . . ., 2:8:14. See the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, s.v. "Sadducees," by D. A. Hagner, 5:214-15.] The Jews had a more holistic view of man than most modern westerners do (cf. Genesis 2:7). The Sadducees concluded that if the material part of man died, the whole person ceased to exist. Jesus, who held the same unified view of man, argued that if the immaterial part of man lived the whole person would live.
The major error of the Sadducees was their mistaken understanding of scriptural revelation. Jesus’ final rebuke (Mark 12:27), unique in the second Gospel, stressed that flaw.
"If the death of the patriarchs is the last word of their history, there has been a breach of the promises of God guaranteed by the [Abrahamic] covenant, and of which the formula ’the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob’ is the symbol. It is in fidelity to his covenant that God will resurrect the dead." [Note: Lane, p. 430.]
Be the first to react on this!
