Luke 20:27 - 40
27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, 28 and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man[f] must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. 30 And the second 31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”
34 And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons[g] of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” 39 Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” 40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
Questions:
ReplyDelete1. Why were the Sadducees asking this question?
2. Will marriage relationships and relationships in general be remembered in heaven?
3. It says, "to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead". Is the resurrection from the dead limited only to those considered worthy? Explain this.
4. Explain the significance of being "Sons of God" and "sons of the resurrection".
5. What does it mean that "he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”?
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/11/mark-1218-27-18-then-sadducees-say.html says:
ReplyDeleteSome Catholics will point to the phrase "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living" as proof that people never really die, but rather their "soul" continues to live on after death. However it is clear from the above passages that the issue in question is God's power to raise the dead from the grave in a resurrection, something the Sadducees clearly rejected.
The dead are in the grave, corrupt, decayed, dust, awaiting their resurrection at the last trumpet. At their resurrection they will put on incorruption, immortality, but until then they rest in the grave.
his sentence did not start there! Instead he said this speaking about the resurrection: “But concerning the resurrection of the dead…”. Indeed, God is not a God of dead but of living. Why? Not because the dead are now living somewhere, but because God will raise the dead and they will live again. It is “concerning the resurrection of the dead” that “He is not a God of dead but of living”.
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If Jesus means, therefore, that the patriarchs are currently alive and conscious, he must believe that they have already been raised, otherwise it is an argument not for resurrection but merely for the continued existence of the dead—as shades in Sheol, for example. With the exception of the anomalous account of the raising of the dead from their tombs in Matthew 27:52-53, this would run contrary to the broad biblical understanding of resurrection as an end of the age event—though what is meant by “end of the age” is another matter. In the New Testament Jesus is the “first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20), the “firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:18).
The quotation from Exodus 3:6, therefore, means that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is committed to the future life of his people: he is God not of the dead but of the living. The specific thought is simply that the patriarchs will also be raised in the coming resurrection.
I should point out that belief in the continuing existence of the patriarchs is found in 4 Maccabees 7:19 and 16:25. Faithful Jews who die under torture will live, as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob live. Two things need to be taken into account, however. First, these martyrs expect to be raised from dead (cf. 2 Macc. 7:9, 14), not simply to enter an afterlife. Secondly, the reference is always to the patriarchs.
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Jesus went to heaven—by way of the ascension—only after he had been raised from the dead. When the New Testament speaks of others going to be with Christ, who is at the right hand of the Father, the same sequence applies. Those who have fallen asleep, who have died, will be raised from death at the parousia in order to be reunited with the living; then all those who have believed “will always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17).
Nothing in these texts suggests a conscious intermediate state. People die in Adam; they are raised to life at the coming of Jesus.
https://hartmangroupdevotionsmark.blogspot.com/2018/11/mark-1218-27-18-then-sadducees-say.html continued:
ReplyDeleteThe biblical hope is not that the soul will someday be separated from the body and fly off to heaven and be forever with God in heaven in this disembodied existence. That’s actually a very Greek understanding of the afterlife, from the Greek philosophers like Plato, and it’s very different from the Jewish-Hebrew way of thinking of the afterlife. For Jews and for the early Christians alike, the hope of immortality was not the immortality of the soul alone but rather the resurrection of the body. This physical body will be raised from the dead and transformed to immortal life.
Christ’s resurrection is our model here. Here Christ is said to be the first fruits of the general resurrection of the dead that will eventually take place; but His resurrection has already taken place in advance as a forerunner and a harbinger of our eventual resurrection, so that our resurrection bodies will be modeled on, or patterned on, Christ’s.
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I think that the Bible is clear on this: There will be a physical resurrection of Christ-followers when Jesus comes back.
I'm not sure about the rest. But let's tackle some of the questions and list the options:
Question 1: What happens between death and resurrection (or what is the soul)?
There's a wide range of views/interpretations on this. Some believe that the soul is completely integrated with our bodies. When the body dies, the soul dies (both will be resurrected when Jesus comes back). Some believe that the soul always lives and goes to be with Jesus right away. An intermediate belief is that the soul is unconscious during "death" to be woken at Jesus' coming.
Personally, I think that the Greek influence (and probably more so, cartoons) has corrupted our understanding of what a soul is. I've pretty much am going back to the drawing board and trying to see just what the Bible says about it. And what I find is . . . unclear. It's irrefutable that Jesus is going to come back to bodily resurrect the dead. Beyond that, there are some verses that may or may not give clues to the state of the soul during death.
I find that there are verses that can be argued away, leaving me unsure of the answer (not that I need one). However, I must admit that the "soul is annihilated" group has their stuff together much more that the "soul is always alive" people. The "soul is annihilated" people look at all the verses and have well reasoned arguments on each verse (explaining the context on any that, on the surface, seems to point the other way). While the "soul is always alive" people have pretty poor arguments (they go so far and then engage in what I judge to be flights of fancy). I quickly point out that this isn't enough to sway me (much) either way. It may be that the majority view has not bothered to argue against the minority view.
In that vein, I am going to put forth speculation that may bridge the two views - a third possible option. It's based on the fact that God is much bigger than we can imagine.
I speculate that God exists outside of our time. Imagine God looking at the entire earth and it's entire history as we look at a goldfish bowl (and imagine Him being able to "zoom in and out" on what He wants). Is it possible that both groups are right? That we die, body and soul, are resurrected, body and soul? But, when Jesus comes back, He lifts us out of the fish bowl (of space and time)? If that sort of describes what's going on, it would explain both that the soul dies, but that Christ-followers also exist outside the fish bowl (outside of our space and time), and in a sense, are alive right now.
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/20-27.htm says:
ReplyDeleteThe number of the elect shall be perfect, so there shall be no need of marrying, or giving in marriage, to multiply the number of men.
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On the Sadducees see the Excursus on Jewish Sects. They were undeterred by the discomfiture of the Pharisees and Herodians, and perhaps their plot had been so arranged as coincidently to humiliate our Lord, if they could, by a difficult question, and so to shake His credit with the people. Some have supposed that the memorable incident of the Woman taken in Adultery (John 8:1-11) also took place on this day; in which case there would have been three temptations of Christ, one political, one doctrinal, and one speculative. But that incident rose spontaneously, whereas these had been pre-arranged.
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This is the only occasion related in the Gospels where our Lord comes in direct conflict with the Sadducees. They were a small but very wealthy and powerful sect. The high priests at this period and their families seem to have belonged generally to this party. They acknowledged as Divine the books of Moses, but refused to see in them any proof of the resurrection, or indeed of life after death. To the prophets and the other books they only attached subordinate importance. Supercilious worldliness, and a quiet indifference to all spiritual things, characterized them at this period. They come, comparatively speaking, little in contact with Jesus during his earthly ministry. While the Pharisee hated the Galilaean Master, the Sadducee professed to look on him rather with contempt. The question here seems to have been put with supercilious scorn. SS. Matthew and Mark preface the Lord's answer with a few words of grave rebuke, exposing the questioners' utter ignorance of the deep things involved in their query.
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/22-23.htm says:
No resurrection - The word "resurrection" usually means the raising up the "body" to life after it is dead, John 11:24; John 5:29; 1 Corinthians 15:22. But the Sadducees not only denied this, but also a future state, and the separate existence of the soul after death altogether, as well as the existence of angels and spirits, Acts 23:8. Both these doctrines have commonly stood or fallen together, and the answer of our Saviour respects both, though it more distinctly refers "to the separate existence of the soul, and to a future state of rewards and punishments," than to the resurrection of the body.
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/20-30.htm says:
ReplyDeleteThis question about the husband of the “Sevenfold widow” was one of the materialistic objections to the Resurrection, which as an insipid ‘difficulty’ had often been discussed in Jewish schools. It was excessively commonplace, and even if Jesus had given the answer which contented the most eminent Rabbis of the Pharisaic schools—that the woman would be the wife of the first husband—it is hard to see what triumph these shallow Epicureans (as the Talmud calls them) would have gained by their question.
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/22-29.htm says:
The "Scriptures," here, mean the books of the Old Testament. By appealing to them, Jesus showed that the doctrine of the future state was there, and that the Sadducees should have believed it as it was, and not have added the absurd doctrine to it that people must live there as they do here. The way in which the enemies of the truth often attempt to make a doctrine of the Bible ridiculous is by adding to it, and then calling it absurd.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-20-commentary says:
ReplyDelete"The Sadducees erred because they were rationalists. If something went beyond human reason, such as God’s power to raise the dead and give them a whole new existence, they didn’t accept it. Rationalism limits knowledge to man and the power of reason. Believing in God and His supernatural power is not irrational, but it is supra-rational. It transcends human reason.
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Of the major groups of Jewish religious leaders, the Sadducees were the smallest and yet one of the most influential, because of their wealth, and aristocratic standing in Jewish society. Many of the priests and chief priest were Sadducees as well as most of the Sanhedrin. They held most of the positions of power in the Temple including oversight of the lucrative business operations in the Court of the Gentiles on the Temple grounds, giving them good reason to hate Jesus Who overturned their lucrative business (Lk 19:45-48). Surprisingly they, like the Herodians, were eager to cooperate with the Romans.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-20-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteAnd so Jesus first points out that the Sadducees have made a major mistake in assuming that (future) that age (Lk 20:35) is simply a continuation of this age.
The Sadducees (and the Pharisees also, so far as they connected marriage and the propagation of the race with the future life), showed themselves incapable of conceiving a power which could produce an entirely different order from any within their experience. They assumed either that God could not raise the dead, or that He could raise them only to a life which would be a counterpart of the present, or even more replete with material pleasures.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-20-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteThough he could have appealed to a prophetic passage like Dan. 12:2, Jesus opts for a text from the Pentateuch because the Sadducees held the Torah in highest regard. A text from that portion of Scripture would be most persuasive for them.
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If He is the God of Isaac and Jacob, then they still exist (Ernst 1977: 545; Marshall 1978: 743). If the patriarchs are alive or are to experience the promise, they must be raised or will be raised.
https://www.preceptaustin.org/luke-20-commentary continued:
ReplyDeleteGod did not say, "I WAS the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but "I AM...." Always the great I AM whose infinitudes never put Him in the past tense, in His sight nobody WAS but everybody IS. Nobody is dead and everybody who has ever lived is still living.
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Bock - On the topics of ministry, politics, and theology, Jesus has prevailed. There is nothing else they wish to raise before him publicly. Each encounter has left Jesus in the position of knowledge and authority. Rather than continue to confront him, they must withdraw. Jesus is too much in control of himself and his theology, so they do not dare to ask any more questions. The effect of these encounters is clear: who can guide the people in God’s way, the Jewish leadership or Jesus?
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, perhaps the greatest of the modern German theologians, said, “The words why, when, where, and how are all words of the faithless. The only word spoken by a man or woman of faith is ‘who.’ And ‘who’ will lead you to Him.”
Questions and findings:
ReplyDelete1. Why were the Sadducees asking this question?
Up until this point, it had been a great question to confound those who believed in an afterlife. I think they wanted to use it to make Jesus look foolish, and perhaps they were curious about what Jesus would say to this question.
2. Will marriage relationships and relationships in general be remembered in heaven?
We don't know for sure. Jesus gave a parable about the shrewd manager - the punchline being how if we use money to make friends here on earth we will be welcomed into heavenly dwellings. (Please see Luke 16:1 for a longer discussion). This seems to indicate that we will at least remember our earthly relationships in heaven. I speculate that our "rewards" in heaven, outside of just being there, is based on our relationships we formed here on earth.
3. It says, "to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead". Is the resurrection from the dead limited only to those considered worthy? Explain this.
I think everyone agrees that at the Judgement Day, all will be raised from the dead and judged - some to go onto eternal life, and others to eternal destruction. There's disagreement on what eternal destruction means, but I think everyone agrees that those doomed to eternal destruction do not count as receiving eternal life.
4. Explain the significance of being "Sons of God" and "sons of the resurrection".
There's a history behind "Sons of God". Mike Heiser and the "Naked Bible Podcast" claims that the "Sons of God" were God's original counsel made up of spiritual beings (at least some of whom rebelled), and that believers will form the new counsel (and inherit the Sons of God title) after Jesus' final return. This "Sons of God" reference appears all over the Bible. The Sons of the Resurrection term, I think, is describing that the future Sons of God will be resurrected from the dead in Him.
5. What does it mean that "he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”?
There's a variety of views on this. Some people claim that no one really dies, but their souls live on (until judgement). This is the traditional common "western" view. Others would claim that God perceives through time, so that everyone and every time exists for Him. This includes the view that people don't exist after they are dead until they are resurrected at the Judgement.
I propose a hybrid of the two - that God does exist outside of time and is omnipresent at all points of time simultaneously. Furthermore, when people die (in New Testament times - I think Old Testament souls were held in Hades), God lifts us into His realm to the final Judgement. For those of us He saves, we concurrently exist in the same realm as God. This is just a proposal for thought. I really don't think anyone has the answer to this question. I make no claim that my proposal is accurate (although it does answer quite a few questions).