Mark 12:18-27 8. ABOUT THE Mark 12:18-27 (Matthew 22:23-33; Luke 20:27-40) 18 And there come unto him--Matthew (Matthew 22:23) says: "On that day." That is, the same day that Jesus put to flight the Pharisees and Herodians. They now try another plan by a different party. Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection;--The Sadducees were a religious sect which originated about B.C. 260. Some suppose that Zadok was founder of the sect. They were opposed to the Pharisees, and rightly rejected tradition; but denied the resurrection and the existence of angels and spirits. (Acts 23:8.) As a sect they disappeared from history after the first century. The Jews were divided into three principal sects, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. Only once previous to this time did the Sadducees engage in active opposition to Jesus. (Matthew 16:1.) and they asked him, saying,--The question follows in next verses. 19 Teacher, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave a wife behind him, and leave no child, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.--That is, the children would be recognized in the genealogy of the deceased brother; or to all civil purposes, would be recognized as his. The custom of taking a deceased brother's wife and raising up children unto his brother was older than the law that gave it divine sanction. It was observed in the family of Jacob long before the giving of the law. (Genesis 38:6-11.) 20-23 There were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed; and the second took her, and died, leaving no seed behind him; and the third likewise: and the seven left no seed. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.--Having cited the law, they now state the case and we may suppose as difficult as possible. 24 Jesus said unto them, Is it not for this cause that ye err, that ye know not the scriptures, nor the power of God?--As usual he answers them in a way they were not expecting. He strikes their argument in its weak point--its assumption that marriage would exist after the resurrection. 25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as angels in heaven. --Had they known the scripture doctrine of the resurrection, they would have known that it did not involve the continuance of marriage;and had they known the power of God, they would have known that he could raise the saints without those carnal propensities on which marriage is based. 26 But as touching the dead, that they are raised;--Having overthrown the objection of the Sadducees, Jesus now furnishes a proof of the resurrection. have ye not read in the book of Moses, in the place concerning the Bush, how God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?--The burning bush. (Exodus 3:2.) The passage he quotes is Exodus 3:6-15. These three had been long dead when Moses wrote this: Abraham 329 years; Isaac 224 years and Jacob 198 years. Yet God was still their God. They must, therefore, be still somewhere living; for God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 27 He is not the God of the dead,--In the sense of extinct, as the Sadducees used the word dead. God is not the God of the non-existent. He can bear no relation to a nonentity. but of the living:--That is, he does not rule over those who are extinct or annihilated, but he is the God only of those who have an existence. Luke (Luke 20:38) says: "All live unto him." That is, all the righteous dead; all of whom he can be properly called their God live unto him. This proves that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had an existence then, or that their souls were alive. This the Sadducees denied. (Acts 23:8.) And this was the main point in dispute. If this was admitted --if there was a state of rewards and punishments--then it would easily follow that the bodies of the dead would be raised. In the Bible the resurrection has reference to the raising of the dead body. The soul is never referred to as being resurrected. ye do greatly err.--Matthew (Matthew 22:33) says: "They were astonished at his teaching." Their astonishment arose from two circumstances: first, that Jesus was at all able to answer the boasted objection of the Sadducees; and second that he found the answers in the writings of Moses, where it was supposed then, and has been supposed since, that the doctrine of the future life is not taught. But Jesus says it is, and when he puts his sanction on a thing, it is final with all who have faith in him.