Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Daily gospel. Exegesis podcast. Thank you so much for your support. I know many of you have benefited from this podcast and its really giving you a passion for the word of God. If you have been listening for a while, I would love to hear from you. Tell us what you love about the
podcast. How you first heard about about it the way you listen to it, all of that is really great feedback and you can send in questions or information about yourself to the ministry via the email address at the bottom of the show notes which is logical Bible study at gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. Today, we're looking at a really interesting encounter Here with Jesus and the Jewish leaders. Mark chapter 12, verses 18 to 27.
Some Sadducees who deny that there is a resurrection came to him and they put this question to him Master. We have it from Moses in writing, if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child. The man must marry the Widow to raise up children for his brother. Now, there were seven brothers, the first married, a wife. And then died leaving. No children. The second married, the Widow. And he too died. Leaving.
No children. With the third, it was the same and none of the seven left any children. Last of all the woman died, now at the resurrection, when they Rise Again, whose wife will, she be since she had been married to all seven. Jesus said to them, is not the reason why you go wrong that you understand, neither the scriptures nor the power of God For when they rise from the dead men and women do not marry know. They are like the angels in heaven. Now about the Dead Rising again.
Have you never read in the book of Moses in the passage, about the Bush, how God spoke to him, and said, I am the god of Abraham, the god of Isaac, and the god of Jacob, he is, God not of the dead, but of the living, you are very much mistaken. So a really interesting passage and this is one of those ones where we really get a lot from digging into the phrases. And there's some things going on here that Jesus is trying to get across that we might miss. So, let's have a go at doing an
exegesis of this passage. What's the context? So Jesus has entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, this is already happened in. Mark, he's cursed the Fig Tree and his cleanse, the temple, and he's been teaching in the temple up to a now. He's been questioned by the herodians and The Pharisees. We saw that in the previous passage. Now, we see a different group of Jewish leaders who come and try to trap him.
And these are the Sadducees, they don't appear a whole lot in the gospels, but they were quite a prominent group in the time of Jesus. Basically, the Sadducees were wealthy priests who are like the upper class of Jewish Society, not all of them were priests, but certainly all of them were closely associated with the temple. They'll quite a powerful party and And quite an elite party within Judaism, so they had a lot of influence.
Also, part of the Sadducees, was the relatives and the friends of the Sadducees, and all the wealthy aristocracy of Jerusalem, tended, to support the Sadducees as well. So, it's sort of like the Jewish leaders who were supported by the upper class of society. Now, the Sadducees cooperated with the Romans and they facilitated good relationships with them. We started They promoted tolerance in particular as a result.
They had a lot less popular appeal than the Pharisees because most popular people did not want to cooperate with the Romans, but the wealthy Jews did support them. So, that's a bit of background on the Sadducees. But most important is not their political views, but their theological views, and Mark actually tells them a key part of that here. He says, the Sadducees deny.
There is a resurrection So thinking here about the teaching that there will be a resurrection of the body on the last day of The Last Judgement, the Sadducees did not believe that. The Pharisees did believe that with the Sadducees don't. So the Sadducees often consider to be like the Liberals of the day, perhaps the ones who struggle with Supernatural ideas. They only accepted the first five books of Moses, Moses.
And therefore, since nowhere in the first five books of Moses, is it clear that there is going to be a resurrection of the Dead? They didn't believe that there will be a resurrection. Of the Dead, unlike most of the other Jews at the time of Jesus. So, they believed that when the salt, when the body dies, the soul parishes along with it.
So, some Scholars have characterized the Sadducees as conservative in this sense that they are not willing to embrace any new ideas, but they're also kind of progressives in this sense that they really don't like Supernatural teachings.
So, it's an interesting set of beliefs that they have By the way, this is one of the arguments that's worth talking about in relation to how many books should be in the Bible in the Old Testament in particular, because you probably know that Catholics have more books in their Old Testament than other questions do. And often one of the arguments for why the Protestant Bible is correct is that Protestants might say it's in the time of Jesus there was a closed Canon,
everyone knew which books belonged in the Old Testament. Well here, if we look Look, even just at the Sadducees, it's pretty clear that the Jews did not agree, which books should be in the Old Testament, the Pharisees and the Sadducees disagreed. So that's not a particularly good argument to make. It was only later after the time of Jesus that the Jews sort of came up with a universal Cannon and that was not the one that Christians accepted for 1500
years. So there's a whole lot of interesting historical questions about the way that the Canon was determined. It certainly was not agreed upon. Amongst the Jews at the time of Jesus. There were some disputes about it. Anyway, let's get back to the text. So they come to Jesus and they put this question to him. So the Sadducees a bringing a trap question to Jesus, similar to the question, his just answered about paying taxes to Caesar.
And they say this master, we have it from Moses in writing, if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife, but no child, the man must marry the Widow to raise up children for his brother. Now, this was a real Jewish law. It's called the lever right law. This is in Deuteronomy chapter 25, verse 5. And it does say that if a man dies without having children, then his brother must take his wife and have children on his dead brother's behalf. So, this is a real Jewish law
that president. Renting a real law here to Jesus. They haven't made one up and keep in mind since this is in Deuteronomy. That's one of the first five books of the Sadducees do accept this teaching, but they're now going to come up with a fictional scenario that they think shows that doesn't work with the lever right law basically and therefore they're going to try and argue that the resurrection doesn't make sense because this situation would be absurd if the resurrection was
true. So, then I go on to describe this hypothetical scenario, which is deliberately designed to trap Jesus, and they think they're pretty clever. They think the scenario they describe can't possibly make sense if there really is a resurrection from the dead. So they think they've given Jesus a good case here, that's going to trap him. So this is the case that they say. Now, there were seven brothers, the first married, a wife and then died.
Having no children. The second married, the Widow and he too died, having no children. When the third came, it was the same and none of the Seven Brothers, left any children. Last of all the woman herself died. Now at the resurrection, when they Rise Again, whose wife will, she be? Since she had been married to all seven, see see how the argument is supposed to go according to the levirate law.
If this situation happened, then yes, the woman would have to be married seven times, but according to the resurrection that would mean that she has seven husbands and, and so the Sadducees That just doesn't make sense. Now, interestingly the scenario that I described here is quite similar to a real story from the Old Testament that's in Tobit 3:8. Wear something like this does
happen. There's a woman who keeps being married to different Brothers but the brothers keep dying on the wedding night until she's gone through seven different brothers. So that's interesting but we can't read too much into that because the Sadducees did not accept that tobert was one of the books of the Old Testament. So Jesus replies to them. This way. Verse 24 is not the reason why you go wrong.
So notice upfront, Jesus says that they are quite wrong, about the Resurrection being impossible. He says the reason you go wrong is that you neither understand the scriptures nor the power of God. Now that's some quite a insult to these influential Jewish leaders. They don't understand the scriptures or the power of God According To Jesus. So Jesus, he is says that not only did the scriptures, make it clear that there will be a resurrection.
So it's in the scripture he says, on top of that, if they really believed in God, well then of course, he could raise people from the dead. So apparently they have problems with both the scripture and the belief that God can do anything. Now, he's going to address each of these two points in reverse order. So he's going to first address the issue of God, raising people from the dead and then he's going to go back and revisit the issue they have.
With the scriptures. So in other words, his first going to address the marriage issue and then secondly he's going to make a more fundamental point which is that the Sadducees should really accept the resurrection. Because it's actually in the first five books of Moses itself, which they do except. So he starts his defense here in verse 25 for when people rise from the dead men and women do
not marry. So, apparently the Sadducees had this idea that at the Resurrection, when people rise from the dead, it was going to be basically a continuation of the current state of affairs on Earth. So like a mere resuscitation of corpses perhaps Jesus here. First tells them, that's not what the resurrection is going to be like, it's a fundamentally different kind of existence men and women will not marry. So that firstly that undercuts their whole scenario about marriage.
He says, that's not even going to happen in the resurrection. Now the lectionary reading we have here, actually takes out a phrase in the original. If you read Mark chapter 12 in most Bibles here, is what it says, men and women do not marry nor are given in marriage. So there's actually an additional phrase there about being given in marriage and in that culture, basically that referred to sort of the way that men and women did things. So men married, whereas women
were given in marriage. That's sort of how it worked since Jesus uses both phrases. He says people are neither. He says, men and women do not marry nor are given in marriage. A lot of Scholars would say the fact that he deliberately goes out of his way to say, both implies that, there still will be men and women in a sense in the resurrection. People will retain their biological sex and that's important to keep in mind. This is a teaching that a lot of
married. People have struggled with men and women will not marry in the resurrection. And by extension, that probably means that people who were married will no longer be married. And that's, you know, a difficult teaching we need to keep in mind, firstly, that this comes directly from Jesus. This isn't something the church has made up later Jesus here. Teachers that marriage won't be a thing in heaven between
humans. Why, what would be the reason why God wouldn't want people to be married? Heaven. If you think about it, marriage in this life is a sign for the love of God. It's a symbol of the even greater love of God, and God has given us. This gift of marriage on Earth as a symbol of the love. He has for us, but in heaven, in the next life when we're United to God, we will have the real thing. So there's not going to be a
need for models in the same way. So those who make it to heaven will be completely fulfilled by God and therefore, they won't be a need for marriage. And this is kind of similar to
something. Pull says, later on in the New Testament, about a lot of the Old Testament with shadows, cast by Jesus. And now that Jesus, the true light has come then our attention should be focused on Jesus, and not those Shadows. Well, a similar thing can be said about Earthly, marriage, Earthly, marriage is a good thing. It's a shadow of an even better thing, but when we get access to the even better thing, it would be foolish to cling onto the mere Shadows.
So it's a similar kind of argument. Jesus. Now gives his reason for why there won't be marriage in heaven. In the resurrection he says because they will be like the angels in heaven. Now in marks version that's all he says he doesn't explain that comment any further. What does he mean? About angels being like them? So therefore, a lot of people have looked at this and have
tried to interpret. What Jesus means, hear about angels, they've said, perhaps the reason people will be like angels in heaven in. A Shinto marriage. Is that Angels don't have sexual desires.
So therefore humans being like Angels won't have sexual desires either other another interpretation you might hear is that what Jesus means here is that people will literally be angels as in in the resurrection, people become Angels. Now either of those interpretations would be okay if we didn't have any more information but if you look at the version of this passage in Luke, Luke actually gives us more words that Jesus Says here,
Luke's version of this statement is more complete and in Luke's version. Jesus does give the reason as to why humans will be like angels in Luke's version. It says, people will be like Angels because they can no longer die. That's the similarity between humans in the resurrection and angels. So, since humans will no longer die in the resurrection, they're no longer going to need to have children to repopulate the Earth. And therefore, there's no need
to get married with. So you can see how that's the basic argument. Jesus wants to make about why humans are going to be similar to Angels. Now what's interesting about this Jesus bringing up Angels is the Sadducees did not believe in angels. They thought the first five books of Moses doesn't teach that clearly enough so they didn't believe in angels. So Jesus is really digging in here by bringing up angels and throwing it in their face verse 26.
Jesus now moves on to the second reason which remember was about the scriptures. He says this now about the Dead Rising again. So he's going to address their lack of belief, in the resurrection as taught by the first five books of Moses. He says, have you never read it in the book of Moses in the passage, about the Bush, how God spoke to him, and said, I am the god of Abraham, the god of Isaac and the god of Jacob. Now, that's a quote from Exodus chapter 3 verse 6 of The Burning Bush.
God says those things to Moses and obviously the Sadducees did accept that because was The Exodus is part of the first five books verse 27. Jesus says he is God not of the dead but of the living So that's the argument he makes and it's an interesting one, it's probably not the argument that we would make, we might think. But let's think about why Jesus said it this way in the burning bush episode. God says to Moses, I am the god of Abraham, the god of Jacob.
And the god of Isaac notice, that God doesn't say. I was the god of those people. He says, I am But even but by then, by the time of Moses, Abraham, Jacob and Isaac will well and truly dead and yet still God says I am their God. For, for God to be the god of someone, he has to be in a relationship with him. So from this Jesus argues that at the time, Moses received the vision of the burning bush.
It must mean that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and therefore all men are still alive in God's sight, in some sense. So, Jesus is teaching them. People do not stop, existing after death. That's all they're burning. Bush passage teaches us is that God is still in relationship with those patriarchy. So they haven't stopped existing and therefore the main point Jesus makes is that the resurrection is not at all impossible, people Souls do
continue after death. So that might not seem like the best Old Testament texts for Jesus to pick there because there are certainly clear passages in the Old Testament, the talk about the Resurrection, The Book of Daniel it's quite clear that there's going to be a resurrection of the end of time and the Book of Maccabees also has that in there but remember Jesus knows the Sadducees won't accept.
If he quotes from those books from Daniel and Maccabees because the Sadducees don't accept them. So Jesus options of passages that he can quote from a limited to the first buy books. This is the example he picks and it's a very clever one. He finishes by saying you are very much mistaken or was other translations, put it, you are
quite wrong. Now that's where today's passage ends Luke's version tells us that as soon as Jesus finishes telling this the Sadducees accept two feet and they did not dare ask him any more questions. So overall Jesus, he refutes the Trap scenario that was created by the Sadducees and he teaches his hearers about the nature of the Resurrection in the process. Now, in the coming versus will see, Jesus being questioned by other religious leaders in Jerusalem.
An interesting passage, I hope you agree. Let's finish by taking a look at a couple of short paragraphs from the catechism, which discuss what we've heard today in Mark, chapter 12 paragraph. 993 is about the progressive nature of the Resurrection. The Pharisees are many of the Lord's. Contemporaries hoped for the resurrection, Jesus teaches it firmly to the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, he answers is not this.
Why? You are wrong that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God through faith in the resurrection rests, on faith in God, who is not God of the dead, but of the living. So you can see that that passage quotes directly from Mark chapter 12. And then paragraph 16 19. This is an interesting one.
This is in the section about how some people choose virginity, for the sake of the Kingdom. So, it's in the section about marriage virginity, for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven is an unfolding of baptismal Grace, a powerful sign of the supremacy of the bond with Christ and of the Ardent expectation of his return a sign, which also recalls that marriage is a reality of this present age, which is passing away. So here, the church agrees with what Jesus says about marriage.
Being only a temporary thing in this life. And therefore, those who choose virginity in this life, do a good thing. Because in a sense in the next life, we'll all be virgins in a way. So, an interesting application of that particular text. Thank you again for listening. I hope you learned something new once again, can I ask you to please leave a rating on iTunes or wherever you're listening and will continue? Gnu tomorrow.