The Sadducees and the Resurrection

18 Sadducees,(A) who say there is no resurrection,(B) came to him and questioned him: 19 “Teacher,(C) Moses(D) wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife behind but no child,(E) that man should take the wife(F) and raise up offspring for his brother.[a](G) 20 There were seven brothers. The first married a woman, and dying, left no offspring. 21 The second also took her, and he died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22 None of the seven[b] left offspring. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise,[c] whose wife will she be, since the seven had married her?”

24 Jesus spoke to them, “Isn’t this the reason why you’re mistaken: you don’t know the Scriptures(H) or the power(I) of God?(J) 25 For when they rise(K) from the dead,(L) they neither marry nor are given in marriage(M) but are like angels(N) in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised—haven’t you read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God said to him: I(O) am the God of Abraham(P) and the God of Isaac(Q) and the God of Jacob?[d](R) 27 He is not the God of the dead but of the living. You are badly mistaken.”

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Footnotes

  1. 12:19 Gn 38:8; Dt 25:5
  2. 12:22 Other mss add had taken her and
  3. 12:23 Other mss omit when they rise
  4. 12:26 Ex 3:6,15–16

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