Old/New Testament
The question of the resurrection
23 The same day some Sadducees came to him. (The Sadducees deny the resurrection.) Their question was this.
24 “Teacher,” they began, “Moses said, ‘If a man dies without children, his brother should marry his widow and raise up seed for his brother.’ 25 Well now, there were seven brothers living among us. The first got married, and then died, and since he didn’t have children he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened with the second and the third, and so on with all seven. 27 Last of all the woman died. 28 So: in the resurrection, whose wife will she be, of all the seven? All of them had married her, after all.”
29 This was Jesus’ answer to them: “You are quite mistaken,” he said, “because you don’t know your Bibles or God’s power. 30 In the resurrection, you see, people don’t marry or get married off; they are like angels in heaven. 31 But as for the resurrection of the dead, did you never read what was said to you by God, in these words: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He isn’t God of the dead, but of the living.”
33 The crowds heard this, and they were astonished at his teaching.
The Great Commandment, and David’s Master
34 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they got together in a group. 35 One of them, a lawyer, put him on the spot with this question.
36 “Teacher,” he said, “which is the most important commandment in the law?”
37 “You must love the Lord your God,” replied Jesus, “with all your heart, with all your life, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first commandment, and it’s the one that really matters. 39 The second is similar, and it’s this: You must love your neighbor as yourself. 40 The entire law hangs on these two commandments—and that goes for the prophets, too.”
41 While the Pharisees were gathered there, Jesus asked them, 42 “What’s your view of the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
“David’s,” they said to him.
43 “Why then,” said Jesus, “does David (speaking by the spirit) call him ‘Master,’ when he says,
44 The Master says to my master,
sit here at my right hand,
until I place your enemies
down beneath your feet.
45 “If David calls him ‘Master,’ how can he be his son?”
46 Nobody was able to answer him a single word. From that day on nobody dared ask him anything any more.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.