Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Marriage and the resurrection

¹⁸ Some Sadducees approached Jesus (Sadducees, by the way, deny the resurrection).

¹⁹ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that ‘if a man’s brother dies, and leaves a wife but no child, the brother should take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’ ²⁰ Well now: there were once seven brothers. The first married a wife, and died without children. ²¹ The second married the widow, and died without children. The third did so as well, ²² and so did all seven, still without leaving children. Finally the woman died too. ²³ So: when they rise again in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven had her, after all.”

²⁴ “Where you’re going wrong,” replied Jesus, “is that you don’t know the scriptures, or God’s power. ²⁵ When people rise from the dead, they don’t marry, nor do people give them in marriage. They are like angels in heaven.

²⁶ “However, to show that the dead are indeed to be raised, surely you’ve read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, what God says to Moses? ‘I am Abraham’s God, Isaac’s God and Jacob’s God’? ²⁷ He isn’t the God of the dead, but of the living. You are completely mistaken.”