Bible Study series: Mark 12:18-27. Jesus deftly handled their hypotheticals.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together how to apply these truths to our lives.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
If you would like to see the original Greek, please click here:
At that link, I also offer more commentary and a Summary and Conclusion, geared towards discipleship. Scroll down to the bottom and check it out!
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Mark 12:18-27
18 The Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came up to him and inquired of him, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that ‘if a brother died and left a wife and left no child, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.’ [Deut. 25:5] 20 There were seven brothers. The first took a wife and died and left no offspring. 21 The second one took her and died and left no offspring. And the third one—likewise. 22 The seven left no offspring, and last of all, the wife died. 23 At the resurrection, when they are raised, whose wife shall she be? For seven of them had her as wife.
24 Jesus said to them, “Isn’t it for this reason that you are deceived: not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they will neither marry or be given in marriage, but they shall be like the angels in heaven. 26 But concerning the dead and that they are raised: Haven’t you read in the book of Moses at the burning bush how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? [Exod. 3:6, 15, 16] 27 God is not of the dead, but of the living. You are greatly deceived.” (Mark 12:18-26)
Comments:
This is the fourth of six “controversy stories” between Jesus and the Jerusalem establishment (11:27-12:44).
Some religions, like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, believe in reincarnation. However, this passage contradicts it. We, the redeemed, will be like angels.
See my post
Ten Big Differences between Christianity and Other Religions
18-23:
Deut. 25:5-6 reads:
This requirement is known as the Levirate marriage (from the word “brother”). It was a legal provision for a brother to marry his brother’s wife, in order to keep his brother’s name alive. The problem is that this could incur heavy financial responsibility, so some brothers broke the family law (see Gen. 38:8-10).
The number seven speaks of completion, as if this was the ultimate unsolvable case. It was their attempt to show how ridiculous the idea of the resurrection was.
It is odd that these Sadducees speak of the resurrection when they don’t believe in it. But they were simply testing Jesus on his own grounds. Implied: “Since you believe in the resurrection of the dead (and we don’t), let’s assume for the sake of argument that such a thing does happen. People really are raised from the dead. Whose wife will the woman be when it happens? All seven took her as wife!” The clearest resurrection text is Dan. 12:2, but Jesus is about to teach it by using the Torah, which is their home turf.
It may seem odd that these Sadducees speak of the resurrection when they don’t believe in it. But they were simply testing Jesus on his own grounds. Implied: “Since you believe in the resurrection of the dead (and we don’t), let’s assume for the sake of argument that such a thing does happen. People really are raised from the dead. Whose wife will the woman be when it happens? All seven took her as wife!” The clearest resurrection text is Dan. 12:2, but Jesus is about to teach it by using the Torah, which is their home turf.
24-27:
“deceived”: it could be translated as “mistaken,” but I like deceived because it is stronger. Deception can run deep.
“power”: it is the noun dunamis (or dynamis) (pronounced doo-na-mees or dee-na-mis, but most teachers prefer the first one). It is often translated as “power,” but also “miracle” or “miraculous power.” It means power in action, not static, but kinetic. It moves. Yes, we get our word dynamite from it, but God is never out of control, like dynamite is. Its purpose is to usher in the kingdom of God and repair and restore broken humanity, both in body and soul. For nearly all the references of that word and a developed theology, please click on:
What Are Signs and Wonders and Miracles?
God is powerful and able to make people alive after they die.
Then Jesus gives some very interesting revelations of what the afterlife is like.
We will be like the angels at the final resurrection. Heb. 2:7 says that God made humankind a little lower than angels or lower than angels for a little while (either translation works). So down here on earth, in our current earth suits, we are lower than angels. But in our deathless earth suits we will be unable to die, for mortality will be shucked off and God will put on us immortality. We will be like angels. It’s going to be amazing!
Why will we be unable to die and be like angels? Because we are the children of God and the children of the resurrection. This shows directly that our immortality depends on God’s transforming power and indirectly that those who are not children of God do not have immortality, which is conditioned on their being his children.
Ten Biblical Truths about Your New Body
In v. 25, we will not get married or be married off (given in marriage) because we won’t need to propagate the human species. We will have new resurrection bodies. But this does not mean that we won’t know our spouses and other family members. We will not be floating on clouds and playing harps. God will refurbish the heavens and the earth, and he is infinitely creative, so we will have lots to do. Our relationships in this life will be enhanced and better than we could ever dream of or experienced. They will be more intimate.
In v. 26, Jesus shifts gears and addresses the Sadducean unbelief about the resurrection. He beautifully reads the text in Exod. 3. Both God and Moses said that the Lord is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (3:6, 15, 16). By itself, some could accuse this interpretation of overreading the passage. God was simply identifying who he was in relation to the Israelites. He was the God of their ancestors. However, Jesus reminds us that God is omniscient. Everyone is alive to God. So when Moses spoke those words, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were alive before God. And so is everyone else who walked the planet, whether in sheol or hades or paradise or some sort of holding tank before Jesus’s resurrection. This theology goes way beyond ancestry. All of these living humans, even after their death, leads to the further belief, not spoken of here but elsewhere (1 Cor. 15:35-58), that everyone will be reunited with their transformed bodies and undergo judgment to decide their ultimate fate, whether heaven or hell.
See my posts about heaven and hell:
This pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or section ends suitably. What happened to the Sadducees? To judge from their silence, apparently the Sadducees were humiliated.
Jesus was in control. He “owned” every major religious-political sect or group and everyone else who opposed him. This is the power of the Spirit flowing through him and receiving wisdom from God.
It says we are like angels, not that we are angels. Don’t overinterpret the phrase. We will have a similar glory and immortality, but we will not be angels. We will be fully redeemed, and angels never experienced redemption (1 Peter 1:12).
There is no verb “am” in Greek, nor is there a verb in Exod. 3:15-16. So something deeper is working here. Lane is on target about this and writes:
The concept “God of the dead” implies a blatant contradiction, especially in the context of the Sadducean understanding of death as extinction, without the hope of the resurrection. If God had assumed the task of protecting the patriarchs from misfortune during the course of their life, but fails to deliver them from that supreme misfortune which marks the definitive and absolute check upon their hopes, his protection is of little value. But it is inconceivable that God provide for the patriarchs some partial tokens of deliverance and leave the final word to death, of which all the misfortunes and suffering of human existence are only a foretaste. If the death of the patriarchs is the last word of their history, there has been a breach of the promises of God guaranteed by covenant, and of which the formula “the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob” is the symbol. It is in fidelity to his covenant that God will resurrect the dead. In citing Exod. 3:6, Jesus showed how resurrection faith is attached in a profound way to the central concept of the biblical revelation, the covenant, and how salvation promised by God to the patriarchs and their descendants in virtue of the covenant contains implicitly the assurance of the resurrection. It was a failure to appreciate the essential link between God’s covenant faithfulness and the resurrection which had led the Sadducees into their grievous error. (p. 430)
In other words, Jesus affirms the doctrine of the resurrection on the basis of God’s faithful covenant, which had sustained the patriarchs during their lives on earth and which will cause them to live with God beyond the grave. I add: We have a better covenant, and Christ’s resurrection guarantees our resurrection too—or the resurrection of our bodies when the final trumpet sounds.
Here is a multi-part study of angels in the area of systematic theology, but first, here is a summary list of the basics:
Angels:
(a) Are messengers (in Hebrew mal’ak and in Greek angelos);
(b) Are created spirit beings;
(c) Have a beginning at their creation (not eternal);
(d) Have a beginning, but they are immortal (deathless).
(e) Have moral judgment;
(f) Have a certain measure of free will;
(g) Have high intelligence;
(h) Do not have physical bodies;
(i) But can manifest with immortal bodies before humans;
(j) They can show the emotion of joy.
Angels: Their Duties and Missions
Angels: Their Names and Ranks and Heavenly Existence
Angels: Their Origins, Abilities, and Nature
As noted, we won’t become them, but we will be like them.
Now let’s explore the final resurrection, which Jesus believed in, and so did his Spirit-guided church.
“at the resurrection”: This does not refer to his personal resurrection, which will happen in a few days. His resurrection on the third day will lead the way for everyone’s resurrection on the last day. On the last day, which is ushered in by the Second Coming, our bodies will be transformed into new bodies, just like his.
Please see these posts here:
Rapture = Second Coming and Happens at Same Time, on Last Day
So what happens immediately after the Second Coming and the resurrection of the dead? Judgment of both the wicked and righteous, at the same time. Jesus says:
27 And he [the Father] has given him [the Son of Man] authority to pass judgment because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not be amazed at this because the hour is coming when those in their tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out: those doing good things to the resurrection of life, but the ones practicing wickedness to the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:27-29, my translation)
Matt. 13:39-43, 16:27, 19:28, and 25:31-46 also teach the judgment of the righteous and wicked at the same time.
What Will Heaven Be Like for You?
And so Jesus’s teaching is streamlined, consistent, and unconvoluted, without two “final” judgments or “several” first resurrections or a separate rapture and then the Second Coming. The Gospels and Epistles teach the same message and timeline of events. Neither Jesus in the Gospels nor his apostolic community in the Epistles taught complicated end-time scenarios, as popular prophecy teachers do today.
GrowApp for Mark 12:18-27
1. The Sadducees were defeated in debate. Have you every had your pet beliefs overturned? Example: at first you did not believe in God or your belief was shallow; now you believe deeply in him. Tell your story.
RELATED
10. Eyewitness Testimony in Mark’s Gospel
2. Church Fathers and Mark’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
For bibliographical data, please click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
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