Bible Study series: Luke 20:27-40: They did not even believe in the resurrection. So their absurd scenarios did not even deserve a reply. But he graciously gave them one, anyway.
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together.
I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 20:27-40
27 Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, approached and asked him, 28 saying: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us,
‘If someone’s brother died’ having a wife, ‘and he was childless, his brother is to marry his wife and produce offspring for his brother’ [Deut. 25:5-6; Gen. 38:8]
29 And so there were seven brothers. And the first one married her and died childless. 30 Also the second one; 31 and the third one married her and likewise the seven left no children and died. 32 Finally the wife died. 33 And so at the resurrection, whose wife does the woman become? For all seven took her as a wife!”
34 Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those found worthy to gain that age and the resurrection of the dead neither marry or are given in marriage, 36 nor are they able to die again, because they are like angels, for they are children of God, since they are children of the resurrection.
37 That the dead are raised even Moses made known at the burning bush [Exod. 3:2],
as he called the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob [Exod. 3:6, 15, 16]. 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for everyone is alive to him.”
39 In reply, some of the teachers of the law said, “Teacher, you spoke well.” 40 And they did not dare to ask him anything anymore. (Luke 20:27-40)
Comments:
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
27:
Sadducees:
Please see this link and scroll down in alphabetical order:
Quick Reference to Jewish Groups in Gospels and Acts
28-33:
Deut. 25:5-6 reads:
5 If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. 6 The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. (Deut. 25:5-6, NIV)
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.
The Greek verb here is lambanō, which basically means “to take.” Instead, following other translations, I just wrote “married her.” This idea of taking survives in our old wedding vows: “Do you, John, take Sally to be your lawfully wedded wife?” “I, John, take thee Sally ….” “And I, Sally, do take thee John ….” I didn’t get the wording exactly right, but you get the idea.
The Sadducees are using the reduction ad absurdum argument, which means taking a thought to its logical conclusion will lead to absurdity. “All these husbands—whose wife is she? Can’t answer? Of course not! The whole thing is absurd! No hope in the resurrection!” The Sadducees failed, however, to recognize that there is no marriage in heaven, so the premise of their objection is unfounded. Their argument stops before it begins!
34-36:
Then Jesus gives some very interesting revelations of what the afterlife is like.
First, he contrasts this age with that age. This age is right now. That age is in the future, at the Second Coming and the resurrection of the dead.
It works out like this:
This Age ⸻> Second Coming ⸻That Age ⸻>
For a more thorough look at Jesus’s teaching on the two ages, please go to Luke 9:26:
The Greek noun for age is aiōn (pronounced eye-own, and we get our word aeon from it; it is used 122 or 123 times in the NT).
What Do Words ‘Eternity,’ ‘Eternal’ Fully Mean in the Bible?
So, at that link we learn that the noun and adjective have versatile meanings, but it is clear that “eternal” is attached to God; apart from that modification it mostly means “a long time” or “an age.”
What Do Words ‘Eternity,’ ‘Eternal’ Fully Mean in the Bible?
Many teachers over-complicate this streamlined teaching by dividing things up in various ages because they believe in a separate rapture from the Second Coming (nowhere clearly and directly taught in Scripture). They must eliminate the complications and agree with the clear teaching of Scripture in the didactic portions, as here. Instead, these teachers impose on the plain teachings of Scripture certain verses in the Revelation, the most symbolic book of the Bible. Keep the plain things the main things. Let the plain teaching of Scripture guide the “unplain” or symbolic sections of Scripture. Let clarity be your hermeneutic (Bible interpretation).
Rapture = Second Coming and Happens at Same Time, on Last Day
However, if someone insists on believing on a literal thousand-year reign of God, then he is certainly free to do that.
Second, the children (literally sons, but in certain contexts these gender specific nouns mean generic humankind) of the age to come do not marry or are not married off. Why not? It is implied and supported elsewhere in Scripture (1 Cor 15:35-58) that children of that age do not have their earth bodies or earth suits. Instead, they have a glorified and transformed and resurrection body. The sex hormones that drive us to breed will be gone, because there will be no more need for children. All the people who were born from the beginning of time to now will fill up the rolls in heaven.
Third, all of us worthy to experience that age cannot die anymore. I was so surprised when I read the word “unable” or “cannot” die. I missed that word before. They no longer have the ability or capacity to die. They are like the angels, who are immortal or deathless. Please note, however, that only the ones worthy to experience the age to come are immortal.
Fourth, the children of that age will be like the angels. The Greek compound noun can be translated as “equal to angels” (ESV). 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, transformed and glorified earth suits we will be unable to die, for mortality will be shucked off and God will put immortality on us. We will be like or equal to angels. It’s going to be amazing!
Fifth, why are we unable to die and are like or equal to 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. They are not his children; therefore, they do not have immortality but will eventually disintegrate when God says so. But let’s not push this indirect teaching too far.
Sixth, 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 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.
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.
“Luke tends to speak only of the resurrection of the just in his Gospel (14:14), a focus that enhances the picture of potential exclusion. But Luke is this aware of a universal judgment (Acts 17:32; 23:6; 24:21; 26:23), which presupposes a universal resurrection. These Acts texts stand against the view that Luke knows only a resurrection for the just and thus created this unique expression in this pericope (see also Acts 13:46 and 2 Thess. 1:5)” (Bock, p. 1623).
In other words, Jesus was speaking to the Sadducees who did not believe in a resurrection, so why complicate matters with a resurrection of the unrighteous, which the rest of Scriptures teach will happen at the same time as the resurrection of the righteous (e.g. John 5:28-29; Matt. 25:31-46).
37-38:
Now 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 or area 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.
What Happens between Your Death and Final Resurrection?
11. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Was Resurrected from the Dead
12. Do I Really Know Jesus? What Was His Resurrected Body Like?
13. Do I Really Know Jesus? His Resurrection Changes Everything
39-40:
This pericope ends suitably. The teachers of the law liked what he had said (see v. 1 for more about them).
But what happened to the Sadducees? Why were they not said to like his teaching? The teachers of the law were aligned with the Pharisees, the main opponents to the Sadducees, and the teachers of the law believed in the resurrection. So of course they liked Jesus’s teaching here. To judge from their silence, apparently the Sadducees were humiliated. They must not have left because Jesus will speak to “them” (v. 41), which may include the Sadducees.
“they”: Commentator Darrell Bock notes that the term is sufficiently broad to include all the groups who challenged him and failed: Pharisees, nationalists, teachers of the law, Sadducees, and lay-leaders of the people (vol. 2, p. 1626).
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.
GrowApp for Luke 20:27-40
1. What does the resurrection of the dead, when you will live forever, mean to you? Whom will you see? For whom do you need to pray to see them there?
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3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 