THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

Then that day some Sadducees - who deny that there is a resurrection - approached him and they put this question to him, “Master, Moses said that if a man dies childless, his brother is to marry the widow, his sister-in-law, to raise children for his brother. (Deuteronomy 25:5-6) Now we had a case involving seven brothers; the first married and then died without children, leaving his wife to his brother; the same thing happened with the second and the third and so on to the seventh, and then last of all the woman herself died. Now at the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife among the seven will she be, since she was married to them all?” Jesus answered them, “Surely the reason why you are wrong is because you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God. The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can no longer die; no, for they are the same as the angels in heaven, and being children of the resurrection they are children of God. In addition, as for the resurrection of the dead, Moses himself implies that the dead rise again. Have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him and said, “I am the God of your ancestors,” he said, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exodus 3:6)  He is God, not of the dead, but of the living, for to him everyone is alive. You are very much mistaken.” In addition, his teaching made a deep impression on the people who heard it. Some scribes then spoke up. They said, “Well put, Master.” They did not dare to ask him any more questions. Return