Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Mark 12:25

οὔτε γαμοῦσιν οὔτε γαμίζονται. The former, as in class. Grk, of the man, the latter of the woman, who is given in marriage by her father (1 Corinthians 7:38). The questioners did not see that God could not only grant life in another world, but also make it very different from life in this world. The Sadducees assumed that, unless the conditions of life hereafter are the same as in this life, there can be no future life at all. Marriage is necessary here to preserve the race, but where all are immortal there is no need of marriage. In Enoch (xv. 6, 7) the Lord says to the Angels, “You were spiritual, in the enjoyment of eternal immortal life, for all generations of the world. Therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for the spiritual have their dwelling in heaven.”

ὡς ἄγγελοι. Angels do not marry, because they are immortal, and those who rise from the dead are like them. This comparison is in all three, and it had special point in dealing with Sadducees, correcting another of their errors (Acts 23:8). It tells us nothing respecting the manner of the resurrection, but it tells us that those who rise will not die again, and it assures us that such beings as Angels, who live under very different conditions from those under which we live here, exist. Cf. Mark 8:38; also Mark 13:27 = Matthew 24:31; Matthew 13:32 = Matthew 24:36; Matthew 13:39; Matthew 13:41; Matthew 13:49; Matthew 18:10; Matthew 25:31; Matthew 26:53; Luke 12:8-9; Luke 15:10; Luke 16:22; John 1:51. It is unreasonable to suggest that in all these passages the Evangelists attribute their own beliefs to Christ, and that He never sanctioned the doctrine by the words which they report. See Latham, A Service of Angels, pp. 52–60.

ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. It is remarkable that Mk has this expression, while Mt. has ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ. We might have expected exactly the converse. See on εἰδώς (Mark 12:15) and cf. Mark 13:32 = Matthew 24:36.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Mark 12:25

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