Matthew 22:23-33

Ver 23. The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, 24. Saying, "Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 25. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: 26. Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. 27. And last of all the woman died also. 28. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her." 29. Jesus answered and said unto them, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. 30. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. 31. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32. 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?' God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." 33. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.

Chrys.: The disciples of the Pharisees with the Herodians being thus confuted, the Sadducees next offer themselves, whereas the overthrow of those before them ought to have kept them back. But presumption is shameless, stubborn, and ready to attempt things impossible. So the Evangelist, wondering at their folly, expresses this saying, "The same day came to him the Sadducees."

Pseudo-Chrys.: As soon as the Pharisees were gone, came the Sadducees; perhaps with like intent, for there was a strife among them who should be the first to seize Him. Or if by argument they should not be able to overcome Him, they might at least by perseverance wear out His understanding.

Jerome: There were two sects among the Jews, the Pharisees and the Sadducees; the Pharisees pretended to the righteousness of traditions and observances, whence they were called by the people 'separate.' The Sadducees (the word is interpreted 'righteous') also passed themselves for what they were not; and whereas the first believed the resurrection of body and soul, and confessed both Angel and spirit, these, according to the Acts of the Apostles [marg. note: Acts 23:8], denied them all, as it is here also said, "Who say that there is no resurrection."

Origen: They not only denied the resurrection of the body, but took away the immortality of the soul.

Pseudo-Chrys.: For the Devil finding himself unable to crush utterly the religion of God, brought in the sect of the Sadducees denying the resurrection of the dead, thus breaking down all purpose of a righteous life, for who is there would endure a daily struggle against himself, unless he looked to the hope of the resurrection?

Greg., Mor. xiv. 55: But there are who observing that the spirit is loosed from the body, that the flesh is turned to corruption, that the corruption is reduced to dust, and that the dust again is resolved into the elements, so as to be unseen by human eyes, despair of the possibility of a resurrection, and while they look upon the dry bones, doubt that they can be clothed with flesh, and be quickened anew to life.

Aug., Enchir., 88: But that earthy matter of which the flesh of men is made perishes not before God; but into whatsoever dust or ashes reduced, into whatsoever gases or vapours dispersed, into whatsoever other bodies incorporated, though resolved into the elements, though become the food or part of the flesh of animals or men, yet is it in a moment of time restored to that human soul, which at the first quickened it that it became man, lived and grew.

Pseudo-Chrys.: But the Sadducees thought they had now discovered a most convincing argument in favour of their error.

Chrys., non occ.: For because death to the Jews, who did all things for the present life, seemed an unmixed evil, Moses ordered that the wife of one who died without sons should be given to his brother, that a son might be born to the dead man by his brother, and his name should not perish, which was some alleviation of death. And none other but a brother or relation was commanded to take the wife of the dead; otherwise the child born would not have been considered the son of the dead; and also because a stranger could have no concern in establishing the house of him that was dead, as a brother whose kindred obliged him thereto.

Jerome: As they disbelieved the resurrection of the body, and supposed that the soul perished with the body, they accordingly invent a fable to display the fondness of the belief of a resurrection. Thus they put forward a base fiction to overthrow the verity of the resurrection, and conclude with asking, "in the resurrection whose shall she be?" Though it might be that such an instance might really occur in their nation.

Aug., Quaest. Ev., i, 32: Mystically; by these seven brethren are understood the wicked, who could not bring forth the fruit of righteousness in the earth through all the seven ages of the world, during which this earth has being, for afterwards this earth also shall pass away, through which all those seven passed away unfruitful.

Pseudo-Chrys.: Wisely does He first convict them of folly, in that they did not read; and afterwards of ignorance, in that they did not know God. For of diligence in reading springs knowledge of God, but ignorance is the offspring of neglect.

Jerome: They therefore err because they know not the Scriptures; and because they know not the power of God.

Origen: Two things there are which He says they know not, the Scriptures and the power of God, by which is brought to pass the resurrection, and the new life in it.

Or by the power of God, which the Lord here convicts the Sadducees that they knew not, He intends Himself, who was the power of God; and Him they knew not [marg. note: 1 Corinthians 1:24], as not knowing the Scriptures which spoke of Him; and thence also they believed not the resurrection, which He should effect. But it is asked when the Saviour says, "Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures," if He means that this text, "They neither marry, nor are given in marriage," is in some Scripture, though it is not read in the Old Testament? We say that these very words are indeed not found, but that the truth is in a mystery implied in the moral sense of Scripture; the Law, which is "a shadow of good things to come," whenever it speaks of husbands and wives, speaks chiefly of spiritual wedlock.

But neither this do I find any where spoken in Scripture that the Saints shall be after their departure as the Angels of God, unless one will understand this also to be inferred morally; as where it is said, "And, thou shalt go to thy fathers," [Genesis 15:15] and "He was gathered to his people." [Genesis 25:8] Or one may say; He blamed them that they read not the other Scriptures which are besides the Law, and therefore they erred.

Another says, That they knew not the Scriptures of the Mosaic Law, for this reason, that they did not sift their divine sense.

Pseudo-Chrys.: Or, when He says, "In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage," He referred to what He had said, "Ye know not the power of God;" but when He proceeded, "I am the God of Abraham, &c." to that "Ye know not the Scriptures."

And thus ought we to do; to cavillers first to set forth Scripture authority on any question, and then to shew the grounds of reason; but to those who ask out of ignorance to shew first the reason, and then the authority. For cavillers ought to be refuted, enquirers taught. To these then who put their question in ignorance, He first shews the reason, saying, "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage."

Jerome: In these words the Latin language cannot follow the Greek idiom. For the Latin word 'nubere' is correctly said only of the woman. But we must take it so as to understand "marry" of men, "to be given in marriage" of women.

Pseudo-Chrys.: In this life that we may die, therefore we are born; and we marry to the end that which death consumes, birth may replenish; therefore where the law of death is taken away, the cause of birth is taken away likewise.

Hilary: It had been enough to have cut off this opinion of the Sadducees of sensual enjoyment, that where the function ceased, the empty pleasure of the body accompanying it ceased also; but He adds, "But are as the Angels of God in heaven."

Chrys.: Which is an apt reply to their question. For their reason for judging that there would be no resurrection, was that they supposed that their condition when risen would be the same; this reason then He removes by shewing that their condition would be altered.

Pseudo-Chrys.: It should be noted, that when He spoke of fasting, alms, and other spiritual virtues, He did not bring in the comparison of Angels, but only here where He speaks of the ceasing of marriage. For as all acts of the flesh are primal acts, but this of lust especially so; so all the virtues are angelic acts, but especially chastity, by which our nature is bound to the other virtues.

Jerome: This that is added, "But are as the Angels of God in heaven," is an assurance that our conversation in heaven shall be spiritual.

Dionys., de Divin., Nom. i: For then when we shall be incorruptible and immortal, by the visible presence of God Himself we shall be filled with most chaste contemplations, and shall share the gift of light to the understanding in our impassible and immaterial soul after the fashion of the exalted souls in heaven; on which account it is said that we shall be equal to the Angels.

Hilary: The same cavil that the Sadducees here offer respecting marriage is renewed by many who ask in what form the female sex shall rise again. But what the authority of Scripture leads us to think concerning the Angels, so must we suppose that it will be with women in the resurrection of our species.

Aug., City of God, book 22, ch. 17: To me they seem to think most justly, who doubt not that both sexes shall rise again. For there shall be no desire which is the cause of confusion, for before they had sinned they were naked; and that nature which they then had shall be preserved, which was quit both of conception and of child-birth. Also the members of the woman shall not be adapted to their former use, but framed for a new beauty, one by which the beholder is not allured to lust, which shall not then be, but God's wisdom and mercy shall be praised, which made that to be which was not, and delivered from corruption that which was made.

Jerome: For none could say of a stone and a tree or inanimate things, that they shall not marry nor be given in marriage, but of such things only as having capacity for marriage, shall yet in a sort not marry.

Raban.: These things which are spoken concerning the conditions of the resurrection He spoke in answer to their enquiry, but of the resurrection itself He replies aptly against their unbelief.

Chrys.: And because they had put forward Moses in their Question, He confutes them by Moses, adding, "But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read."

Jerome: In proof of the resurrection there were many plainer passages which He might have cited; among others that of Isaiah, "The dead shall be raised; they that are in the tombs shall rise again:" [Isaiah 26:29, Septuagint] and in another place, "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." [Daniel 12:2]

It is enquired therefore why the Lord should have chosen this testimony which seems ambiguous, and not sufficiently belonging to the truth of the resurrection; and as if by this He had proved the point adds, "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living."

We have said above that the Sadducees confessed neither Angel, nor spirit, nor resurrection of the body, and taught also the death of the soul. But they also received only the five boots of Moses, rejecting the Prophets. It would have been foolish therefore to have brought forward testimonies whose authority they did not admit. To prove the immortality of souls therefore, He brings forward an instance out of Moses, "I am the God of Abraham, &c." and then straight subjoins, "He it not the God of the dead, but of the living;" so that having established that souls abide after death, (forasmuch as God could not be the God of those who had no existence any where,) there might fitly come in the resurrection of bodies which had together with their souls done good or evil.

Chrys.: How then is it said in another place, "Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's." [Romans 14:8] This which is said here differs from that. The dead are the Lord's, those, that is, who are to live again, not those who have disappeared for ever, and shall not rise again.

Hilary: It should be further considered, that this was said to Moses at a time when those holy Patriarchs had gone to their rest. They therefore of whom He was the God were in being; for they could have had nothing, if they had not been in being; for in the nature of things that, of which somewhat else is, must have itself a being; so they who have a God must themselves be alive, since God is eternal, and it is not possible that which is dead should have that which is eternal. How then shall it be affirmed that those do not, and shall not hereafter, exist, of whom Eternity itself has said that He is?

Origen: God moreover is He who says, "I am that I am;" [Exodus 3:14] so that it is impossible that He should be called the God of those who are not. And see that He said not, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." But in another place He said thus,"The God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee." [Exodus 7:16]

For they who in comparison of other men are most perfect before God, have God entirely in them, wherefore He is not said to be their God in common, but of each in particular. As when we say, That farm is theirs, we shew that each of them does not own the whole of it; but when we say, That farm is his, we mean that he is owner of the whole of it. When then it is said, "The God of the Hebrews," this shews their imperfection, that each of them has some small portion in God. But it is said, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," because each one of these possessed God entirely. And it is to the no small honour of the Patriarchs that they lived to God.

Aug., cont. Faust., xvi. 24: Seasonably may we confute the Manichaeans by this same passage by which the Sadducees were then confuted, for they too, though in another manner, deny the resurrection.

Aug., in Joan. Tr., xi, 8: God is therefore called in particular "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," because in these three are expressed all the modes of begetting the sons of God. For God begets most times of a good preacher a good son, and of a bad preacher a bad son. This is signified in Abraham, who of a free woman had a believing son, and of a bondslave an unbelieving son. Sometimes indeed of a good preacher He begets both good and bad sons, which is signified in Isaac, who of the same free woman begot one good and the other bad. And sometimes He begets good sons both of good and bad preachers; which is signified in Jacob, who begot good sons both of free women and of bondmaids.

Pseudo-Chrys.: And see how the assault of the Jews against Christ becomes more faint. Their first challenge was in a threatening tone, "By what authority doest thou these things," to oppose which firmness of spirit was needed. Their second was with guile, to meet which was needed wisdom. This last was with ignorant presumption which is easier to cope with than the others. For he that thinks he knows somewhat, when he knows nothing, is an easy conquest for one who has understanding. Thus the attacks of an enemy are vehement at first, but if one endure them with a courageous spirit, he will find them more feeble.

"And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine."

Remig.: Not the Sadducees but the multitudes were astonished. This is daily done in the Church; when by Divine inspiration the adversaries of the Church are overcome, the multitude of the faithful rejoice.