Mark 12:18-23 18And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him saying, 19“Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a someone’s brother dies and leaves behind a wife, but leaves no child, that his brother must take the woman and raise up offspring for his brother. 20There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died, he left behind no offspring. 21And the second one took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. 22And the seven left behind no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. 23In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.”
A second group from the Sanhedrin came to Jesus with a question with the unstated intention of trapping him. This is the only time in the Gospels where Jesus had a discussion with Sadducees. We find out an important clue about the Sadducees in verse 18 that they did not believe in resurrection like the Pharisees did. The Sadducees represented a more “liberal” or “humanistic” wing of Judaism. They emphasized free will, did not believe in angels and demons, and accepted a narrow Scripture of only the Torah. Those from this group came from more of the aristocracy and were more open to Hellenistic influences.
The group of Sadducees came to Jesus with a question based on the laws for Levirate marriage taught by Moses in Deuteronomy 25:5-6. In this command, if a man died, his widow would marry his brother in order to bear children in his name and keep the family line going. The situation the Sadducees set up becomes absurd. It does not focus on the earthly side of things and the continuation of a lineage but with what happens after death with the woman. The woman ended up with seven husbands. Which husband would she have in the resurrection? This question assumes that the life to come is like the life on earth now.
The Sadducees show the danger of speculation based on faulty assumptions. They came to Jesus with a personal agenda and not with openness to having those assumptions challenged with the truth. Their question brings up one of the most important topics of Mark’s Gospel: the resurrection of the dead. Jesus will use their question as an opportunity to teach an important truth about resurrection that the disciples could remember, and that would give them hope.
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