Author: David Ackerman (Page 4 of 2560)

Luke 20:27-33 ²⁷Then when some Sadducees came up, those who say that there is no resurrection, ²⁸they asked him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote to us, ‘If a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ ²⁹Now there were seven brothers. And the first, after taking a wife, died without children. ³⁰And the second ³¹and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. ³²Afterward the woman also died. ³³Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”

Another group of Jewish religious leaders came to try to trick Jesus. This is the only mention of the Sadducees in Luke’s Gospel. The Sadducees were the “liberals” of first-century Judaism. They rejected the oral interpretation of Scripture. They also denied the existence of angels or demons and the resurrection. In many ways, they were the humanists of Judaism and came from the upper classes. This story highlights their lack of belief in resurrection, as Luke points out in verse 27. They present to Jesus a fictitious scenario. For them, the law of Moses was supreme, without any oral interpretation of it like what the Pharisees did.

The scenario they present has background in Deuteronomy 25:5 and the law related to Leverite marriage. This law is basically paraphrased in verse 28. The purpose of this law was to continue a man’s name and heritage. It also protected property and the inheritance of land, which was significant in Israelite society. The hypothetical situation is far-fetched and beyond reality but creates a theological conundrum for someone like the Pharisees who believed in resurrection. The number seven in the story was a favorite number for completeness for the Jews.

The average person would be stuck at this point. Using logic and thinking humanly brings inclusive results. The Sadducees were prooftexting and being speculative, which only lead to problems. We should not focus on “what ifs” but what can be clearly known. People still get into speculative interpretations of the Bible. They may have naive curiosity, but the results are often detrimental to faith. Sadly, the Sadducees were only showing their empty human thinking and lacked any faith in Jesus or the message of the kingdom he brought.

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