Sadducees

The Sadducees were a sect within Second Temple Judaism, distinguished in the Gospel record by their denial of the resurrection and by their public confrontations with Jesus. Where the Pharisees appealed to a wider tradition, the Sadducees pressed the written Torah of Moses and rejected what they took to be unwarranted additions, including the doctrine of resurrection from the dead. The synoptic narratives place them, with John the Baptist's hearers and with Jesus himself, on the receiving end of sharp prophetic warning.

A Sect Within Judaism

The Sadducees stand first of all as a sect of the Jews — a recognized party in the religious life of the nation, distinct from the Pharisees and from the Scribes. In the synoptic accounts they appear principally as priestly interlocutors who challenge Jesus on points of Mosaic law, and whose theological commitments are most clearly disclosed by the way they frame those challenges.

The Baptist's Denunciation

John the Baptist's preaching in the wilderness reaches the parties of Israel with a single, unsparing word. In the Lukan parallel the rebuke is addressed broadly: "He said therefore to the multitudes that went out to be baptized of him, You⁺ offspring of vipers, who warned you⁺ to flee from the wrath to come?" (Lu 3:7). The Baptist insists that lineage is no shelter — "don't begin to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father: for I say to you⁺, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham" (Lu 3:8) — and that the axe already lies at the root of the tree (Lu 3:9). The Sadducees are catalogued among those so addressed.

The Denial of the Resurrection

The defining doctrinal mark of the Sadducees in the Gospels is their refusal of the resurrection. Mark introduces them with that very gloss: "And there come to him Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection" (Mr 12:18). Luke is equally direct: "And there came to him certain of the Sadducees, those denying that there is a resurrection" (Lu 20:27).

To press their case, they pose the riddle of the seven brothers, drawing on the levirate provision of Moses. "Teacher, Moses wrote to us, If a man's brother dies, and leaves a wife behind him, and leaves no child, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed to his brother" (Mr 12:19). Seven brothers in succession marry the same woman and die childless; "Last of all the woman also died" (Mr 12:22). "In the resurrection, when they will rise, whose wife will she be of them? For the seven had her as wife" (Mr 12:23). Luke records the same construction, ending: "Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife of them will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife" (Lu 20:33).

Jesus' Reply From Moses

Jesus answers on two fronts. The first is the nature of resurrection life. The Sadducees have assumed a continuation of present arrangements; Jesus refuses the premise. "Is it not for this cause that you⁺ err, that you⁺ don't know the Scriptures, nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as angels in heaven" (Mr 12:24-25). Luke adds the explicit reason: "for neither can they die anymore: for they are equal to the angels; and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection" (Lu 20:36).

The second front is exegetical, and Jesus chooses his ground on the Sadducees' own preferred terrain — the Pentateuch. "But as concerning the dead, that they are raised; have you⁺ not read in the Book of Moses, in [the place concerning] the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, I [am] the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living: you⁺ do greatly err" (Mr 12:26-27). Luke renders the same argument with Yahweh named: "But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in [the place concerning] the bush, when he calls Yahweh the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live to him" (Lu 20:37-38).

The exchange ends in Luke with a notable concession from the rival party: "And certain of the scribes answering said, Teacher, you have said well. For they didn't dare anymore ask him any question" (Lu 20:39-40).