The Sadducees were the aristocrats among the Jews. They were the ruling class, and most or all of the chief priests were Sadducees. Their name is derived from their founder Zadok, a disciple of Antigonus of Socho, who is believed to have received the oral law from Simon the Just of the “last great synagogue.” Antigonos taught his disciples to “be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of reward, but serve without view of reward.” Zadok reasoned that, if the fathers “had known that there is another world, they would not have spoken thus.” Therefore, Zadok separated himself from the oral law and denied that there was another world and a resurrection.[1] The only scriptures they recognized as legitimate for the Jewish faith was the Law of Moses; they rejected all else, opposing the doctrines of the Pharisees, who claim there is a resurrection and embrace the doctrines of the Oral Law, which has been written out in the Talmud several centuries after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.
Later, on the same day that Jesus was tested by the Pharisees and Herodians (Matthew 22:15-22), Jesus was approached by certain members of the sect of the Sadducees with a question (Matthew 22:23). They began by mentioning a hypothetical man with seven brothers. The man was married but died without leaving any children to inherit his wealth or carry on his name. The Law of Moses provided for such a circumstance, saying the man’s brother would marry his widow and their firstborn would inherit the dead brother’s wealth and carry on his name. Such a marriage is known as a levirate marriage. The problem was that neither was the brother of the dead man able to produce any children in the marriage, and the subsequent marriages of each of the six other brothers, also produced no children. Finally, the woman died. Therefore, the Sadducees asked Jesus, which of the seven brothers would be the woman’s husband in the resurrection, for all seven were married to her (Matthew 22:24-28)?
This hypothetical story was meant to show a resurrection was illogical, and, therefore, was never taught in the Law of Moses, which was the only authority the Sadducees recognized for their religious beliefs.[2] So, just as the Pharisees and Herodians thought they could stump Jesus with an unanswerable question, so the Sadducees thought they could do better with their unanswerable question. What could Jesus possible say that would make any sense of this hypothetical dilemma?
Jesus replied in a classical Proverbs 26:4 manner. He didn’t reply as they expected. Instead, he told them they erred in their understanding of the scriptures and the power of God, vis-à-vis that God could possibly do something with a body that had returned to dust (Matthew 22:29). Their error was, first, in believing children of God were produced through the flesh in the resurrection. In the Kingdom of God, the children of God or born of the Spirit through the Gospel. The resurrection is their being born again (cp. John 3:3, 5-8). Jesus’ reply was meant to be understood, as an answer to the Sadducees question, not that marriage won’t occur in the Kingdom. Children of God or of the Kingdom are not produced trough the union of a man and a woman in marriage, but through preaching the Gospel. Under the Old Covenant, children were born into a relationship with God by virtue of their being Jewish. The Sadducees erred in believing the same would be true in the concept of a resurrection, which they didn’t believe.
The second error the Sadducees made was to believe the body that turned to dust in the grave was the same body one received back in the resurrection. Jesus taught that in his Father’s house there were many mansions (G3438; John 14:2) or abiding places. The Greek word is used only twice in the Christian scriptures the second place is in John 14:23, where the Father and Jesus take up their abode (G3438) in the believer. I believe Jesus’ reference to “preparing a place” for the believer (John 14:2) refers to the spiritual body, which we shall receive after death and is eternal and in the heavens (1Corinthians 5:1). Then, in keeping with a classical Proverbs 26:5 reply, Jesus answered the Sadducees, according to the intent of their question, so they wouldn’t consider that their understanding about the resurrection was correct (Matthew 22:31). Jesus asked if they hadn’t read what Moses recorded in the Law, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?” (Exodus 3:6, 15-16), to which Jesus replied that God isn’t the God of the dead, but the God of the living (Matthew 22:31-32). Thus, if God isn’t limited by time, the resurrection has already occurred in his presence and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive in the Lord, although dead in the time of the Sadducees. Therefore, the multitude was astonished at Jesus’ teaching (Matthew 22:33).
[1] See Fausset Bible Dictionary under “Sadducees.”
[2] In their doctrinal discussions with the Pharisees, the Sadducees often used mythical stories to make a point in their traditional beliefs (cp. Titus 1:14; 2Timothy 4:4). See my earlier study in the Gospel of Luke: Luke and Egyptian Folklore.
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