Sometime later that day another group of leaders approached Jesus with another question but with the same purpose, to trap Him in a theological controversy that would destroy His reputation.
22:23 The Pharisees believed in resurrection from the dead (Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:2). The Sadducees did not because they did not find it explicitly taught in the Pentateuch. They believed that both the material and the immaterial parts of man perish at death (cf. Acts 23:8).818There was much diverse opinion concerning death and the afterlife in Jesus' day.819
22:24-28 The Sadducees also approached Jesus with hypocritical respect calling Him "teacher"(cf. v. 16). They had evidently learned to appreciate Jesus' high regard for the Old Testament because they came to Him with a question of biblical interpretation (Deut. 25:5-6).
Levirate marriage was an ancient Near Eastern custom that antedated the Mosaic Law (Gen. 38:8). The law incorporated it and regulated it. This law encouraged the younger brother to marry his deceased brother's widow and have children by her. People considered the children born to be the older brother's heirs, and they would perpetuate his name in Israel.
This was an unlikely question for Sadducees to ask since they did not believe in resurrection. Probably they knew that Jesus believed in resurrection and wanted to create what they thought was an impossible situation to embarrass Him.
"It was probably an old conundrum that they had used to the discomfiture of the Pharisees."820
The case they posited could have been a real one or, more likely, a hypothetical one. Their question presupposed that life the other side of the grave will be exactly as it is this side, in terms of human relationships. Since the woman had had seven husbands, whose wife would she be in the resurrection, or would she be guilty of incest? For the Sadducees, belief in resurrection created insuperable problems. Would Jesus deny the resurrection and so obviate the problem but alienate Himself even further from the Pharisees?
22:29-30 The Sadducees did not understand the Scriptures because the Scriptures taught resurrection. They did not understand God's power because they assumed life after resurrection would be the same as it is now. God is able to raise people to a form of existence unlike what we experience now.
In the resurrection form of existence, sexual relationships will be different from what they are now. Jesus was speaking of the resurrection life, not a particular resurrection event, as is clear from the Greek preposition en("in,"v. 30, not "at,"NIV). Marriage relationships as we now know them will not exist in the resurrection. Jesus' reference to the angels was an additional correction of their theology since the Sadducees also denied the existence of angels (Acts. 23:8).
Jesus did not say that in the resurrection state all memory of our former existence and relationships will end. This is a conclusion some interpreters have drawn without warrant.
"The greatness of the changes at the Resurrection (cf. 1 Cor 15:44; Phil 3:21; 1 John 3:1-2) will doubtless make the wife of even seven brothers (vv. 24-27) capable of loving all and the object of the love of all--as a good mother today loves all her children and is loved by them."821
22:31-32 Jesus returned to what Scripture teaches (v. 29). He introduced His clarification with a customary rebuke, "Have you not read?"(cf. 21:42; et al.). The passage He cited, Exodus 3:6, came from the Pentateuch, a part of the Old Testament that the Sadducees treated with great respect.
God described Himself to Moses as then being the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was still their God even though they had died hundreds of years earlier. This statement implied the continuing bodily existence of the patriarchs. The logical conclusion is that if God will fulfill His promise to continue to be the God of the patriarchs He must raise them from the dead. Thus Jesus showed that the Pentateuch, the abbreviated canon of the Sadducees, clearly implied the reality of a future resurrection.
22:33 Matthew closed his account of this encounter by recording the reaction of the multitude, not the reaction of the Sadducees. Probably few of the Sadducees changed their theology as a result of this conversation since they continued to oppose Jesus. However the reaction of the crowd shows that Jesus' teaching had a powerful impact. To the unprejudiced observer, Jesus' arguments, authority, and understanding of the Old Testament were astonishing. Matthew undoubtedly hoped this would be the reaction of his readers too.
This pericope reveals the intensity of the opposition to Jesus that existed among Israel's leaders. This was the third group to try to trap Him in one day. It also shows the guilt of Israel's leaders since they did not understand either the Scriptures or God's power. Jesus had spoken of people entering the kingdom after death (v. 10). To do so there would have to be a resurrection. Jesus also confirmed belief that the patriarchs would live in the kingdom by what He said. Thus Jesus' teaching about resurrection answered questions about participation in the kingdom because of its postponement. Not many in Jesus' immediate audience may have understood this, but Matthew's readers could.
