ACC ~ Mark 12 v18 - 27

OVERVIEW:

In arguing an obscure point, the Sadducees lost sight of the power of God to raise the dead. Jesus’ own resurrection became final proof of his divine identity (TERTULLIAN). Our resurrected bodies will be like Christ’s resurrected body (JOHN OF DAMASCUS). No jealousy will arise in heaven. In the next life God will not separate those he has joined in marriage in this life (TERTULLIAN). The promises he has already fulfilled stand as a credible guarantee of his future promise of the general resurrection (AUGUSTINE).

12:18 | The Sadducees, Who Say There Is No Resurrection, Came to Him

CHALLENGING DECEIVERS TO DIVULGE DECEPTIONS

TERTULLIAN: They put to him the strongest case they could to impair his credibility. They fashioned a contorted argument to pursue the question which they had initiated. Their deceptive inquiry concerned the flesh, whether or not it would be subject to marriage after the resurrection. They assumed the case of a woman who had married seven brothers, so as to make it doubtful as to which of them she should be restored. [1] Now, let the gist both of the question and the answer be kept steadily in view, and the discussion is settled at once in this way: The Sadducees indeed denied the resurrection, while the Lord affirmed it. In affirming it, he reproached them as being both ignorant of the Scriptures—which declare the resurrection—and disbelieving of the power of God as able to raise the dead. He then spoke without ambiguity of the dead being raised. ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH 36. [2]

[1] Mt 22:23-32; Mk 12:18-27; Lk 20:27-40.

[2] Cetedoc 0019, 36.2; ANF 3:571**.

12:23 | In the Resurrection Whose Wife Will She Be?

THE END OF JEALOUSY

TERTULLIAN: To Christians, after their departure from this world, no restoration of the carnal aspect of marriage is promised in the day of the resurrection, translated as they will be into the condition and sanctity of angels. [1] In the day of resurrection no dilemma arising from sexual jealousy will injure any of her so many husbands, even in the case of her whom they chose to represent as having been married to seven brothers successively. TO HIS WIFE 1.1. [2]

[1] Cf. Mt 22:30; Mk 12:25; Lk 20:36.

[2] Cetedoc 0012, 1.1.23; ANF 4:39**. There will be no marital jealousy in heaven, where resurrected bodies will be sanctified.

12:24 | You Know Neither the Scriptures nor the Power of God

HOPE OF RESURRECTION

AUGUSTINE: The Sadducees do not have our hope for the resurrection, since they “know neither the scriptures nor the power of God,” [1] who is able to restore what is lost, to raise what is dead to life, to revive what has rotted away, to gather together what is corruptible and finite. The Lord promised to do this, and he gives as a guarantee the promises he has already fulfilled. So let your faith speak of this to you, since your hope will not be disappointed even though your love may be put to the test. LETTER 263, TO SAPIDA. [2]

[1] Cf. Mt 22:29.

[2] Cetedoc 0262, 263.57.4.634.11; FC 32:273**.

12:25 | When They Rise from the Dead, They Neither Marry nor Are Given in Marriage, but Are Like Angels

SPIRITUAL PARTNERSHIP

TERTULLIAN: All the more we shall be bound to them [our departed spouses], because we are destined to a better estate, destined to rise to a spiritual partnership. We will recognize both our own selves and those to whom we belong. Else how shall we sing thanks to God to eternity, if there shall remain in us no sense and memory of this relationship? Or if we shall be reformed only materially, but not in consciousness? Consequently, we who are together with God shall remain together. … In eternal life God will no more separate those whom he has joined together than in this life where he forbids them to be separated. ON MONOGAMY 10. [1]

[1] Cetedoc 0028, 10.35; ANF 4:67.

NEEDS OF THE RESURRECTED BODY

JOHN OF DAMASCUS: The body of the Lord after the resurrection was such that it entered through the closed doors without difficulty, and needed neither food, nor sleep, nor drink. “For they shall be,” says the Lord, “like the angels of God,” [1] and there shall no longer be marriage or the procreation of children. ORTHODOX FAITH 4.27. [2]

[1] Mk 12:25; Lk 20:36.

[2] FC 37:405; TLG 2934.004, 100.98-101.