For a discussion of Sadducees, see 3.7. There is no article in the text, but most translators use “some,” as in Good News Translation.

As discussed elsewhere, came will have to be “went” in many receptor languages.

The text says simply that the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, but “did not believe” or “claimed that there was no” may be more natural.

Who say that there is no resurrection is in the present tense in the Greek, reflecting the viewpoint of the writer. Normally a translation attempts to reflect the writer’s position, but some readers today will need to have this in the past tense, otherwise they may be confused. Translators will have to decide which tense to use, basing the decision on local language requirements.

We have given several examples of translations of resurrection in the examples above. One further example is seen in a sentence such as “The Sadducees claimed that people do not rise again (to life) after they die.”

Revised Standard Version represents a fairly literal rendering of this verse, but it may be helpful to follow a somewhat more chronological order; for example, “The Sadducees were a Jewish group who did not believe that people would rise from death. And on the same day that the Pharisees tried to trick Jesus with a question, they came to him 24 and said….” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “On the same day the Sadducees came to Jesus. The Sadducees did not believe that the dead would rise. 24 ‘Teacher,’ they asked him….” Another possibility is “On that same day, some Sadducees came to Jesus to ask him a question. They were a group that did not believe that the dead would rise. 24 They asked him, ‘Teacher….’ ”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .