12:15a
But: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as But connects the men’s question with Jesus’ response. The response contrasted with what the men expected. Use a natural way in your language to express this contrast.
Jesus saw through their hypocrisy: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as saw through is more literally “knowing.” Jesus knew the men were asking the questions in 12:14f and 12:14g only because they wanted to trap him. They pretended to be sincere, but they were actually trying to get Jesus into trouble by making him give a wrong answer.
hypocrisy: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as hypocrisy indicates that a person is different from how people think he is. He appears to have a certain purpose or attitude, but actually he has a very different purpose or attitude. People do not know that purpose or attitude. The men who questioned Jesus appeared to be sincerely concerned about whether it was right to pay taxes to Caesar. However, what they really wanted was to trap Jesus. See how you translated the related word “hypocrites” in 7:6a.
12:15b
Jesus asked the question in this part of the verse because he knew that these men were not sincere. In some languages it may be natural to indicate a result connection. For example:
So he asked them
Why are you testing Me?: This is a rhetorical question. Jesus asked this question to rebuke the Pharisees and the Herodians. He knew that they were trying to trick him and he knew why they were trying to trick him. They wanted him to say something that would cause trouble for him. There are at least two ways to translate this rebuke:
• As a rhetorical question, as in the Berean Standard Bible.
• As a statement. For example:
You should not be trying to trick/test me!
-or-
You are trying to trap me into saying something wrong!
Use whichever form is most natural to express a rebuke in your language.
testing: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as testing has almost the same meaning as the phrase that was translated “catch him in his words” in 12:13. The men were testing Jesus. They tried to make him say something that would cause trouble for him. In some languages it may be necessary to indicate the reason that the men were testing him. For example:
Why are you testing me to cause trouble for me?
-or-
Why are you trying to trick me into saying something that you can accuse me with?
12:15c
Bring Me a denarius to inspect: In some languages the two verb phrases Bring Me a denarius to inspect can be expressed with a single verb. For example, the Contemporary English Version has:
Show me a coin!
Consider how your language would naturally express this request.
denarius: A denarius was a Roman coin that was made of silver. It was used by the Jews to pay their taxes to the Roman government. The denarius had the name and the image of Caesar on it.
Here are some other ways to translate denarius:
• Use a more general term or a descriptive phrase. For example:
Roman coin/money
-or-
coin used for paying taxes
• Use a borrowed word along with a general term. For example:
denarius coin
Section 12:18–27
Other leaders asked Jesus about people living again after they die
The Jewish leaders continued to challenge Jesus. In this section some Sadducees asked Jesus a question to try to show that the things he taught were wrong. Like the Pharisees, the Sadducees were a group of Jewish leaders with certain religious beliefs. Many of the Sadducees were priests. They did not believe that God would cause anyone who had died to live again.
Jesus believed and taught that God does cause people who have died to live again. The Sadducees tried to use this belief to trick Jesus in 12:18–27. They told a story to ridicule these beliefs that Jesus taught. The story was not true, but they used it to ask a question. They thought that if a person believed that people who died could live again, there was no sensible answer to the question.
The Sadducees based their story on the Jewish custom that is described in Deuteronomy 25:5–6. This Scripture teaches that if a woman did not have any children by her husband before he died, his brother was required to marry her. Their first child would have the name of his dead brother and would be his heir. (This custom was called the levirate. Jewish people considered the first son that the widow bore after marrying the brother of her dead husband to be the son of her dead husband, not the son of the man who was now her husband. This meant that this son and his descendants would carry on the dead man’s family and family name through future generations. Any sons born after this to the woman and her living husband would carry on the name of the living husband for future generations.) In that way, the dead man’s family and family name could continue through future generations. Since the Scripture taught this custom, the Sadducees believed that they could prove from Scripture that Jesus was wrong.
It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it.
Here are some other possible headings for this section:
The question about the resurrection
-or-
The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection (English Standard Version)
-or-
Do people rise from the dead?
There are parallel passages for this section in Matthew 22:23–33 and Luke 20:27–40.
Paragraph 12:18–23
In this paragraph the Sadducees explained a Jewish custom. Then they told a story and used it to ask Jesus a question about life after death. They hoped that the question would be too difficult for Jesus to answer. They planned to ridicule the idea of life after death.
12:18a–b
Then: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Then here introduces the beginning of a new story. Matthew 22:23 indicates that this event happened on the same day as the events in the preceding section. The Greek text of Mark does not indicate how much time passed between these two stories.
If it is natural in your language to begin a story with a time word or phrase, use an expression that is not too specific. For example:
Later
-or-
After that
In some languages, a time word or phrase is not necessary. Introduce this story in a natural way in your language.
the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus: Here the author introduced the Sadducees into the story and gave background information about them. The Sadducees were a Jewish religious group who had certain beliefs. They did not believe in the resurrection. Some of these Sadducees came to Jesus.
Languages have different ways to introduce people in a story. Use a way that is natural in your language.
Here are some other ways to translate this:
Then some members of the Sadducee group came to Jesus. The Sadducee group does not believe that people who die can live again.
-or-
Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. (New Living Translation)
Some languages have a special word or form to indicate background information. Some languages have another word or form to indicate a return to the events in the story. Use a natural way to do this in your language.
the Sadducees: The Sadducees were a Jewish religious group or party. They taught that the first five books of the Old Testament were more important than the other books. They did not believe that angels or spirits existed (Acts 23:8). Here are some ways to translate this word:
• Transliterate the word Sadducees according to the sounds of your language and indicate that it refers to a group of people. For example:
Sadusi members
-or-
Saduce adherents
• Transliterate the word Sadducees and indicate that it refers to a group of people with certain beliefs. For example:
people belonging to the Sadusi religious group
-or-
members of the Jewish group called the Saduceo
It is recommended that you translate Sadducees in a similar way as you translated “Pharisees” in 2:16a.
who say there is no resurrection: The Sadducees believed that God does not cause people to live again after they die. They also taught this belief to other people. In this context the verb say refers to what the Sadducees believed and taught. For example:
The Sadducees did not believe that people would live again after they die.
say: The verb say is in the present tense because at the time Mark was writing, the Sadducees were still saying this. In some languages a literal translation may suggest that the Sadducees still say this today. Consider if it would be more natural to translate this with a different form of the verb.
resurrection: Many Jewish people believed in the resurrection. (Some scholars think that the term resurrection refers to a time in the future when God will cause all people who have died to live again.) This term does not imply that a person will live again as a different person or as an animal. It implies that when God causes people to live again, everyone will have the same identity that they had before they died.
You will want to carefully check your translation of this term to make sure that it does not communicate a wrong meaning.
12:18c
and questioned Him: The question that the Sadducees asked was not sincere. They asked it to ridicule the idea that people can live again after they die. In some languages it may be necessary to indicate some of this implied information. For example:
Sadducees, who did not believe, as Jesus did, that there will be a resurrection
General Comment on 12:18a–c
It might be more natural in your language to reorder this verse. For example:
The Jewish leaders called Sadducees did not believe that people rise to life after death. So some of them came to Jesus and asked him a difficult question.
-or-
Then some of the Jewish leaders called Sadducees went to Jesus. They asked him a question because they did not believe, as Jesus did, that people can live again after they die.
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
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