Section 22:23–33 Some Sadducees asked Jesus about the resurrection

In the previous section, the Pharisees tried to trick Jesus. They were not successful. In this section, it is the turn of the Sadducees. They made up a story about an impossible situation that might happen if there were a resurrection. Then they asked Jesus to explain it. They thought that he would not be able to, but he was able to explain it anyway.

The story that the Sadducees told was based on their belief that there will be no resurrection. The Pharisees and many other Jews were confident that when the new age arrived, there would be a general resurrection of all the faithful Jews who had died. However, the Sadducees did not believe that such a thing would take place.

Here are some other possible headings for this section:

Sadducees ask about the resurrection (English Standard Version)
-or-
Marriage at the resurrection (New International Version)

There are parallel passages for this section in Mark 12:18–27 and Luke 20:27–40.

Paragraph 22:23–28

22:23a–c

a
The same day Sadducees came to him, bwho say that there is no resurrection, cand they asked him a question: Verse 22:23b is a type of relative clause. (A relative clause is a clause that usually starts with a relative pronoun. Here, the relative pronoun is the word who. It refers back to the Sadducees.) This type of relative clause describes all the Sadducees. It is not describing only some of them.

Some languages do not have this type of relative clause. For those languages, it will be necessary to translate this part of the verse without using a relative clause. For example:

That same day some Sadducees came to Jesus and asked him a question. (Sadducees believed that people would not rise from the dead. (New Century Version)
-or-
The Sadducees did not believe that people would rise to life after death. So that same day some of the Sadducees came to Jesus… (Contemporary English Version)

22:23a

The same day: This time phrase indicates that the events in this section happened some time during the same day as the previous story. It does not indicate whether these events happened immediately after the previous story or not.

Here is another way to translate this phrase:

That same day (New Century Version)

Sadducees: The last time that Matthew used the word Sadducees was in 16:12c.

The word Sadducees refers to men who were members of a Jewish religious group. They believed that people must follow the laws in the Old Testament and not add other rules. They did not believe that God would bring people back to life again after they died. They also did not believe that angels or spirits existed (Acts 23:8). They also accepted some ideas held by the Greeks. Many Sadducees were priests.

Here are some ways to translate Sadducees:

• 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 Saduce

came to him: The Greek verb that the English Standard Version translates as came to indicates that they approached him from a relatively short distance away. It does not mean that they came a long distance to see Jesus.

The pronoun him refers to Jesus. Since this sentence starts a new section, you may want to make that explicit. Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

approached him (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
came to Jesus (New Century Version)

22:23b

who say that there is no resurrection: This clause means that all the Sadducees believed that God would not resurrect dead people. The Sadducees believed that only the five books of Moses were inspired. In those five books, they did not see evidence of a resurrection. So they did accept the idea that there would be a general resurrection of the dead. (See the discussion of this clause in 22:23a–c above.)

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

Sadducees did not believe that people would rise to life after death (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
claimed that people will not rise from death (Good News Translation)
-or-
Sadducees believed that people would not rise from the dead. (New Century Version)

resurrection: This term refers to a “resurrection from the dead.” It refers to dead people being brought back to life.

At that time, many Jews believed that there would be a general resurrection of true Jews at the end of the age. The Pharisees strongly held this idea, but the Sadducees denied it. Here are some other ways to translate this word:

people would rise to life after death (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
dead people will come back to life
-or-
people who die will live again in the future
-or-
God will cause dead people to live again

22:23c

and they asked him a question: In Greek, this phrase is more literally “they asked him” or “they questioned him.”

Here is another way to translate this clause:

They asked him (God’s Word)

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