Those who deny the resurrection

Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. (12:18)

Yesterday I told you the fact that one of the Sadducees’’ religious character was to follow the orthodox law. Their assertion that there will be no resurrection also was rooted in such attitude. It signifies their assertion that soul and body will be vanished together is not wrong.

The Old Testament generally doesn’t say about the life after death. Mainly the scripts written in the late period of Israel’s history only hint resurrection idea. Isaiah 26:19 is one of the representatives of this idea. “But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.” We can summarize it in this way that the resurrection idea of the Jews blossomed from the later period of Israel’s history; speak to in detail, revelation literature. The Sadducees couldn’t recognize resurrection for they were devoted to the classical and orthodoxy law.

Even today there are many Sadducees who don’t accept resurrection. They don’t accept resurrection based on the knowledge of natural science. They regard a demonstrative fact as the truth. Even Christians also do not believe it though they say outwardly to believe resurrection. Or on the contrary there are some people who regard resurrection as mere incarnation level. As we can see it from the following story, the Sadducees argued with Jesus understating resurrection in this way. They thought marriage life would be extended even in the kingdom of heaven.

Knowing the point what resurrection is the more important point than the argument whether there is resurrection or not. If we think resurrection merely as the reborn of the dead, that is, thinking it as a simple extension of life then there will be no such resurrection as the insistence of Sadducees. The right recognition and hope is possible only to know the creation from nothing and the mystery of life by Jesus’ resurrection.

The question of the Sadducees

Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. (12:18)

The previous verses 13-17 deals with the question of the Pharisees and Herodians who conspired to catch a fault from Jesus’ teaching and action. From verses 18-27 the dispute about resurrection began by the Sadducees. Though it seemed totally different story, however two were same at the point of a trial to trap Jesus. The Sadducees conspires to trap Jesus through difficult question like the Pharisees.

The Sadducees were one of many sects in the ancient Israel, and mainly was opposite to the Pharisees. The Pharisees rejected the rule of Roman Empire while the Sadducees, the priest and noble class, recognized it. At the economical point of view, the Pharisees positioned the middle under class while the Sadducees were belonged to the upper. At the religious point of view, the Sadducees followed only the orthodox law which was different from the Pharisees who regarded all other traditions importantly, derived from the orthodox. It can be said the Sadducees were the conservative in politics, economics and religion. These people used to hold ‘status quo’ as the principle of their art of living.

There are different sects in Israel, Essene. They took the extreme attitude toward the secular order including Roman government, couldn’t be compared with the Sadducees and the Pharisees. They regarded secular order as an evil power. They set up a small sect movement, totally separated themselves from the world. They had a common life in Qumran, near to Dead Sea. The ascetic life style was the character of their life and so said John the Baptist also was from this sect.

Not only the Pharisees, comparably progressive and absolute legalist but also the Sadducees, the most conservative began to show their hostility to Jesus. It was the moment that Jesus’ room to maneuver was getting narrower and narrower.