Luke
records another tradition regarding angels and the afterlife in Acts 23:6-8. Paul has been arrested in Jerusalem for causing uprisings (22:22). He is
brought before a council of the Jews (23:1). As Paul offers his defense, he
moves the discussion to the topic of resurrection in order to divert attention
from himself and cause factional debate, since the Pharisees and Sadducee s are
split on the issue:
[6]
But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees,
he cried out in the council, "Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees;
with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead I am on trial."
[7] And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the
Sadducees; and the assembly was divided. [8] For the Sadducees say that there
is no resurrection [άνάστασιν], nor angel [αγγελον], nor spirit [πνεύμα]; but
the Pharisees acknowledge them all [τά άμφότερα].
T
h e interpretation of verse 8 hinges upon the understanding of the term τα
άμφότερα. Its usual meaning is "both, " though some have taken it to
mean "all." It could mean the Sadducees denied "both " the
resurrection and the existence of angels. Recently, D. Daube has asserted that
the passage is better understood as the Sadducees' denial of resurrection and
of "the span between death and resurrection, which, in widespread belief,
a good person spends in the realm or mode of angel or spirit.'" It is not
clear whether this was part of "widespread " belief, but the evidence
in this subsection indicates that it was in the minds of some Jews in the late
Second Temple period. As G. Nickelsburg concludes, "The evidence indicates
that in the intertestamental period there was no single Jewish orthodoxy on
the time, mode, and place of resurrection, immortality, and eternal
life.'" B. Viviano has taken the discussion a step further, arguing that
the passage is best understood as discussing the denial of the resurrection. The
τα αμφότερα refers to "both " angel and spirit as modes of resurrection.
Thus, the noun s άγγελος and πνεύμα stand in apposition to άνάστασις, such that
Sadducee s deny the resurrection in "the form of an angel " or in
the "form of a spirit." Viviano's interpretation seems to present the
most likely reading of the passage. There is some corroborating evidence for
the claim that the Sadducees denied the resurrection. There is no evidence
whatsoever that any Jewish group—and in particular one that likely took the
Pentateuch, which contains traditions about angels, as sacred—denied the
existence of angels. The fluidity in afterlife beliefs seen in the evidence from
the period shows there was room for debate over the mode of afterlife
existence. It seems plausible that τα αμφότερα refers to the terms "angel
" and "spirit," in which case Acts 23 serves as another piece of
evidence that some Jews believed the afterlife mode of existence was angelic.
(Kevin P. Sullivan, Wrestling With Angels:
A Study of the Relationship Between Angels and Humans in Ancient Jewish Literature
and the New Testament [Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums und
des Urchristentums 55; Leiden: Brill, 2004], 134-36)
