Jesus’ initial address to the Sadducees,
‘You are wrong [πλανασθε], because you know neither the
Scriptures nor the power of God’ (Mt. 22.29) seems to support a reading of Mt.
22.30 that understands the life of the resurrection to be different from what
the Sadducees expected. Moreover, to simply negate marriage in the resurrection
would be to play on the Sadducees’ terms. Jesus’ response undermines the
presupposition their question implies (cf. Mt. 22.18-22). They have
misunderstood the concept of resurrection life on a more fundamental level and
reckoned that it would be a resumption of life as currently understood. For the
Sadducees, if all seven brothers and the wife were resuscitated, there would be
a question concerning whose wife she will be (or, they want to know which
husband will continue the male line). However, Jesus says that instead of this,
resurrection life will be something completely different—something akin to how
the life of angels differs from life now. Tradition often holds that angels are
associated with heaven and thus their lives are quite different from that on
earth. In light of this, it may be that Matthew is drawing on the contrast
between angelic life and earthly life. (Kristian A. Bendoraitis, ‘Behold,
the Angels Came and Served Him’: A Compositional Analysis of Angels in Matthew [Library
of New Testament Studies 523; London: T&T Clark, 2015, 2018], 151)
