Sunday, February 27, 2022

Kristian A. Bendoraitis on Matthew 22:29-30

  

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)