Jeusu said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scripture nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘ I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”

The Sadducees were pouring scorn on the idea of a man having an eternal, unfading ‘me’ (soul) which continued in heaven.

Yeshu said that they were wrong because Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – now long dead – continued to live with a self-mind as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in God’s presence.

Further, he said they were wrong because the dead indeed have a body, but not one with attachments like our earthly body. God had the power to give us new spiritual bodies, whose self-minds would also possess a pure awareness, and thus be able like the angels to communicate with God Himself.

Mark 12:18-23

And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”

Now come some from the powerful  priestly party of the Sadducees. Maybe they wanted, as religious experts, to use Yeshu’s  answer to laugh at his support for resurrection, and so to bring him down him in the opinion of the people around who were listening..

[Explanation of the sutra written by Moses: When brothers lived in one household, it urged a man to take as wife his dead brother’s childless widow. This was an honourable thing to do for the purpose of preserving his brother’s lineage.

Note too: the Law given by God to Moses most importantly also said that a woman was only allowed one husband at a time.]

Read on to see how Yeshu showed the Sadducees to be completely wrong in two ways. Heaven and resurrection were not as they described them just for ridicule’s sake.

 

 Mark 12:13-17

And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marvelled at him.

The Sangha of the Jews and their political collaborators teamed up to send a deputation with a clever question, in the hope that Yeshu’s answer, if he said, ‘No’, would anger the Roman authority as a form of protest; or, if he said , ‘Yes’, it would make him unpopular with the people who resented paying tax to the Romans.

Pointing to the coin taken from their pockets, Yeshu said, ‘See how you yourselves make use of Roman law and good order in our land. Of course we have a duty of worship to God, but, as to the government, it also must be paid.’