20:27,28
The Sadducees now decided to have a go. They denied the resurrection of the dead, amongst many other disagreements with the Pharisees. They were very much intellectuals and politically motivated. They had control of the Sanhedrin at the time. Luke mentions their disbelief in the resurrection of the dead as the Sadducees thought they had a knock-down argument with which they could catch Jesus out. Their argument rested on Deut 25:5,6, where it speaks of what happens if a brother dies, then his surviving brother must see to the continuation of the family, even to the extent of marrying the widow. Now this seems very strange, even objectionable, to us, but marriage in the Bible is much more than just a romantic matter. It is the foundation of family life and society, which is why as Western societies reject any meaningful definition of marriage they encounter ever increasing problems in society, as we are witnessing today.
2:29-33
The supposed knock-down argument was what happens if there were seven brothers. They all died, having married the same woman after her previous husband died. The Sadducees then asked whose wife would she be after the resurrection of the dead? She couldn’t be the wife of seven husbands! The Sadducees thought this proved the illogicality of the resurrection, and its conflict with the ways of God, therefore it could not be true. This is an example of a reductio ad absurdum argument.
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