TRV
See on the biblical-era map
Study This Verse
Commentary on Mark 12 verses 18–27
The Sadducees, who were the deists of that age, here attack our Lord Jesus, it should seem, not as the scribes, and Pharisees, and chief-priests, with any malicious design upon his person; they were not bigots and persecutors, but sceptics and infidels, and their design was upon his doctrine, to hinder the spreading of that: they denied that there was any resurrection, and world of spirits, any state of rewards and punishments on the other side of death: now those great and fundamental truths which they denied, Christ had made it his business to establish and prove, and had carried the notion of them much further that ever it was before carried; and therefore they set themselves to perplex his doctrine.
I. See here the method they take to entangle it; they quote the ancient law, by which, if a man died without issue, his brother was obliged to marry his widow, Mar 12:19. They suppose a case to happen that, according to that law, seven brothers were, successively, the husbands of one woman, Mar 12:20. Probably, these Sadducees, according to their wonted profaneness, intended hereby to ridicule that law, and so to bring the whole frame of the Mosaic institution into contempt, as absurd and inconvenient in the practice of it. Those who deny divine truths, commonly set themselves to disparage divine laws and ordinances. But this was only by the by; their design was to expose the doctrine of the resurrection; for they suppose that if there be a future state, it must be such a one as this, and then the doctrine, they think, is clogged either with this invincible absurdity, that a woman in that state must have seven husbands, or else with this insolvable difficulty, whose wife must she be. See with what subtlety these heretics undermine the truth; they do not deny it, nor say, There can be no resurrection; nay, they do not seem to doubt of it, nor say, If there be a resurrection, whose wife shall she be? as the devil to Christ, If thou be the Son of God. But, as though these beasts of the field were more subtle than the serpent himself, they pretend to own the truth, as if they were not Sadducees, no not they; who said that they denied the resurrection? They take it for granted that there is a resurrection, and would be thought to desire instruction concerning it, when really they are designing to give a fatal stab, and think that they shall do it. Note, It is the common artifice of heretics and Sadducees to perplex and entangle the truth, which they have not the impudence to deny.
II. See here the method Christ takes to clear and establish this truth, which they attempted to darken, and give a shock to. This was a matter of moment, and therefore Christ does not pass it over lightly, but enlarges upon it, that, if they should not be reclaimed, yet others might be confirmed.
1.He charges the Sadducees with error, and charges that upon their ignorance. They who banter the doctrine of the resurrection as some do in our age, would be thought the only knowing men, because the only free thinkers, when really they are the fools in Israel, and the most enslaved and, prejudiced thinkers in the world. Do ye not therefore err? Ye cannot but be sensible of it yourselves, and that the cause of your error is, (1.) Because ye do not know the scriptures. Not but that the Sadducees had read the scriptures, and perhaps were ready in them; yet they might be truly said not to know the scriptures, because they did not know the sense and meaning of them, but put false constructions upon them; or they did not receive the scriptures as the word of God, but set up their own corrupt reasonings in opposition to the scripture, and would believe nothing but what they could see. Note, A right knowledge of the scripture, as the fountain whence all revealed religion now flows, and the foundation on which it is built, is the best preservative against error. Keep the truth, the scripture-truth, and it shall keep thee. (2.) Because ye know not the power of God. They could not but know that God is almighty, but they would not apply that doctrine to this matter, but gave up the truth to the objections of the impossibility of it, which would all have been answered, if they had but stuck to the doctrine of God's omnipotence, to which nothing is impossible. This therefore which God hath spoken once, we are concerned to hear twice, to hear and believe, to hear and apply - that power belongs to God, Psa 62:11; Rom 4:19-21. The same power that made soul and body and preserved them while they were together, can preserve the body safe, and the soul active, when they are parted, and can unite them together again; for behold, the Lord's arm is not shortened. The power of God, seen in the return of the spring (Psa 104:30), in the reviving of the corn (Joh 12:24), in the restoring of an abject people to their prosperity (Eze 37:12-14), in the raising of so many to life, miraculously, both in the Old Testament and in the New, and especially in the resurrection of Christ (Eph 1:19, Eph 1:20), are all earnests of our resurrection by the same power (Phi 3:21); according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.
2.He sets aside all the force of their objection, by setting the doctrine of the future state in a true light (Mar 12:25); When they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage. It is a folly to ask, Whose wife shall she be of the seven? For the relation between husband and wife, though instituted in the earthly paradise, will not be known in the heavenly one. Turks and infidels expect sensual pleasures in their fools' paradise, but Christians know better things - that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Co1 15:50); and expect better things - even a full satisfaction in God's love and likeness (Psa 17:15); they are as the angels of God in heaven, and we know that they have neither wives nor children. It is no wonder if we confound ourselves with endless absurdities, when we measure our ideas of the world of spirits by the affairs of this world of sense.
III. He builds the doctrine of the future state, and of the blessedness of the righteous in that state, upon the covenant of God with Abraham, which God was pleased to own, being after Abraham's death, Mar 12:26, Mar 12:27. He appeals to the scriptures; Have ye not read in the book of Moses? We have some advantage in dealing with those that have read the scriptures, though many that have read them, wrest them, as these Sadducees did, to their own destruction. Now that which he refers them to is, what God says to Moses at the bush, I am the God of Abraham; not only, I was so, but I am so; I am the portion and happiness of Abraham, a God all-sufficient to him. Note, It is absurd to think that God's relation to Abraham should be continued, and thus solemnly recognised, if Abraham was annihilated, or that the living God should be the portion and happiness of a man that is dead, and must be for ever so; and therefore you must conclude, 1. That Abraham's soul exists and acts as a state of separation from the body. 2. That therefore, some time or other, the body must rise again; for there is such an innate inclination in a human soul towards its body, as would make a total and everlasting separation inconsistent with the ease and repose, much more with the bliss and joy of those souls that have the Lord for their God. Upon the whole matter, he concludes, Ye therefore do greatly err. Those that deny the resurrection, greatly err, and ought to be told so.
But in a mystical sense: what can this woman, leaving no seed of seven brothers, and last of all dying, mean except the Jewish synagogue, deserted by the seven-fold Spirit, which filled those seven patriarchs, who did not leave to her the seed of Abraham, that is, Jesus Christ? For although a Son was born to them, nevertheless He was given to us Gentiles. This woman was dead to Christ, nor shall she be joined in the resurrection to any patriarch of the seven; for by the number seven is meant the whole company of the faithful. Thus it is said contrariwise by Isaiah, Seven women shall take hold of one man; (Is. 4:1) that is, the seven Churches, which the Lord loves, reproves, and chastises, adore Him with one faith. Wherefore it goes on: And Jesus answering, said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, not knowing the Scripture, neither the power of God?
Thus then they do not understand the Scripture, in that in the resurrection, men shall be as the Angels of God, that is, no man there dies, no one is born, no infant is there, no old man.
But 1 say, in the bush, in which is an image of you; for in it the fire was kindled, but it did not consume its thorns; so my words set you on fire, but do not burn off your thorns, which have grown under the curse.
But when He says, The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; by naming God thrice, He implied the Trinity. But when He says, He is not the God of the dead, by naming again the One God, he implies One Substance. But they live who make good the portion, which they had chosen; and they are dead, who have lost what they had made good. Ye therefore do greatly err.
"But to those who think, as the Scriptures teach, that God swears, He said, 'Let your yea be yea, and nay, nay; for what is more than these is of the evil one.' And to those who say that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are dead, He said, 'God is not of the dead, but of the living.' And to those who suppose that God tempts, as the Scriptures say, He said, 'The tempter is the wicked one,' who also tempted Himself. To those who suppose that God does not foreknow, He said, 'For your heavenly Father knows that ye need all these things before ye ask Him.' And to those who believe, as the Scriptures say, that He does not see all things, He said, 'Pray in secret, and your Father, who sees secret things, will reward you.' "
He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. So, when he proved that souls remain after death (for it could not be that he was the God of those who in no way subsisted), consequently, the resurrection of bodies which performed good or bad deeds together with their souls would also be introduced.
(ubi sup.) And fitly do they frame such a fable in order to prove the madness of those who assert the resurrection of the body. Such a thing however might really have happened at some time or other among them.
(ubi sup.) We must here consider that the Latin custom does not answer to the Greek idiom. For properly 1different words are used for the marriage of men, and that of women; but here we may simply understand that, marry is meant of men, and given in marriage of women.
(ubi sup.) Or else; because after proving that the soul remained after death, (for God could not be God of those who did not exist at all,) the resurrection of the body also might be inferred as a consequence, since it had done good and evil with the soul.
A certain heretical sect of the Jews called Sadducees denied the resurrection, and said that there was neither angel nor spirit. These then coming to Jesus, craftily proposed to Him a certain tale, in order to show that no resurrection should take place, or had taken place; and therefore there is added, And they asked him, saying, Master. And in this tale they lay down that seven men had married one woman, in order to make men draw back from belief in the resurrection.
As if He had said, Ye understand not what sort of a resurrection the Scriptures announce; for ye believe that there will be a restoration of our bodies, such as they are now, but it shall not be so. Thus then ye know not the Scriptures; neither again do ye know the power of God; for ye consider it as a difficult thing, saying, How can the limbs, which have been scattered, be united together and joined to the soul? But this in respect of the Divine power is as nothing. There follows: For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven; as if He had said, There will be a certain heavenly and angelic restoration to life, when there shall be no more decay, and we shall remain unchanged; and for this reason marriage shall cease. For marriage now exists on account of our decay, that we may be carried on by succession of our race, and not fail; but then we shall be as the Angels, who need no succession by marriage, and never come to an end.
In another way also they are deceived, not understanding the Scriptures; for if they had understood them, they should also have understood how by the Scriptures the resurrection of the dead may be proved; wherefore He adds, And as touching the dead, that they rise, have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
But I say, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. As if He had said, The God of the living, wherefore He adds, He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for He did not say, I have been, but I am, as if they had been present. But some one perhaps will say, that God spake this only of the soul of Abraham, not of his body; to which I answer, that Abraham implies both, that is, soul and body, so that He also is the God of the body, and the body lives with God, that is, in God's ordinance.
(non occ.) After that our Lord has prudently escaped the crafty temptation of the Pharisees, it is shown how He also confounds the Sadducees, who tempt Him; wherefore it is said: Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection.
(non occ.) That is, because they contradicted the Scriptures, and derogated from the power of God.
Continue studying Mark 12:27 across the web’s major study libraries — every link below opens this exact verse, chapter, or book on the destination site.
Read & Compare
BibleGatewayThis verse in more than 200 translations and 70 languages.
Bible.comThe YouVersion reader — hundreds of translations, reading plans, and highlights.
ESV.orgCrossway's official English Standard Version reader.
NET BibleThe NET translation with 60,000+ translators' notes on every rendering decision.
STEP BibleTyndale House's free study tool — original text, vocabulary, and scholarly resources.
BibliaLogos Bible Software's free web reader.
USCCBThe New American Bible (Revised Edition) with the U.S. bishops' study notes.
Commentaries
BibleHub CommentariesDozens of classic commentaries on this verse, gathered on one page.
StudyLightMore than 100 commentary sets — the largest collection on the web.
BibleRefPlain-English commentary on what this verse means, verse by verse.
Enduring WordDavid Guzik's free commentary on this chapter, widely used by Bible teachers.
Bible Study ToolsVerse commentary alongside Greek and Hebrew study aids.
Original Language & Research
- BibleHub InterlinearThe verse word by word — original language, transliteration, and English.
- BibleHub LexiconEvery word's original-language definition and Strong's entry.
Blue Letter BibleDeep-study tools — Strong's numbers, concordance, and word studies.
CNTR CollationThe earliest Greek manuscripts of this verse, collated letter by letter.
Sermons, Hymns & Audio
TrulyRandomVerse is not affiliated with these sites and doesn’t control their content. They’re linked because they’re genuinely useful.
SUMMARY
In Mark 12:27, Jesus delivers a profound theological declaration to the Sadducees, asserting the reality of the resurrection by revealing God's eternal nature as the God of the living, not the dead. This statement culminates His refutation of their flawed understanding of the afterlife and divine power, highlighting their significant error in interpreting the Scriptures.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: This verse is the powerful conclusion to Jesus's encounter with the Sadducees, recorded in Mark 12:18-27. The Sadducees, a Jewish sect known for denying the resurrection, angels, and spirits (Acts 23:8), challenged Jesus with a hypothetical scenario involving a woman married successively to seven brothers, all of whom died without offspring. Their question, "In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them?" (Mark 12:23), was designed to expose what they perceived as the absurdity of resurrection. Jesus first corrects their misconception about the nature of resurrected life, stating that in the resurrection, people "neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven" (Mark 12:25). He then transitions to the core issue of their disbelief in the resurrection itself, using a profound theological argument from the very Scriptures they claimed to uphold.
Historical & Cultural Context: The Sadducees were a prominent Jewish aristocratic and priestly party during the Second Temple period, primarily concerned with temple rituals and political power. Unlike the Pharisees, they accepted only the Pentateuch (the first five books of Moses) as divinely inspired and authoritative, rejecting oral tradition and doctrines not explicitly stated therein, including the resurrection of the dead. Their challenge to Jesus was not merely academic but an attempt to discredit Him publicly by exposing what they believed was a theological inconsistency. Jesus's choice to quote from Exodus 3:6, a passage from the Pentateuch, was a masterful rhetorical move. By drawing His argument from their own accepted authoritative text, Jesus cornered them, demonstrating that even their limited canon contained implicit proof of the resurrection.
Key Themes: Mark 12:27 powerfully contributes to several key themes within the Gospel of Mark and broader biblical theology. Firstly, it unequivocally affirms the reality of the resurrection, a central tenet of Christian faith, directly confronting the Sadducees' denial. Jesus's argument establishes that God's covenant relationship with His people transcends physical death, implying their continued, conscious existence. Secondly, the verse illuminates the eternal nature and character of God as "the God of the living." This profound declaration emphasizes God's active, present relationship with His people, even those who have physically died, revealing Him as a God of life, not of finality and decay. Thirdly, Jesus's concluding statement, "ye therefore do greatly err," highlights the danger of misinterpreting Scripture and misunderstanding God's power. As Jesus states earlier, their error stemmed from "not knowing the scriptures, neither the power of God" (Mark 12:24). This underscores the necessity of a holistic and Spirit-illuminated understanding of God's Word and His omnipotence.
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Jesus employs several potent literary devices in this verse. The most prominent is Contrast, setting "the God of the dead" against "the God of the living." This sharp antithesis highlights the fundamental difference between the Sadducees' limited, death-bound understanding of God and Jesus's expansive, life-affirming revelation. Furthermore, the entire statement functions as a powerful Rebuke, culminating in the direct accusation "ye therefore do greatly err." This is not merely an intellectual correction but a moral and spiritual indictment of their theological blindness. Finally, the verse relies heavily on Allusion to Exodus 3:6, where God identifies Himself to Moses at the burning bush. Jesus's argument hinges on the present tense "I AM" in that passage, implying the ongoing existence of the patriarchs. This subtle yet profound use of Scripture demonstrates Jesus's mastery of the Law and His ability to extract deep theological truths from seemingly simple declarations.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Mark 12:27 stands as a foundational statement on the nature of God and the reality of life beyond physical death. It reveals God not as a distant, historical deity, but as an eternally active, life-giving being whose relationships with His covenant people endure beyond the grave. This truth offers profound comfort and hope, assuring believers that death does not sever their bond with God or lead to annihilation. Instead, it points to a future where God's people continue to exist in His presence, affirming the promise of resurrection and eternal life. Jesus's rebuke of the Sadducees also underscores the critical importance of rightly understanding Scripture, not just superficially, but with a deep apprehension of God's character and power.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
This powerful declaration by Jesus in Mark 12:27 offers immense spiritual nourishment and practical implications for our faith. It challenges us to consider our own understanding of death and the afterlife. Do we view death as an ultimate end, or as a transition into a continued, conscious existence with God? The verse reassures us that for those in Christ, physical death is not annihilation but a passage into the ongoing reality of God's presence. It calls us to live with an eternal perspective, knowing that our relationship with the living God is not severed by mortality. Furthermore, Jesus's critique of the Sadducees serves as a timeless warning against a limited or erroneous understanding of Scripture and God's boundless power. It encourages us to approach God's Word with humility, seeking not only intellectual knowledge but also spiritual discernment, allowing the Holy Spirit to illuminate its deeper truths and reveal the full scope of God's character. Our faith should be rooted in the God of the living, who has power over all things, including death itself.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why did the Sadducees deny the resurrection, and why was Jesus's argument so effective against them?
Answer: The Sadducees denied the resurrection, the existence of angels, and spirits because these doctrines were not explicitly stated in the Pentateuch, which was the only part of the Hebrew Bible they considered authoritative (Acts 23:8). They were literalists in a very narrow sense, rejecting any theological development or oral tradition. Jesus's argument was devastatingly effective because He quoted from Exodus 3:6, a passage from the Pentateuch itself. By saying, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," God used the present tense ("I am") when speaking to Moses, long after the patriarchs had died. Jesus masterfully argued that if God is presently the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then these patriarchs must still presently exist in some form. God is not the God of non-existent beings, but of those who live. This implicitly proved the resurrection from their own accepted Scripture, leaving them without a counter-argument.
What does it mean that God is "the God of the living" in a broader theological sense?
Answer: To say that God is "the God of the living" means that His nature is intrinsically tied to life, vitality, and ongoing relationship. It signifies His sovereignty over all existence, including life beyond physical death. This declaration underscores His eternal power and faithfulness, asserting that His covenant relationships with His people are not terminated by mortality. It implies that those who belong to Him continue to exist in His presence, even if their physical bodies have died. This concept is foundational to the Christian hope of eternal life and resurrection, emphasizing that God's plan for humanity is one of continuous life and fellowship with Him, not ultimate decay or oblivion. It also highlights His active involvement in the present and future, not just the past.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Mark 12:27 finds its ultimate fulfillment and deepest meaning in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself is the embodiment of "the God of the living." He declared, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11:25). His own resurrection from the dead is the supreme demonstration that God is indeed the God of the living, triumphing over the power of death and the grave (1 Corinthians 15:20-22). Through His death and resurrection, Jesus has conquered death and rendered powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14-15). Believers are united with Christ in His death and resurrection, sharing in His new life (Romans 6:4-5). Therefore, because He lives, those who are in Him also live, both now and eternally, affirming that God's relationship with His people is an everlasting covenant secured by the living Christ, the ultimate proof that God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living!