15
question: "Whose wife shall she be . . . ?" (22: 28). The scribe asked about principles of
conduct: "Which is the greatest commandment . . . ?" (22: 36). Then Jesus asked the
Pharisees a haggadaic question: "Whose son is the Messiah . . . ?" (22:45). Interestingly,
Daube suspected a strong connection between Hellenistic rhetoric and Talmudic
jurisprudence.
54
Round three: About the resurrection 22:23-33
Next the Sadducees try their hand at the up-start Galilean. In their counter-
challenge, they posed to Jesus a theological riddle reflecting the pattern of the "nonsense
question" of rabbinic interrogation.
55
They desired to put Jesus into an impossible
dilemma that they believed stemmed from the doctrine of resurrection.
56
The Sadducees
brought up Moses' command (Deuteronomy 25:5) with a particular yet absurd example of
a women who married seven brothers because of Levirate marriage laws. They ask,
"Whose wife shall she be in the resurrection, for she has had seven brothers for
husbands?"
57
Jesus riposte was two pronged. In rebuke, he declares, "
plana`sqe mh; eijdovte"
ta;" grafa;" mhde; th;n duvnamin tou` qeou`
." With the first prong of his attack, he addresses
the particular example posed to him. Though Jesus does not cite any Scripture, his
declaration, "
ejn ga;r th`/ ajnastavsei ou[te gamou`sin ou[te gamivzontai, ajll j wJ" a[ggeloi ejn
tw`/ oujranw`/ eijsin
," reveals their ignorance of the rest of Scripture. With the second prong
of his attack, Jesus returns to the fundamental theological issue between them,
peri; de;
th`" ajnastavsew" tw`n nekrw`n
the doctrine of resurrection. In an insulting tone matching
their own, Jesus incredulously asks, "
oujk ajnevgnwte to; rJhqe;n uJmi`n uJpo; tou` qeou`
?" and
goes on to quote from the Pentateuch, the part of the Scripture they did accept. The
defense of the doctrine of the resurrection comes in the from an enthymematic appeal to
54
Neyrey, 47-48; 112-13; Daube, "Rabbinic Methods of Interpretation and Hellenistic Rhetoric," 263.
55
Neyrey, 112.
56
Keener, 527; Carson, 460.