Homilies on Luke: Fragments on Luke

Concerning the question of the Sadducees, which they proposed to the Lord, about the woman who had seven husbands; and once again about the denarius that the Savior ordered shown to him.

THERE IS A SECT of the Jews called the Sadducees. They deny "the resurrection of the dead"^1. and think that the soul dies with the body, so that after death there is no longer any consciousness. These Sadducees put a question to the Lord. They made up a story of a woman with seven husbands. After the first husband died, she married the second to raise up the seed of the first. When he died she also married the third, and again the fourth, and in this fashion reached the seventh. Hence, they ask which of the seven brothers will claim her as his wife "in the resurrection of the dead." The Sadducees proposed this problem as an attack on the Savior's words, at a time when they saw him teaching the disciples about the resurrection.

2. The Savior answered them and said, "You are wrong. You know neither the Scriptures nor the Power of God. For, in the resurrection of the dead they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be like angels in heaven."^2. Those who will be like angels will thus be angels. We should also learn that angels do not contract marriage. Here, where there is death, both marriage and children are necessary. But, where there is immortality, there is need neither of wedlock nor of offspring. I shall pose for myself a question that is very troublesome and not easily solved. I shall pose it from the point of view of those

-159-