The Daily Audio Bible
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Marriage and the resurrection
18 Some Sadducees approached Jesus (Sadducees, by the way, deny the resurrection).
19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that ‘if a man’s brother dies, and leaves a wife but no child, the brother should take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.’ 20 Well now: there were once seven brothers. The first married a wife, and died without children. 21 The second married the widow, and died without children. The third did so as well, 22 and so did all seven, still without leaving children. Finally the woman died too. 23 So: when they rise again in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? All seven had her, after all.”
24 “Where you’re going wrong,” replied Jesus, “is that you don’t know the scriptures, or God’s power. 25 When people rise from the dead, they don’t marry, nor do people give them in marriage. They are like angels in heaven.
26 “However, to show that the dead are indeed to be raised, surely you’ve read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, what God says to Moses? ‘I am Abraham’s God, Isaac’s God and Jacob’s God’? 27 He isn’t the God of the dead, but of the living. You are completely mistaken.”
The most important commandment
28 One of the legal experts came up, and overheard the discussion. Realizing that Jesus had given a splendid answer, he put a question of his own.
“Which commandment,” he asked, “is the first one of all?”
29 “The first one,” replied Jesus, “is this: ‘Listen, Israel: the Lord your God, the Lord is one; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your understanding, and with all your strength.’ 31 And this is the second one: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these ones.”
32 “Well said, Teacher,” answered the lawyer. “You are right in saying that ‘he is one and that there is no other beside him,’ 33 and that ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the intelligence, and with all the strength’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself’ is worth far more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 Jesus saw that his answer came out of deep understanding.
“You are not far from God’s kingdom,” he said to him.
After that, nobody dared put any more questions to him.
David’s son and the widow’s mite
35 By way of response to it all, Jesus began to teach in the Temple.
“Why do the experts say,” he asked, “that the Messiah is the son of David? 36 David himself, inspired by the holy spirit, said:
The Lord said to my Lord:
sit at my right hand,
until I place your enemies
right underneath your feet.
37 “David himself calls him ‘Lord’; how then can he be his son?”
The whole crowd listened to him with delight.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.