Chapters
On the Resurrection of the Flesh
Chapters
More
Chapter 36. Christ's Refutation of the Sadducees, and Affirmation of Catholic Doctrine.
NOW LET US SEE WHETHER THE LORD DID NOT GIVE EVEN GREATER STRENGTH TO OUR TEACHING WHEN HE BROKE DOWN THE CLEVER ARGUMENT OF THE SADDUCEES: Their main goal, I think, was to get rid of the resurrection completely. In fact, the Sadducees did not admit any salvation either for the soul or for the flesh. So they took what they thought was the strongest case against the resurrection, and shaped an argument from it to support the question they raised. Their persuasive question was about the flesh. They asked whether it would be subject to marriage after the resurrection. They supposed the case of a woman who had married seven brothers, so that it seemed uncertain to which of them she should be restored. Now keep the meaning of both the question and the answer clearly in view, and the discussion is settled at once. The Sadducees denied the resurrection, while the Lord affirmed it. Also, in affirming it, He rebuked them for being ignorant of the Scriptures, that is, of those Scriptures that had declared the resurrection. He also rebuked them for not believing the power of God, which is certainly able to raise the dead. Then He immediately added the words, "Now, that the dead are raised," in Luke 20:37. He spoke without hesitation and affirmed the very thing that was being denied, namely, the resurrection of the dead before Him who is the God of the living. It clearly follows that He affirmed this truth in the very same sense in which they were denying it. In fact, it was the resurrection of the two natures of man. And it does not follow, as they want to claim, that because Christ denied that men would marry, He therefore proved that they would not rise again. On the contrary, He called them the children of the resurrection, in a certain sense as having to undergo a birth by the resurrection. After that, they no longer marry. But in their risen life they are equal to the angels, since they are not to marry because they are not to die. Instead, they are destined to pass into the angelic state by putting on the clothing of incorruption, although there is a change in the substance that is restored to life. Besides, no question could be raised about whether we will marry again, or die again, or not, without also bringing into doubt the restoration especially of that substance which has a special relation both to death and to marriage, that is, the flesh. So then, you have the Lord affirming against the Jewish heretics what is now being denied by the Christian Sadducees: the resurrection of the whole man.
Hear the Scriptures cited in On the Resurrection of the Flesh
On the Resurrection of the Flesh quotes or alludes to these Bible chapters more than any others. Each link opens the free audio Bible, where the chapter is read aloud alongside the text, cross-references, and what other early Christian writers said about it.