There came to Him some of the Sadducees

St Luke Chapter XX : Verses 27-36

Contents

• Luke xx. Verses 27-36.  Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text & Latin text (Vulgate)
• Douay-Rheims 1582 text
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary

Luke xx. Verses 27-36.

And there came to him some of the Sadducees.  
J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

27 And there came to him some of the Sadducees, who deny that there is any resurrection, and they asked him,

Accesserunt autem quidam sadducæorum, qui negant esse resurrectionem, et interrogaverunt eum,

28 Saying: Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die, having a wife, and he leave no children, that his brother should take her to wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.

dicentes : Magister, Moyses scripsit nobis : Si frater alicujus mortuus fuerit habens uxorem, et hic sine liberis fuerit, ut accipiat eam frater ejus uxorem, et suscitet semen fratri suo.

29 There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children.

Septem ergo fratres erant : et primus accepit uxorem, et mortuus est sine filiis.

30 And the next took her to wife, and he also died childless.

Et sequens accepit illam, et ipse mortuus est sine filio.

31 And the third took her. And in like manner all the seven, and they left no children, and died.

Et tertius accepit illam. Similiter et omnes septem, et non reliquerunt semen, et mortui sunt.

32 Last of all the woman died also.

Novissime omnium mortua est et mulier.

33 In the resurrection therefore, whose wife of them shall she be? For all the seven had her to wife.

In resurrectione ergo, cujus eorum erit uxor? siquidem septem habuerunt eam uxorem.

34 And Jesus said to them: The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:

Et ait illis Jesus : Filii hujus sæculi nubunt, et traduntur ad nuptias :

35 But they that shall be accounted worthy of that world, and of the resurrection from the dead, shall neither be married, nor take wives.

illi vero qui digni habebuntur sæculo illo, et resurrectione ex mortuis, neque nubent, neque ducent uxores :

36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

neque enim ultra mori potuerunt : æquales enim angelis sunt, et filii sunt Dei, cum sint filii resurrectionis.

Douay-Rheims : 1582 text

27. And there came certaine of the Sadducees, which denie that there is a reſurrection, and they aſked him,

28. ſaying: Maiſter, Moyſes gaue vs in writing: *If a mans brother die hauing a wife, and he haue no children, that his brother take her to wife, and raiſe vp ſeed to his brother.
29. There were therfore ſeuen brethren: and the firſt tooke a wife, and died without children.
30. And the next tooke her, & he died without child.
31. And the third tooke her. In like manner alſo al the ſeuen, and they left no ſeed, and died.
32. Laſt of al the woman died alſo.
33. In the reſurrection therfore, whoſe wife ſhal ſhe be of them? ſithens the ſeuen had her to wife.
34. And IESVS ſaid to them: The children of this world marrie, and are giuen in marriage:
35. But they that shal be counted worthie of that world and the reſurrection from the dead, neither marrie, nor take wiues;
36. neither can they die any more, for they are equal to Angels: and they are the ſonnes of God, ſeeing they are the ſonnes of the resurrection.

 

Annotations

[Taken from the Great Commentary on Chapter xxii of St Matthew's Gospel concerning the same incident. The verse numbers of St Luke's Gospel have been inserted.]

    27. And there came to him some of the Sadducees, &c. The Sadducees had heard Christ teaching the Resurrection, and by means of it persuading men to repentance and a holy life. They oppose Him therefore with this question, which seemed to them unanswerable, in order that they might confute and overthrow Christ and His doctrine by the absurdities in which they thought to involve Him.

    27. Saying, Master, &c. seed, i.e., posterity, a son, as the Syriac translates, who should be called after the name of the dead, that so the dead man might seem still to survive in him. This law is found in Deut. xxv. 5.

    The Sadducees expected by this question to confound Christ. For if He should say the woman was the wife of one of the men, it would incite the other brothers to wrath, and envy, and perpetual strife, since there was no reason why she should be given to one more than another. For the first husband, who might seem to have had the best right to her, lost his right by death. If, on the other hand, Christ had said that she was the wife in common of all the seven, they would have accused Him as a teacher of shameful doctrine and public incest. It was as though they said, “Such are the absurdities which follow from the doctrine of the Resurrection. Thou therefore, O Christ, ought not to assert it. And thus your silly followers imagine, in” their stupidity, that you are wise.” Then Christ, by a word, brushes aside their fallacy, as it were a spider’s web, and shows them their ignorance, by adding what these men with their crass and carnal minds never took into consideration, namely, that in the world to come this widow would be no one’s wife at all.

    The Scriptures clearly declare the Resurrection, as Job xix. 25; 2 Macc. vii. 9 et seq. and xii. 44; Isa. xxvi.19 and lxvi. 14; Ezek. xxxvii.1, 9; Dan. 1xii.12, &c.

    35.  the resurrection, i.e., in the world to come, in Heaven, and celestial bliss. Women who are good and modest do not choose husbands for themselves, but are given to husbands by their parents.

    36. for they are equal to the angels &c. The blessed in Heaven after the Resurrection shall be like the angels, not by nature, but, 1, by purity; 2, by spiritual life, for they live by spiritual not corporeal food; 3, by incorruption and immortality; 4, by happiness and glory, in which, like the angels, they will continue for all eternity. Wherefore there will be no need then of marriage and generation; for these things have been instituted for the perpetuation of the race and the individual, by means of children. Because the father is mortal, therefore he begets a son, that after death he may live and continue in his son. But in Heaven there shall be no death, and they shall live for ever. Marriage, therefore, and procreation of children would be without an object there. Wherefore S. Luke adds (xx.36), Neither can they die any more. Appositely says S. Augustine (Quæst. Evang. in Luc. xx. 35), “Marriage is for the sake of children, children for the sake of succession, succession on account of death. Where, therefore, death is not, marriage is not.”

    and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.. Blessed are they that rise again; they shall be like God both in body and soul; for they shall be spiritual, glorious, immortal, and eternal as God is, forasmuch as they are born the sons of the Resurrection, and are born again to a blessed and endless life, wherefore they shall neither need nor delight in the procreation of children.

    From this passage Auctor Imperfecti teaches that chastity is the most angelic of all the virtues. The angels know not by experience the meaning of lust. And S. Cyril of Jerusalem (Cat. 12) calls “virginity the conversation of angels and the purity of incorporeal nature.” Wherefore S. Basil (de Virginit. 79) teaches that virginity is the seed of future incorruption; yea, that virgins anticipate here, and begin that future likeness with the angels in Heaven, and desire to be rewarded with its perfection there, by constant struggling with and victory over the flesh here. S. Basil adds that chastity makes us like not only to the angels, but to God Himself. “How great and glorious a thing,” saith he, “is virginity, which makes a corruptible man most like unto God, that he should receive the similitude of God in himself, as in a most clear mirror, from God Himself, with His favours flowing unto him after the manner of a most sweet ray (of light)!”

    Elegantly and piously saith S. Bernard, “What is more beautiful than chastity, which makes clean what hath been conceived unclean, which makes a servant of an enemy, and, in short, an angel of a man? For a chaste man differs from an angel only in felicity, not in virtue. Although the chastity of the one has more happiness, the chastity of the other is stronger. Chastity stands alone in this—that in the place and time of mortality it represents the state of immortality. In the midst of marriage rites, it alone asserts the customs of that blessed country, in which they neither marry nor are given in marriage, affording here on earth some experience of that celestial converse.”

    Lastly, from this place S. Hilary, S. Athanasius (Serm. 3, cont. Arian.), S. Basil (in Ps. cxiv.), S. Jerome (in Eph. iv. 13), upon the words, “until we all come … to a perfect man,” seem to assert that after the Resurrection, in Heaven, there will be no female sex, as there is none in the angels, so that all females will be changed into males, and rise again in the male sex. S. Augustine testifies that many held this opinion in his own day (de Civit. xxii. 19).

    But S. Augustine himself teaches the contrary. So does S. Chrysostom in this passage and Tertullian (lib. de Resurrect.), also S. Jerome and the Scholastics, passim. The a priori reason is, that the female sex is not a defect (vitium), but a natural condition. It existed in a state of innocence in Paradise. For Eve was created by God to be “the mother of all living,” as Adam was created a man. Now, in the Resurrection the same nature shall rise again altogether in every one whatsoever; and with this the difference of sex has much to do. Sex, therefore, shall then remain, lest different individuals, different men from what they were in this life, should seem to rise again. The same thing is clear from the words of Christ: they shall neither be married, nor take wives. They neither marry, spoken of males, nor are given in marriage, of females. Christ, therefore, so far from denying, presupposes that there will then be females; but in such manner that sex will not be used for the purposes of marriage and generation. And this is what is to be understood as the meaning of the Fathers above cited, who seem at first to hold a different opinion.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.