Luke 20:37

Luke 20:37, in plain English

Jesus points to something even Moses showed: at the burning bush, God called Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If those men were simply gone, God wouldn't claim them as His own.

Why it's here

Jesus uses the Sadducees' own favorite part of the Bible — the books of Moses — to prove them wrong. God's relationship with the patriarchs didn't end at their death.

Who's speaking

Jesus argues from the Sadducees' own Scripture, showing resurrection was there all along.

Where it sits in the story

Jesus reaches back to the burning bush and pulls out a truth the Sadducees never noticed. God said 'I AM' — present tense — the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They're not past tense to God.

The scholarly reading

Jesus argues for resurrection from the Torah itself — the Sadducees' own authority — citing the burning bush passage (Exodus 3:6) where God identifies as 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' Moses himself 'demonstrated' (emēnysen) this truth.

Language and setting

By grounding the resurrection argument in the Pentateuch rather than the Prophets or Writings, Jesus meets the Sadducees on their own authoritative ground. This is a masterful debating move, using their accepted Scripture to prove what they deny.

Voice

Jesus argues from Moses — the Sadducees' own authority — that the dead are raised.

Significance

Jesus goes straight to Moses — the one authority the Sadducees can't reject. In the burning bush, God calls Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If they're simply dead, God is the God of corpses. But He's the God of the living.

35But those who are considered worthy to share in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage.

36In fact, they can no longer die, because they are like the angels. And since they are sons of the resurrection, they are sons of God.

37Even Moses demonstrates that the dead are raised, in the passage about the burning bush. For he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’

38He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.”

39Some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, You have spoken well!”

Read all of Luke 20 — The religious leaders challenge Jesus' authority. He answers with a parable about murderous tenants that leaves them furious and afraid.