He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: you therefore do greatly err.
Read Chapter 12
Bede
AD 735
And fitly do they frame such a fable in order to prove the madness of those who assert the resurrection of the body. Such a thing however might really have happened at some time or other among them.
We must here consider that the Latin custom does not answer to the Greek idiom. For properly different words areused for the marriage of men, and that of women; but here we may simply understand that, “marry,” is meant of men, and “given in marriage” of women.
Or else; because after proving that the soul remained after death, (for God could not be God of those who did not exist at all,) the resurrection of the body also might be inferred as aconsequence, since it had done good and evil with the soul.
After that our Lord has prudently escaped the crafty temptation of the Pharisees, it is shown how Healso confounds the Sadducees, who tempt Him. Wherefore it is said: “Then come unto Him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection.”.
That is, because they contradicted the Scriptures, and derogated from the power of God.
But in a mystical sense: what can this woman, leaving no seed to seven brothers, and last of all dying, mean except the Jewish synagogue, deserted by the seven-fold Spirit, which filled those seven patriarchs, who did not leave to her the seed of Abraham, that is, Jesus Christ? For although a Son was born to them, nevertheless He was given to us Gentiles. This woman was dead to Christ, nor shall she be joined in the resurrection to any patriarch of the seven; for bythe number seven is meant the whole company of the faithful. Thus it is said contrariwise by Isaiah, “Seven women shall take hold of one man;” that is, the seven Churches, which the Lord loves, reproves, and chastises, adore Him with one faith. Wherefore it goes on: “And Jesus answering, said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, not knowing the Scripture, neither the power of God?”.
Thus then they do not understand the Scripture, in that in the resurrection, men shall be as the Angels of God, that is, no man there dies, no on...
As if He had said, Yeunderstand not what sort of a resurrection the Scriptures announce; for yebelieve that there will be a restoration of our bodies, such as they are now, but it shall not be so. Thus then ye know not the Scriptures; neither again doye know the power of God; for ye consider it as a difficult thing, saying, How can the limbs, which have been scattered, be united together and joined to the soul? But this in respect to the Divine power is as nothing.
In another way also they are deceived, not understanding the Scriptures; for if they had understood them, they should also have understood how by the Scriptures the resurrection of the dead may be proved. Wherefore He adds, “And as touching the dead, that they rise, have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?”.
But I say, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. "As if He had said, “The God of ...
