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Daily Devotions

Mark

Mark 
Day 
Day 261

Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of deathâ?¦" Acts 2:24a

THE NEXT GROUP

The Herodians and Pharisees had failed. They thought that they could entrap Jesus, by their peculiar poser. They were proven humiliatingly wrong. The next group comprised the Sadducees. This sect was opposed to both the Herodians and Pharisees, but they joined in the fray, attacking Jesus every way they could.

“Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection,
came to Him; and they asked Him saying,
‘Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies,
and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children,
his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring
for his brother.”
MARK 12:18

THE BELIEFS OF THE SADDUCEES

In order to understand the question that the Sadducees posed to Jesus, we need to have at least a brief summary of some of their main beliefs. Josephus, an ancient Jewish historian made these observations about them. Seven may be highlighted.

1. They believed only in the law of Moses.
2. They rejected the traditions held by the Pharisees.
3. They believe that when the body dies, the soul dies with it.
4. They thus do not believe in the immortality of the soul.
5. They believed very strongly in human free will (they reject the idea of “fate”).
6. They also did not believe in Hades and eternal punishment.
7. They tend to be forthright in questioning the teachings of others.

THEIR ENCOUNTER WITH JESUS

The way the Sadduccees confronted Jesus is consistent with what is known about them.
1. They forthrightly confronted Jesus.
2. They cited only from the law of Moses.
3. They were prepared to debate with Jesus on this subject of “Levirate marriage”.
( A reference to a brother marrying the widow of a deceased brother, for the sake of extending the bloodline).