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Bible Q

What does it mean “God not of the dead but of the living” (Matthew 22:32, Mark 12:27, Luke 20:38)

Answered by . January 1, 2025 - 12:39 pm
This statement of Jesus is recorded three times, once in each of the synoptic gospels:
  • Matthew 22:32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead but of the living.” (NRSV)
  • Mark 12:27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” (NRSV)
  • Luke 20:38 Now he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.” (NRSV)
Possibly the most immediately clear is the version in Luke which ends with “for all live to him” (Greek text ζώντων πάντες γὰρ αὐτῷ ζῶσιν) – but the context clearly means all of the Jewish patriarchs just mentioned, not all humans who have ever existed. Which is why the NRSV translates “all of them”, not just “all”.
This should be fairly straightforward, the immediate context is a discussion of resurrection with the Sadducees.

18 Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children, 21 and the second married the widow and died, leaving no children, and the third likewise; 22 none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For all seven had married her.” 24 Jesus said to them, “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when people rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is God not of the dead but of the living; you are quite wrong.” (Mark 12:18-27 NRSV)

And what Jesus here says is entirely consistent with the many other passages teaching that the dead know nothing, and sleep until the resurrection and judgment at the visible and physical return of Christ to be king on earth:

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. 21 For since death came through a human, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human, 22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. 23 But each in its own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15:20-25 NRSV)

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