The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (63 page)

12:16 Whose likeness . . . ?
Jesus responds with a riddle that plays on the word "likeness". Because Caesar's likeness is stamped on the coin for the tax, it should be given back to him as his rightful property. God's image and likeness, however, is stamped into every living person, including Caesar (Gen 1:27). Even more important than civil responsibilities is the obligation everyone, including Caesar, has to give himself back to God. In the end, Jesus is able to rise above the controversy over taxation by stressing this higher duty incumbent upon all (CCC 450).
See note on Mt 22:19
. 
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12:18 Sadducees:
Priestly aristocrats who managed the affairs of the Jerusalem Temple. Their denial of a future
resurrection
was unacceptable to most Jews of the day (Acts 23:8; CCC 992-93). Here they consider a future resurrection only hypothetically; they are really out to prove there is no such thing. See topical essay:
Who Are the Sadducees?
 
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12:19 if a man's brother dies:
The Sadducees draw attention to the levirate law of Deut 25:5-6. • This law required a man to marry his brother's widow if the brother died childless (Gen 38:6-8). The man would thus produce children for his deceased brother and carry on his family name in Israel. The Sadducees considered this legislation inconsistent with a belief in bodily resurrection, since the widow's numerous marriages would only lead to confusion if all of her husbands were raised. 
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12:25 when they rise:
At the general resurrection the righteous will become
like angels
in glory and immortality; they will not, however, live as disembodied spirits. Marriage will no longer exist in this state since its purposes are fulfilled during earthly life (CCC 1619).
See note on Mt 22:30
. 
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12:26 I am the God:
Since the Sadducees restricted biblical authority to the Pentateuch, Jesus deliberately draws from the Pentateuch to demonstrate the resurrection (Ex 3:6). • The passage narrates how Yahweh revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush as the God of the deceased patriarchs:
Abraham, Isaac,
and
Jacob.
Their intimacy with God even after death proves the immortality of their souls (Wis 3:1) and so hints at the future resurrection of their bodies (Is 26:19).
See note on Mk 12:18
. 
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12:29-31
Jesus summarizes the teaching of the entire Old Covenant in two commandments. • The greatest is the Shema (Hebrew for "hear!"), taken from Deut 6:4-5. The Israelites considered this passage a summary or creed of their faith in the one God of the universe. The second is taken from Lev 19:18. Together these injunctions to love God and one's neighbor underlie all 613 precepts of the Mosaic Law and especially the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:2-17; Deut 5:6-21). The distillation of Yahweh's revealed Law into two commandments was prefigured by the two stone tablets of the Decalogue (Ex 34:1). 
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12:33 burnt offerings and sacrifices:
The scribe recalls what is often restated in the Scriptures: the moral laws of God are superior to the sacrificial laws of the Temple (1 Sam 15:22; Jud 16:16; Ps 40:6-8; Hos 6:6; Mic 6:6-8). It is implied that drawing close to the New Covenant kingdom means backing away from the Old Covenant Temple (12:34). • The sacrificial system as managed by the Levitical priesthood was not part of the Mosaic covenant in Ex 19-24 but was imposed upon the Israelites after they worshipped the golden calf in Ex 32. Originally, the Mosaic covenant was to consist only of the Ten Commandments (Deut 5:22; Jer 7:22) and a single sacrificial ceremony where Israelites would renounce idolatry once and for all by slaughtering the very animals they had begun to worship in Egypt (Ex 24:3-8; Ezek 20:7-8). However, the golden calf episode in Ex 32 proved that the Israelites were still attached to their idols and needed a permanent means to eradicate idolatry from the nation. Detailed legislation for priesthood and sacrifice was thus added to Mosaic covenant as Yahweh's (temporary) solution to this predicament (Ex 25-31, 35-40; Lev 1-27). 
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Who Are the Sadducees?

T
HE
Sadducees make brief but memorable appearances in the NT. They are most often cast in a negative light as the adversaries of Jesus and the early Christians. Sadducees seem to have been Jewish conservatives not prone to embrace new ideas or movements. This religious instinct—to cling to the "old ways"—set them at odds with Jesus and the radical claims of the gospel.

Although historical details about the Sadducees in the NT period are fragmentary, the combination of biblical and extrabiblical evidence brings a reasonably focused picture into view. The Sadducees emerged as a religious and political interest group around the second century
B.C.
Their name is derived from the high priest Zadok, who served under King Solomon (1 Kings 2:35) and whose descendants were granted exclusive rights to minister in Jerusalem (Ezek 40:46). As part of Jewish society's upper class, it is likely that many Sadducees were wealthy and held important positions in the Holy City. Most notably, the Sadducees were closely associated with the Temple and the priesthood (Acts 4:1; 5:17). While not all Sadducees were Levitical priests, many priests aligned themselves with the Sadducees and their agenda for Jewish life. The Sadducees thus held many "official" leadership positions in Old Covenant Judaism and were in charge of maintaining national relations between Israel and Rome. This high profile earned them the support of wealthier citizens, while many lower-class Jews held them in suspicion and even contempt. The masses probably regarded the Sadducees as corrupt.

Controversy surrounding the Sadducees stems from several factors. First, they were notoriously opposed to the Pharisees, a movement held in honor by many Jews. Unlike the Pharisees, the Sadducees sought to maintain the status quo. Their outlook on Jewish life was likely one of tolerance: Live peaceably with the governing Romans, and Judaism will successfully weather the storm of foreign rule. This collided with the Pharisees' perspective that Israel had to separate and purify itself of the Gentiles, even if this meant driving the Romans out. Second, the Sadducees stand out on the Jewish landscape for their emphatic doctrinal denials. Unlike the majority of first-century Jews, the Sadducees expressly denied: (1) an afterlife with rewards and punishments for the righteous and wicked, (2) the immortality of the soul, (3) the resurrection of the body, and (4) the existence of angels or spirits (Acts 23:6-8). At a more fundamental level, the Sadducees denied full authority to any Scripture except the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible (Gen-Deut). As a consequence, they opposed every doctrine not explicitly taught within the Pentateuch. This restrictive view of the biblical canon also provided them with one more reason to oppose the Pharisees: the Sadducees repudiated the oral traditions that the Pharisees developed to supplement the books of Moses (Mk 7:1-5).

In the Gospels, Jesus squares off against the Sadducees only once (Mt 22:23-33; Mk 12:18-27; Lk 20:27-38). While Jesus is teaching in the Temple, the Sadducees approach him with a theological puzzle, convinced that the doctrine of the general resurrection is incompatible with the teaching of the Pentateuch (Deut 25:5). If a woman has several husbands during her life, they reason, surely this will cause great marital confusion in the next life. If all of her husbands are raised, whose wife will she be (Mk 12:20-23)? Jesus responds with ingenuity and tact, affirming nearly everything the Sadducees expressly denied. He asserts the existence of
angels
and deliberately cites the Pentateuch (Ex 3:6) to demonstrate that
souls live beyond death
and that their bodies will one day be
raised
(Mk 12:27). «
Back to Mark 12:1.

12:36 by the Holy Spirit:
Jesus affirms the divine inspiration of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:2021). Although
David
wrote the Psalm, the Holy Spirit authored divine words of prophecy through him.
declared:
Scripture itself exposes the inadequate understanding of Israel's leaders. Although the scribes were rightly aware that the Messiah would be a royal descendant of David (12:35; 2 Sam 7:12-14), they overlooked the Messiah's lordship over David in Ps 110. This leaves them with a dangling question: How can David's son and successor also be David's superior? • In Ps 110, David foresaw the greatness of the Messiah by calling him
Lord,
a title associated with Israel's kings (1 Sam 24:6; 26:19; 1 Kings 1:37). Accordingly, David's successor becomes his superior once the Davidic heir is crowned and enthroned by the Lord. Jesus stakes out this royal claim for himself (14:62; 16:19). • Theological reflection yields another solution to this puzzle. Jesus is the son of David in his humanity, and thus David's successor (Lk 1:32; Rom 1:3), while he is also the divine Son of God, and thus David's superior Lord (CCC 202, 668). 
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