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Mat_22:31 f. But with reference to the resurrection, set over against the foregoing ἐν γὰρ τῇ ἀναστ .; the sequence of the address is indicated by the prepositions. περὶ τῆς ἀναστ . should be taken along with οὐκ ἀνέγνωτε .
ὑμῖν ] imparts the vivacity of individuality to the words of Jesus. The quotation is from Exo_3:6. His opponents had cited a passage from the law; with a passage from the law Jesus confutes them, and thus combats them with their own weapons. It is wrong to refer to this in support of the view that the Sadducees accepted only the Pentateuch as authoritative scripture (Tertullian, Origen, Jerome, Luther, Paulus, Olshausen, Süskind in the Stud. u. Krit. 1830, p. 665). Yet these aristocrats regarded the law, and the mere letter of the law too, as possessing supreme authority.
οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ θεὸς , κ . τ . λ .] This is the major proposition of a syllogism, in terms of which we are warranted in recognising in the passage here quoted a scriptural testimony in favour of the resurrection. The Sadducees had failed to draw the inference thus shown to be deducible from the words; hence Mat_22:29 : μὴ εἰδότες τὰς γραφάς , a fact which Jesus has now confirmed by the illustration before us. The point of the argument does not turn upon the present εἰμί (Chrysostom, and those who follow him), but is to this effect: seeing that God calls Himself the God of the patriarchs, and as He cannot sustain such a relation toward the dead, i.e. those who are absolutely dead, who have ceased to exist ( οὐκ ὄντων καὶ καθάπαξ ἀφανισθέντων , Chrysostom), but only toward the living, it follows that the deceased patriarchs must be living,—living, that is, in Sheol, and living as ἀναστῆναι μέλλοντες (Euthymius Zigabenus). Comp. Heb_11:16. The similar inference in Menasse f. Isr. de Resurr. i. 10. 6, appears to have been deduced from the passage before us. Comp. Schoettgen, p. 180.