The Debate on the Resurrection of the Dead: an Incident From the Ministry of the Historical Jesus?

Abstract

Despite initial appearances, Jesus' debate with the Sadducees over the resurrection of the dead does have good reason for being considered authentic. The pericope is clearly not a pure creation by Mark. Indeed, the criteria of discontinuity and coher ence argue for a basic historicity. The pericope is discontinuous (1) with the ten dency of the synoptic tradition to multiply dispute stories involving Pharisees, not Sadducees; (2) with the topics usually handled in dispute stories; (3) with the way Christians trcated and grounded the general resurrection; (4) with the texts used by Jews to ground the resurrection. While the general resurrection was not a direct topic of Jesus' preaching, it does cohere with and is implied hy some of his escha tological pronouncements: e.g. Mt. 8.11 par.; Lk. 14.14; Mt. 11.21-24 par.; Mt. 12 41-42 par.; Mk 9.43-47 par.; Mk 14.25.