Mark 12:24-27

12:24 Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you deceived ¹  for this reason, because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God? 12:25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels ²  in heaven. 12:26 Now as for the dead being raised, ³  have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, ⁴  how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the ⁵  God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ⁶  12:27 He is not the God of the dead but of the living. ⁷  You are badly mistaken!”

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¹ tn Or “mistaken” (cf. BDAG 822 s.v. πλανάω 2.c.γ).

² sn Angels do not die, nor do they eat according to Jewish tradition (1 En. 15:6; 51:4; Wis 5:5; 2 Bar. 51:10; 1QH 3.21-23).

³ tn Grk “Now as for the dead that they are raised.”

⁴ sn See Exod 3:6. Jesus used a common form of rabbinic citation here to refer to the passage in question.

⁵ tn Grk “and the,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

⁶ sn A quotation from Exod 3:6.

⁷ sn He is not God of the dead but of the living. Jesus’ point was that if God could identify himself as God of the three old patriarchs, then they must still be alive when God spoke to Moses; and so they must be raised.