Discovery BoxLuke 20:36-38 
Context20:36 In fact, they can no longer die, because they are equal to angels 1 and are sons of God, since they are 2 sons 3 of the resurrection. 20:37 But even Moses revealed that the dead are raised 4 in the passage about the bush, 5 where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. 6 20:38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, 7 for all live before him.” 8
1 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).
2 tn Grk “sons of God, being.” The participle ὄντες (ontes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle here.
3 tn Or “people.” The noun υἱός (Juios) followed by the genitive of class or kind (“sons of…”) denotes a person of a class or kind, specified by the following genitive construction. This Semitic idiom is frequent in the NT (L&N 9.4).
4 tn Grk “But that the dead are raised even Moses revealed.”
5 sn See Exod 3:6. Jesus used a common form of rabbinic citation here to refer to the passage in question.
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.
8 tn On this syntax, see BDF §192. The point is that all live “to” God or “before” God.
