He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
Parallel translations
- WEB He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are therefore badly mistaken.”
- KJV He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.
- NKJV He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken.”
- NASB He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken.”
- NLT So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus concludes that God is the God of the living, not the dead, so the Sadducees are badly mistaken.
Overview
Because God remains the covenant God of the patriarchs, they live before Him and will be raised. Jesus thus affirms the resurrection and exposes the Sadducees' grave error. His teaching assures believers that death does not sever God's covenant faithfulness, which is fully secured in Christ's own resurrection.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Rom 14:9For this reason Christ died and returned to life, that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
- Mark 12:24Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
- Rom 4:17As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.
- Heb 11:13–16All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
- Heb 3:10Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.’
- Prov 19:27If you cease to hear instruction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Mark drives urgently to the cross, showing Jesus the Son of God as the suffering Servant who 'came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'
How Mark 12:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.