But Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, since you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Parallel translations
- WEB But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
- KJV Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
- BSB Jesus answered, “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
- NKJV Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.
- NLT Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.
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 tells them they err because they know neither the Scriptures nor God's power. Their denial of the resurrection rests on a double ignorance.
Overview
Jesus directly diagnoses the Sadducees' mistake: they misread the Scriptures and underestimate God's power to raise the dead and transform life. This rebuke affirms that right doctrine flows from rightly knowing God's Word and His might. It also models how Jesus corrects error by appeal to Scripture rather than human speculation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Rom 15:4For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
- John 20:9For as yet they didn’t know the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
- Luke 1:37For nothing spoken by God is impossible.”
- Dan 12:2–3Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
- Jer 32:17“Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you,
- Phil 3:21who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.
- Ps 17:15As for me, I shall see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with seeing your form.
- Ps 73:25–26Whom do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you.
- Isa 26:19Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the departed spirits.
- Job 19:25–27But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
- Gen 18:14Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son.”
- Ps 49:14–15They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansion.
- Acts 26:8Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?
- Luke 24:44–47He said to them, “This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me must be fulfilled.”
- Isa 25:8He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for Yahweh has spoken it.
- Hos 13:14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
- Isa 57:1–2The righteous perish, and no one lays it to heart. Merciful men are taken away, and no one considers that the righteous is taken away from the evil.
- Ps 16:9–11Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices. My body shall also dwell in safety.
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 22:29 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
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