Commentary on the Gospel of
If you thought that questions were always neutral requests for information, these passages show you otherwise. The Saducees did not believe in life-after-death, but here they are, asking a question, the point of which is to reduce such a belief to absurdity. But Jesus did not tailor his answer to please them: the dead, he said, will be “like the angels in heaven.” He knew that the Saducees did not believe in the existence of angels, any more than they believed in a next life. It is a lesson in how to deal with dishonest questions: do not give up your ground, do not backtrack.