LUKE 20:38 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 20:27–40: Sadducees asked Jesus a trick question about the resurrection

The Jewish leaders continued to challenge Jesus’ authority and the things that he was teaching. In this section some Sadducees asked Jesus a question to try to show that his teaching was wrong. Like the Pharisees, the Sadducees were another group of Jewish leaders with certain religious beliefs. Many of the Sadducees were priests. They did not believe that God would cause anyone who had died to live again.

Jesus taught that God does cause people who have died to live again. The Sadducees tried to use this belief to trick Jesus in 20:27–40. They told a story to ridicule these beliefs that Jesus taught. The story was not true, but they used it to ask a question. They thought that if a person believed that people who died could live again, there was no sensible answer to the question.

The Sadducees based their story on the custom that is described in Deuteronomy 25:5–6. This scripture teaches that if an Israelite woman did not have any children by her husband before he died, her husband’s brother should marry her. Their first child would have the name of his dead brother and would be the heir of the dead brother.This custom was called levirate marriage. Jewish people considered the first son that the widow bore after marrying the brother of her dead husband to be the son of her dead husband, not the son of the man who was now her husband. This meant that this son and his descendants would carry on the dead man’s family and family name through future generations. Any sons born after this to the woman and her living husband would carry on the name of the living husband for future generations. In that way, the dead man’s family and family name could continue through future generations. Since the Scripture taught this custom, the Sadducees believed that they could prove from Scripture that Jesus was wrong.

Examples of headings for this section are:

The Question about Rising from Death (GNT)

Do the dead rise again?

The Sadducees challenged Jesus on people rising from death

Parallel passages for this section are found in Matthew 22:23–33 and Mark 12:18–27.

Paragraph 20:34–38

In this paragraph Jesus gave the Sadducees an answer that had two parts:

In 20:34–36, he explained that when people die and live again, they will have a new kind of life. They will not marry, just as angels do not marry. (See the notes on 20:36a–b.)
In 20:37–38, he reminded them what God said in one of the books of Moses. God indicated that the great ancestors of the Jewish people were still alive with him. This showed that God does cause people to live again after they die.

20:38a

He is not the God of the dead, but of the living,

God is not the God of dead people, but of living people,
He calls himself the God who cares for living people; he does not call himself the God who cares for dead bodies.
God says that these people who have died worship him as their God, so they must still be alive.

He is not the God of the dead, but of the living: This statement is what Jesus concluded from Exodus 3:6. At the time when Moses was writing, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had all been dead for hundreds of years. However, only living people can know God and worship him. Moses called the Lord their God, and that implied that they were still alive with God.This implies that our spirits also continue to live even after our bodies die.

In some languages it may be confusing to translate the clause He is not the God of the dead in a literal way. It may wrongly imply that God no longer cares for people who have died. God does care for people who worshiped him and who have died. They are still alive with him. Another way to translate this is:

He is not the God of people who no longer exist. He is the God of people who still exist.

not the God of the dead: The Greek word that the BSB translates as the dead here refers to dead bodies. It does not refer to the spirits of people who die. God continues to care for his people who have died. His people who die are not just corpses. They continue to live in God’s presence. Some ways to translate this are:

He is not the God of people who are dead.

He does not say to dead bodies, “I am your God.”

This statement does not imply that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not die. They died, but their spirits continued to live with God. The statement also does not imply that God is only the God of people who have not yet died physically. One way to make that clear in English is:

He is not the God of people who remain/stay dead.

You may also want to explain more about the meaning in a footnote.

but: The Greek conjunction that the BSB translates as but indicates here that there is a contrast between being God of dead people and God of living people. Use a natural way in your language to show this contrast. For example:

He is not the God of dead people. Rather, he is the God of living people.

He is not the God of people who die and no longer exist. Instead, he is the God of people who are alive with him.

of the living: The Greek word that the BSB translates as living is plural. It refers to living people. In some languages it may also be helpful to supply the implied subject and verb here and say:

he is the God of living people

20:38b

for to Him all are alive.”

for he sees/considers all his children as alive/living.”
As far as God is concerned, all his people are still living.”
To God, all his people are still alive.”

for: The Greek conjunction that the BSB translates as for here introduces an explanation of 20:38a. God is the God of living people, because to him, everyone who ever trusted him at any time is still alive. Introduce the explanation in a natural way in your language.

to Him all are alive: The phrase to Him here means “from God’s perspective” or “as He considers/sees.” To human beings, it may seem that people who have died are still dead. But to God, the people whose bodies have died are still alive. He cares for all of them.

all: There are two ways to interpret the Greek word that the BSB translates as all:

It refers back to “those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age” in 20:35–36, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For example:
to him all of them are alive (NRSV) (NRSV)
It refers to “all people.” For example:
In God’s sight all people are living (CEV) (CEV, NCV, NJB)

Most English versions are ambiguous here. It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). Jesus referred here to people who have a relationship with God, as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did.See Exegetical Summary of Luke 12–24, p. 352. Some ways to translate it are:

all his children

all his people

all who belong to him

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: grammar-connect-time-background

δὲ

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Θεός Δέ οὐκ ἐστίν νεκρῶν ἀλλά ζώντων πάντες γάρ αὐτῷ ζῶσιν)

Jesus uses the word And to introduce a teaching about God that will help the Sadducees understand how God’s description of himself at the burning bush proves that God raises people from the dead. Alternate translation: [Now]

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / parallelism

Θεὸς & οὐκ ἔστιν νεκρῶν, ἀλλὰ ζώντων

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Θεός Δέ οὐκ ἐστίν νεκρῶν ἀλλά ζώντων πάντες γάρ αὐτῷ ζῶσιν)

The two phrases not … of the dead and of the living mean the same thing. Jesus is using repetition for emphasis. If your language does not use repetition in this way, you can express this idea with a single phrase. Alternate translation: [he is a God of living people only]

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / nominaladj

νεκρῶν

˱of˲_˓the˒_dead

Jesus is using the adjective dead as a noun in order to indicate a group of people. Your language may use adjectives in the same way. If not, you could translate this with an equivalent expression. Alternate translation: [of people who have died]

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / nominaladj

ζώντων

˱of˲_˓the˒_living

Jesus is using the adjective living as a noun in order to indicate a group of people. Your language may use adjectives in the same way. If not, you could translate this with an equivalent expression. Alternate translation: [of people who are alive] or [of people whom he has brought back to life]

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

πάντες γὰρ αὐτῷ ζῶσιν

all (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Θεός Δέ οὐκ ἐστίν νεκρῶν ἀλλά ζώντων πάντες γάρ αὐτῷ ζῶσιν)

Interpreters understand this statement in various ways. One likely possibility is that Jesus is saying implicitly that after people die, while they are dead as far as other people are concerned, they are alive as far as God is concerned. That is because their spirits live on after death, and God is still able to relate to their spirits. Alternate translation: [because even after people die, God is still able to relate to them as living spirits]

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)

Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.

Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.

OET interlinear LUKE 20:38

SR Greek word order (including unused variant words in grey)

Section 20:27–40: Sadducees asked Jesus a trick question about the resurrection

Paragraph 20:34–38

20:38a

20:38b

OET-LV English word order (‘Reverse’ interlinear)