MARK 12:18 Interlinear View

SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 12:18–27: Other leaders asked Jesus about people living again after they die

The Jewish leaders continued to challenge Jesus. In this section some Sadducees asked Jesus a question to try to show that the things he taught were wrong. Like the Pharisees, the Sadducees were a 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 believed and taught that God does cause people who have died to live again. The Sadducees tried to use this belief to trick Jesus in 12:18–27. 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 Jewish custom that is described in Deuteronomy 25:5–6. This Scripture teaches that if a woman did not have any children by her husband before he died, his brother was required to marry her. Their first child would have the name of his dead brother and would be his heir.This custom was called the levirate. 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.

It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it.

Here are some other possible headings for this section:

The question about the resurrection

The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection (ESV)

Do people rise from the dead?

There are parallel passages for this section in Matthew 22:23–33 and Luke 20:27–40.

Paragraph 12:18–23

In this paragraph the Sadducees explained a Jewish custom. Then they told a story and used it to ask Jesus a question about life after death. They hoped that the question would be too difficult for Jesus to answer. They planned to ridicule the idea of life after death.

12:18a

Then the Sadducees,

¶ After that, some men who were from the group named Sadducees
¶ Later, some people who belonged to the Sadducee group/party

12:18b

who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus

came to him. Sadducees teach that people do not live again after they die.
came to Jesus. The Sadducee group believed that God does not cause people to live again after they die.

12:18a–b

Then: The Greek conjunction that the BSB translates as Then here introduces the beginning of a new story. Matthew 22:23 indicates that this event happened on the same day as the events in the preceding section. The Greek text of Mark does not indicate how much time passed between these two stories.

If it is natural in your language to begin a story with a time word or phrase, use an expression that is not too specific. For example:

Later

After that

In some languages, a time word or phrase is not necessary. Introduce this story in a natural way in your language.

the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus: Here the author introduced the Sadducees into the story and gave background information about them. The Sadducees were a Jewish religious group who had certain beliefs. They did not believe in the resurrection. Some of these Sadducees came to Jesus.

Languages have different ways to introduce people in a story. Use a way that is natural in your language.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

Then some members of the Sadducee group came to Jesus. The Sadducee group does not believe that people who die can live again.

Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. (NLT)

Some languages have a special word or form to indicate background information. Some languages have another word or form to indicate a return to the events in the story. Use a natural way to do this in your language.

the Sadducees: The Sadducees were a Jewish religious group or party. They taught that the first five books of the Old Testament were more important than the other books. They did not believe that angels or spirits existed (Acts 23:8). Here are some ways to translate this word:

Transliterate the word Sadducees according to the sounds of your language and indicate that it refers to a group of people. For example:
Sadusi members
Saduce adherents
Transliterate the word Sadducees and indicate that it refers to a group of people with certain beliefs. For example:
people belonging to the Sadusi religious group
members of the Jewish group called the Saduceo

It is recommended that you translate Sadducees in a similar way as you translated “Pharisees” in 2:16a.

who say there is no resurrection: The Sadducees believed that God does not cause people to live again after they die. They also taught this belief to other people. In this context the verb say refers to what the Sadducees believed and taught. For example:

The Sadducees did not believe that people would live again after they die.

say: The verb say is in the present tense because at the time Mark was writing, the Sadducees were still saying this. In some languages a literal translation may suggest that the Sadducees still say this today. Consider if it would be more natural to translate this with a different form of the verb.

resurrection: Many Jewish people believed in the resurrection.Some scholars think that the term resurrection refers to a time in the future when God will cause all people who have died to live again. This term does not imply that a person will live again as a different person or as an animal. It implies that when God causes people to live again, everyone will have the same identity that they had before they died.

You will want to carefully check your translation of this term to make sure that it does not communicate a wrong meaning.

12:18c

and questioned Him:

These men asked Jesus a question about that.
They knew that Jesus disagreed with them about that, so they asked him a question to discredit him.

and questioned Him: The question that the Sadducees asked was not sincere. They asked it to ridicule the idea that people can live again after they die. In some languages it may be necessary to indicate some of this implied information. For example:

Sadducees, who did not believe, as Jesus did, that there will be a resurrection

General Comment on 12:18a–c

It might be more natural in your language to reorder this verse. For example:

The Jewish leaders called Sadducees did not believe that people rise to life after death. So some of them came to Jesus and asked him a difficult question.

Then some of the Jewish leaders called Sadducees went to Jesus. They asked him a question because they did not believe, as Jesus did, that people can live again after they die.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: writing-participants

καὶ ἔρχονται Σαδδουκαῖοι πρὸς αὐτόν, οἵτινες λέγουσιν ἀνάστασιν μὴ εἶναι; καὶ ἐπηρώτων αὐτὸν λέγοντες

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί ἔρχονται Σαδδουκαῖοι πρός αὐτόν οἵτινες λέγουσιν ἀνάστασιν μή εἶναι καί ἐπηρώτων αὐτόν λέγοντες)

Mark is here introducing the Sadducees as new participants in the story. If your language has its own way of introducing new participants, you could use it here in your translation. Alternate translation: [And some people approached him. They were Sadducees, who are a group who say that there is no resurrection. They were questioning him, saying]

Note 2 topic: writing-background

καὶ ἔρχονται Σαδδουκαῖοι πρὸς αὐτόν, οἵτινες λέγουσιν ἀνάστασιν μὴ εἶναι

Here Mark provides background information about the Sadducees that will help readers understand what happens next. Use a natural form in your language for introducing background information. Alternate translation: [Now the Sadducees teach that there is no resurrection. Some of them come to him]

Note 3 topic: writing-newevent

καὶ

Here, the word And introduces the next major event in the story. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use a word or phrase that introduces the next event, or you could leave And untranslated. Alternate translation: [Then]

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / distinguish

Σαδδουκαῖοι & οἵτινες λέγουσιν ἀνάστασιν μὴ εἶναι

˓the˒_Sadducees & who ˓are˒_saying ˓a˒_resurrection (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί ἔρχονται Σαδδουκαῖοι πρός αὐτόν οἵτινες λέγουσιν ἀνάστασιν μή εἶναι καί ἐπηρώτων αὐτόν λέγοντες)

This phrase is identifying the Sadducees as a group of Jews that said no one would rise from the dead. It is not identifying the Sadducees who came to question Jesus as members of that group who held that belief, as if other members did not. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use a form that makes that more explicit. Alternate translation: [Sadducees, men who believe that no one will rise from the dead]

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / abstractnouns

ἀνάστασιν μὴ εἶναι

˓a˒_resurrection (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί ἔρχονται Σαδδουκαῖοι πρός αὐτόν οἵτινες λέγουσιν ἀνάστασιν μή εἶναι καί ἐπηρώτων αὐτόν λέγοντες)

If your language does not use an abstract noun for the idea of resurrection, you could express the same idea in another way. Alternate translation: [that people do not resurrect]

Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / go

ἔρχονται

˓are˒_coming

In a context such as this, your language might say “go” instead of come. Alternate translation: [go]

Note 7 topic: writing-quotations

λέγοντες

saying

Consider natural ways of introducing direct quotations in your language. Alternate translation: [and they said]

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 MARK 12:18

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