MARK 12:27 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 12:24–27

In this paragraph Jesus answered the Sadducees’ question. There are two parts to Jesus’ answer. He explained that:

When people live again after they have died, they will be like the angels, who do not marry. (12:25)
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 he does cause people to live again after they die. (12:26–27)

Then Jesus told the Sadducees that they were wrong not to believe that dead people can live again (12:27).

12:27a

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

He is not God for dead people. He is God for people who are alive!
He does not call himself the God who cares for dead bodies. He is a God whose people are alive!
Since God says that these people who have died are worshiping him, then they must still be alive.

He is not the God of the dead, but of the living: At the time that Moses wrote the book of Exodus, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were already dead. They had all been dead for almost two thousand years. Jesus was saying here that the statement in 12:26d implies that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were still alive in some sense. Even though their bodies had died, they still lived and God was still their God. Therefore, Jesus implied, God was able to make their bodies live again.This implies that our spirits also continue to live even after our bodies die.

The Sadducees believed that people do not continue to exist after they die. In this verse Jesus implied that if it were true that dead people no longer existed, God would not identify himself as their God.

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. Here are possible ways to translate 12:27a to avoid this wrong meaning:

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

He is not the God of the dead: Jesus indicated here that God is not the God of people who have died and ceased to exist. If a person no longer exists, he does not have a god. Jesus explained to the Sadducees that they were wrong when they said that a person does not exist after his body dies. You may need to put a footnote in your translation to explain this strange belief of the Sadducees and how Jesus showed that there is life after death.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

He is not the God of people who have died

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

but: The Greek conjunction that the BSB translates as but shows 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. Another way to say this in English is:

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

of the living: God continues to be the God of his people, even of those who have died. He continues to relate to them as their God, and he will make their bodies alive again in the future. In some languages it may be helpful or even necessary to repeat the words “he is the God” in the second clause. (See the example above).

General Comment on 12:26–27

It is important for you to avoid two possible wrong meanings in 12:26–27. One wrong meaning could be that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not really die. The other wrong meaning could be that God is the God only of people who have not died physically. So your translation may need a note to explain that God is the God of his people even after their bodies have died.

12:27b

You are badly mistaken!”

You^(plur) are very wrong!”
You^(plur) have made a terrible mistake to not believe that God raises dead people to life!”

You are badly mistaken: Jesus was saying that the Sadducees were very wrong to claim that dead people will not become alive again.

mistaken: The Greek word that the BSB translates as mistaken is the same word that was translated as “mistaken” in 12:24a–c. If it is natural in your language, you can translate it in the same way here.

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / ellipsis

οὐκ ἔστιν Θεὸς νεκρῶν, ἀλλὰ ζώντων

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Οὐκ ἐστίν Θεός νεκρῶν ἀλλά ζώντων Πολύ πλανᾶσθε)

Jesus is leaving out some of the words that in many languages a sentence would need in order to be complete. You can supply these words from the context if it would be clearer in your language. Alternate translation: [God is not a God of the dead, but he is a God of the living]

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

οὐκ ἔστιν Θεὸς νεκρῶν, ἀλλὰ ζώντων

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Οὐκ ἐστίν Θεός νεκρῶν ἀλλά ζώντων Πολύ πλανᾶσθε)

Here Jesus implies that, although Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had already died by the time God spoke these words, God still called himself their God. Since God is not a God of the dead, but of the living, this means that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must be alive again. If it would be helpful in your language, you could make that idea more explicit. Alternate translation: [God is not of the dead, but of the living, so Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob must live again after they died]

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / infostructure

οὐκ & Θεὸς νεκρῶν, ἀλλὰ ζώντων

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Οὐκ ἐστίν Θεός νεκρῶν ἀλλά ζώντων Πολύ πλανᾶσθε)

If your language would not naturally put the negative statement before the positive statement, you could reverse the two phrases here. Alternate translation: [a God of the living, not of the dead]

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / possession

νεκρῶν, ἀλλὰ ζώντων

˱of˲_˓the˒_dead (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Οὐκ ἐστίν Θεός νεκρῶν ἀλλά ζώντων Πολύ πλανᾶσθε)

Here, Jesus is using the possessive form to describe the God whom the living, not the dead, worship. If this is not clear in your language, you could express the idea in another way. Alternate translation: [honored by the dead, but by the living]

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / nominaladj

νεκρῶν & ζώντων

˱of˲_˓the˒_dead & ˱of˲_˓the˒_living

Jesus is using the adjectives dead and living as nouns to mean people who are dead and living. Your language may use adjectives in the same way. If not, you can translate these words with equivalent phrases. Alternate translation: [of dead people … of living people]

Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / activepassive

πολὺ πλανᾶσθε

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Οὐκ ἐστίν Θεός νεκρῶν ἀλλά ζώντων Πολύ πλανᾶσθε)

If your language does not use this passive form, you could express the idea in active form or in another way that is natural in your language. If you need to say who does the action, it is clear from the context that it is they themselves. Alternate translation: [You are misunderstanding much] or [You are deceiving yourselves much]

Note 7 topic: figures-of-speech / yousingular

πολὺ πλανᾶσθε

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Οὐκ ἐστίν Θεός νεκρῶν ἀλλά ζώντων Πολύ πλανᾶσθε)

Because Jesus is speaking to the Sadducees, the word You here is plural.

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 12:27

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

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

Paragraph 12:24–27

12:27a

General Comment on 12:26–27

12:27b

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