Mark 12:26

Mar 12:26 Βίβλῳ, the book) The volume of Moses is mentioned in this passage; that of Isaiah in Luk 3:4; that of the Prophets, Act 7:42; that of the Psalms, Act 1:20.—Μωσέως, of Moses) concerning whom you have spoken, Mar 12:19.—ἐπὶ τοῦ βάτου, in the bush) A formula of quoting a section or division of Scripture, frequent with the Rabbins [Comp. Michaëlis in der Einleitung, etc., T. i. p. m. 87.—E. B.] So Pliny, “Molybdænam in plumbo dicendam,” i.e. in the chapter concerning lead [plumbus]. Furthermore, ὁ βάτος is the measure, bath; ὁ or ἡ βάτος (as ὁ or ἡ θάμνος) not an unproductive bramble, but a valuable shrubbery [place of bushes], at least in Exodus. A noble image is derived from this, Deu 33:16 [the good-will of Him, that dwelt in the bush].

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mar 12:26 . ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ Μ .: a general reference to the Pentateuch, the following phrase, ἐπὶ τοῦ βάτου , supplying a more definite reference to the exact place in the book, the section relating to the bush. “At the bush,” i.e. , Exo 3 , similarly reference might be made to Exo 15 , by the title: “at the song of Moses”. βάτος is masculine here according to the best reading; feminine in Luk 20:37 . The feminine is Hellenistic, the masculine Attic. Vide Thayer’s Grimm . The word occurs in Aristophanes and in the N. T.; possibly colloquial (Kennedy, Sources of N.T.G. , p. 78).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(26) How in the bush God spake unto him.—Better, at the bush, how God spake to him. The reference to the bush, not given by St. Matthew, is common both to St. Mark and St. Luke, and the order of the words in the Greek of both shows that they point to “the bush,” not as the place in which God spoke, but as the title or heading by which the section Exodus 3 was commonly described.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. in the book of Moses] They had brought forward the name of Moses to perplex Him, He now appeals to the same great name in order to confute them. He does not reprove them for attaching a higher importance to the Pentateuch than to the Prophets, but for not tracing the Divine Mind on the important subject of the Resurrection even there.

in the bush] i. e. in the section of the Book of Exodus (Mar_3:6) called “the Bush.” Similarly “the lament of David aver Saul and Jonathan” in 2Sa_1:17-27 was called “the Bow;” and Eze_1:15-28 “the Chariot.” Compare also Rom_11:2; “in Elias” = the section concerning Elias. In the Koran the chapters are named after the matter they contain, and so also the Homeric poems. Wyclif alone of our English translators gives the right meaning, “Han ye not rad in the book of Moyses on the bousche, how God seide to him.”

God spake unto him, saying] On that momentous occasion, which marked an epoch in the national history, God had revealed Himself to Moses as a personal God, by the august and touching title of “the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” and therefore as bearing a personal relation to these patriarchs, upon whom He had set His seal of Circumcision, and so admitted them into covenant union with Himself. How unworthy would such a title be, if He, the Eternal and Unchangeable, had revealed Himself only as the God of men who had long since crumbled to dust and passed away into annihilation! How meaningless such a Name, if the souls of men at death perished with the body, “as the cloud faileth and passeth away”! Was it possible to believe He would have deigned to call Himself the God “of dust and ashes”?

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And one of the Scribes came,.... Matthew calls him a lawyer, Mat 22:35, an interpreter of the law, as a Scribe was:

and having heard them reasoning together; being present at the dispute between Christ and the Sadducees, which he diligently attended to:

and perceiving that he had answered them well: in a most beautiful manner. The Jews have adopted the very Greek word here used, and make use of it in the same sense as (n), "he answered him well": or, as the gloss upon it, "praise worthily"; in a manner deserving praise; and is the same with (o), "thou hast said well", or beautifully; and so the answer here was with great solidity, and judgment, and strength of argument, to their utter confusion and silence; whereby he understood he had considerable knowledge in the law, and yet was willing to try if he could not puzzle him with a question relating to it:

asked him, which is the first commandment of all? of all the commandments in the law, moral and ceremonial.

(n) T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 108. 1. (o) Zohar in Lev. fol. 2. 3. & 15. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

26 And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?

Ver. 26. I am the God of Abraham] Therefore thy God also, if thou walk in the footsteps of faithful Abraham, Rom 4:23-24.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The doctrine of the resurrection from the dead is clearly given in the book of Moses, where mention is made of the burning bush, from the midst of which God appeared to Moses: have you not read, I say, what God there said to him? As God is the God of the living, you must be in an egregious error in imagining, that such as die in the eyes of the world not to return thither any more, die in the same manner in the eyes of God, to live no more. (Bible de Vence)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

26. In the bush — See Exo_3:6. THE CANDID SCRIBE, Mar_12:28-34.

(See notes on Mat_22:34-40.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

St. Mark is here careful to state that what St. Matthew describes as "the word spoken by God" was to be found in the book of Moses, (Exo_3:5) in the place concerning the Bush (epi thv batou ), as it is correctly rendered in the Revised Version. Our Lord might have brought yet clearer proofs out of Job, Daniel, Ezekiel, etc.; but in his wisdom he preferred to allege this out of Moses and the Pentateuch, because, whatever the views of the Sadducees may have been as to other parts of the Old Testament, these books of Moses they readily acknowledged. I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. The force of the argument is this, that "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Their souls are still alive; and if these patriarchs are still alive, there will be a resurrection. If men are to live for ever, they will, sooner or later, live again in the completeness of their being, namely, of body and soul and spirit. Our Lord would, therefore, say this: "In a few days you will put me to death; but in three days I shall rise again from the dead. And after that, in due time I shall raise them from the dead at the last day, and bring them in triumph with me into heaven." The Sadducees and the Epicureans denied the resurrection, because they denied the immortality of the soul; for these two doctrines hang together. For if the soul is immortal, then, since it naturally depends upon the body, it is necessary that the body should rise. Otherwise the soul would continue to exist in a dislocated state, and would only obtain a divided life and an imperfect existence. Hence our Lord here distinctly proves the resurrection of the body from the immortality of the soul. When he speaks of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he does not speak of their souls only, but of their whole being. Therefore, though they are for a time dead to us, yet they live to God, and sleep, as it were, because ere long God will raise them from death, as from a sleep, to a blessed and endless life. For all, though they have passed out of our sight, still live to him.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exod. iii, 6.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

read in the book

Jesus affirms the historic truth and inspiration of Exodus 3.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

that are raised

This can be expressed with an active verb. AT: "who rise" or "who rise to live again" Active or Passive)

the Book of Moses

"the book that Moses wrote"

the account about the bush

This refers to the part of the Book of Moses that tells about when God spoke to Moses out of a bush that was burning but that did not burn up. AT: "the passage about the burning bush" or "the words about the fiery bush" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

the bush

This refers to a shrub, a woody plant that is smaller than a tree.

how God spoke to him

"about when God spoke to Moses"

I am the God of Abraham ... Isaac ... Jacob

This means that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob worship God. These men have died physically, but they are still alive spiritually and still worship God.

not the God of the dead, but of the living

Here "the dead" refers to people who are dead, and "the living" refers to people who are alive. Also, the words "the God" can be stated clearly in the second phrase. AT: "not the God of dead people, but the God of living people" (See: Nominal Adjectives and Ellipsis)

the living

This includes people who are alive physically and spiritually.

You are quite mistaken

It may be helpful to state what they are mistaken about. AT: "When you say that dead people do not rise again, you are quite mistaken" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

quite mistaken

"completely mistaken" or "very wrong"

translationWords

Moses

Abraham

Isaac

Jacob

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

26. οὐκ ἀνέγνωτε; The first-mentioned cause of error, ignorance of Scripture, is now corrected. We have had a similar question Mar 2:25 (see note and Mar 12:10).

ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ Μωυσέως. This tells us nothing as to the authorship of the Pentateuch or of the passage quoted. Our Lord uses “Moses” and “David” in the way in which all Jews used them at that time (Mar 1:44, Mar 7:10, Mar 10:3, Mar 12:36). It is incredible that in so doing He was deciding critical questions authoritatively.

ἐπὶ τοῦ βάτου. “At the portion of Scripture known as The Bush.” The section which contains the incident of the burning bush was so called. Similarly, ἐν Ἠλίᾳ (Rom 11:2) means in the section which contains the story of Elijah. Cf. 2Sa 1:18. But ἐπί (not ἐν) makes this explanation somewhat doubtful; ἐπί may be simply local, “at the bush.” This local meaning would be certain if the words ran πῶς ἐπὶ τοῦ βάτου, as A.V. takes them; but ἐπὶ τ. β. πῶς throws the probability the other way. In LXX., as here, βάτος. is masc. In Luk 20:37 and Act 7:35 it is fem.

Christ does not appeal to Dan 12:2. He goes to what for every Jew was the highest authority of all, the Pentateuch. That the Sadducees accepted no other books, though asserted by some Fathers, seems to be an error. In the Books of Moses, again and again the doctrine of a future life is to be found by those who have spiritual insight. In Gen 26:24; Gen 28:13, after the death of Abraham, God calls Himself “the God of Abraham.” In Exo 3:6; Exo 3:15-16; Exo 4:5, after the death of all three, God calls Himself “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” If God is still their God, they are still alive; for “He is not a God of dead men, but of living.” Lifeless things can have a Creator, but not a God. “O ye ice and snow, bless ye the Lord” is poetical personification rather than intelligible worship. Gamaliel is said to have used a somewhat similar argument. God made promises to the patriarchs which were not fulfilled during their life on earth, and of course God’s promises to them must be fulfilled; therefore the patriarchs are still alive or will be revived. Christ’s argument is found 4Ma 7:19; 4Ma 16:25, but the date of that book may be later than Mk.

It will be observed that Christ’s argument, like St Paul’s, does not prove the resuscitation of the material body; it proves the survival of the soul or spirit, which will have a spiritual body suited to it (1Co 15:35-45). Christ says that the living God cannot be a God of dead persons; the continued relation of each one of them to Him as God (note the repetition of Θεός with each name) shows that the personal life of each one of them still survives. St Paul says that the continued relation of each believer to the Christ, who has been raised in a glorified Body of which believers are members, secures for each the continuance of bodily life. Death may lessen or destroy their relation to the world of sense, but it intensifies their relation to Christ and to God. Neither Christ nor St Paul tells us the connexion between the spiritual body which is immortal and the material body which is dissolved by death. Science shows us that the material particles of living organisms, in the course of ages, are used over and over again; and to ask Whose shall they be at the Resurrection? is repeating the error of the Sadducees.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26.] ἐπὶ τοῦ βάτου (so also (τῆς) Luke);—either, ‘in the chapter containing the history of God appearing in the bush,’ or, ‘when he was at the bush.’ The former is the more probable, on account of the construction of the verse in our text. In Luke, if we had his account alone, the other rendering might be admissible, ‘Moses testified, at the bush:’ but this will not answer in our text.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. This verse shows their ignorance of the Scriptures, which speaks of God as the God of their ancestors, language which is inconsistent with their mortality.

ἐν τῇ βίβλῳ3 Μωϋσέως, ἐπὶ τοῦ βάτου4—in the book of Moses, at the place concerning the bush.

τοῦ, instead of τῆς, before βάτου, Tisch. Treg. WH. א ABCLX ΓΔΠ. πῶς, instead of ὡς, before εἶπεν, Tisch. Treg. WH. RV. א BCLU Δ 108, 131.

Omit ὁ, the, before Θεὸς Ἰσαάκ, and Θεὸς Ἰακώβ, Treg. WH. RV. BD, two passages in Origen.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

How in the bush God spake. An utterly wrong rendering. In the bush [επι του βατου] , refers to a particular section in the Pentateuch, Exo 3:2 - 6. The Jews were accustomed to designate portions of scripture by the most noteworthy thing contained in them. Therefore Rev., rightly, in the place concerning the bush. Wyc., in the book of Moses on the bush. The article refers to it as something familiar. Compare Rom 11:2, ejn jHlia; i e., in the section of scripture which tells of Elijah. There, however, the Rev. retains the A. V. of Elijah, and puts in in the margin.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.