The Sadducee Tell
Acts 23:8 as the Receipt for Which Judaism Christianity Inherited From eFireTemple “The Sadducees say there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.” — Acts 23:8 The Verse Hiding in Plain Sight There is a verse in the Book of Acts that, read carefully, undoes the standard Christian story about its own origins. The verse is Acts 23:8.
What this resource contributes
Acts 23:8 as the Receipt for Which Judaism Christianity Inherited From eFireTemple “The Sadducees say there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.” — Acts 23:8 The Verse Hiding in Plain Sight There is a verse in the Book of Acts that, read carefully, undoes the standard Christian story about its own origins. The verse is Acts 23:8. It appears in the middle of a courtroom scene — Paul of Tarsus is on trial before the Jewish council, and he plays the two factions of his accusers against each other by declaring himself a Pharisee and naming the doctrine of resurrection as the issue at stake. The narrator pauses to explain to the Greek-speaking reader why Paul’s declaration produces immediate uproar. The narrator’s explanation is one short sentence: the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.
Topics and source signals
Primary sources detected
Hebrew Bible · New Testament
Scholars detected
Mary Boyce · Bart Ehrman · Anders Hultgård