Mark 12:26 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Mark 12:26
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?
Moseus · noun — genitive singular masculine, a proper name
how
ὡςhōs
G5613
which how
in
ἐπὶepi
G1909
properly · preposition
the bush
βάτουbatou
G942
a brier shrub · noun — genitive singular feminine
God
θεὸςtheos
G2316
figuratively · noun — nominative singular masculine, a title
spake
εἶπενeipen
G2036
to speak or say (by word or writing) · verb — second aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
unto him
αὐτῷautō
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — dative singular masculine
saying
λέγων·legōn
G3004
properly · verb — present active participle, nominative singular masculine
I
ἐγὼegō
G1473
I · personal pronoun — 1st person nominative singular
the God
θεὸςtheos
G2316
figuratively · noun — nominative singular masculine, a title
of Abraham
ἈβραὰμAbraam
G11
Abraham · noun — genitive singular masculine, a proper name
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
the God
θεὸςtheos
G2316
figuratively · noun — nominative singular masculine, a title
of Isaac
ἸσαὰκIsaak
G2464
Isaac (i.e. Jitschak) · noun — genitive singular masculine, a proper name
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
the God
θεὸςtheos
G2316
figuratively · noun — nominative singular masculine, a title
of Jacob
Ἰακώβ;Iakōb
G2384
Jacob (i.e. Ja`akob) · noun — genitive singular masculine, a proper name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 3:2-6 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with…
Genesis 17:7-8 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God u…
Luke 20:37 Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God…
Genesis 33:20 And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel.
Genesis 26:24 And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless th…
Genesis 31:42 Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath…
Genesis 32:9 And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy k…
Exodus 3:16 Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, a…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Mark 12:18-27
The Sadducees, who were the deists of that age, here attack our Lord Jesus, it should seem, not as the scribes, and Pharisees, and chief-priests, with any malicious design upon his person; they were not bigots and persecutors, but sceptics and infidels, and their design was upon his doctrine, to hinder the spreading of that: they denied that there was any resurrection, and world of spirits, any state of rewards and punishments on the other side of death: now those great and fundamental truths which they denied, Christ had made it his business to establish and prove, and had carried the notion of them much further that ever it was before carried; and therefore they set themselves to perplex h…
When they shall rise - This clause is wanting in BCDL, four others, Syriac, later Arabic, later Persic, Coptic, Saxon, and two of the Itala. Griesbach leaves it doubtful.
John Gill on Mark 12:26
And as touching the dead, that they rise,.... For the proof of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead,
have ye not read in the book of Moses; that is, in the law of Moses; for though it was divided into five parts, it was but one book; just as the Psalms are called the Book of Psalms, Acts 1:20, and the Prophets, the Book of the Prophets, Acts 7:42. The book of Exodus is particularly intended; for the passage referred to is in Exodus 3:6,
how in the bush God spake unto him, or "out of the bush", as the Syriac and Persic versions read;
saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? See Gill on Matthew 22:31, Matthew 22:32.
John Calvin on Mark 12:18-27
Mark 12:18-27
Matthew 22:23-33
Mark 12:18-27
Luke 20:27-40
23. The same day came to him the Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, and interrogated him, 24. Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, not having a child, [64] his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed to his brother. 25. Now there were amongst us seven brothers, and the first, having married a wife, died, and, having no seed, left his wife to his brother. 26. In like manner, the second, and the third, till the seventh. 27. And last of all the woman died also. 28. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. 29. And Jesus answering said to them, You err, not…
The Church Fathers
But I say, in the bush, in which is an image of you; for in it the fire was kindled, but it did not consume its thorns; so my words set you on fire, but do not burn off your thorns, which have grown under the curse.
But when He says, The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; by naming God thrice, He implied the Trinity. But when He says, He is not the God of the dead, by naming again the One God, he implies One Substance. But they live who make good the portion, which they had chosen; and they are dead, who have lost what they had made good. Ye therefore do greatly err.
But concerning the dead, that they will rise, have you not read in the book of Moses at the bush, how God spoke to him, saying: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? To confirm the truth of the resurrection, he could use many more manifest examples, among which is this: The dead will be raised, and those in the tombs will rise. And in another place: Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and others to shame and ever-lasting contempt (Dan. XII). Therefore it is asked what the Lord meant by bringing forth this testimony, which seems ambiguous or not sufficiently relevant to the truth of the resurrection. We have previously said that the Sadducees, not confessing either angels, spirits, or the resurrection of bodies, also preached the destruction of souls. These Sadducees accepted only the five books of Moses, rejecting the prophecies of the prophets. Thus it was foolish to bring forth testimonies whose authority they did not follow. Now, to prove the eternity of souls, he presents the example: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Immediately he adds:
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Bush — In which Jehovah appeared to Moses in the wilderness (Ex. 3:2; Acts 7:30). It is difficult to say what particular kind of plant or bush is here meant. Probably it was the mimosa or acacia. The words…
Pentateuch — The five-fold volume, consisting of the first five books of the Old Testament. This word does not occur in Scripture, nor is it certainly known when the roll was thus divided into five portions…
Immortality · 2:11; — 2:11;
Resurrection · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Sadducees · Reject the doctrine of the resurrection — Reject the doctrine of the resurrection
Sadducees, The · Christ: Vindicated the resurrection against — Christ: Vindicated the resurrection against
Satire · Of Jesus against hypocrites — Of Jesus against hypocrites
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Jesus’ response had two elements. First, he rebuked the Sadducees’ ignorance of the Scriptures (i.e., the Old Testament), where the resurrection of the dead is referred to most clearly in the Prophets (Isa 26:19; Ezek 37:1-14) and the Writings (Job 19:26; Pss 16:9-11; 49:15; 73:23-26; Dan 12:2). However, the Sadducees accepted only the Torah (Genesis—Deuteronomy), so Jesus answered them from the Torah. The reference to God as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (see Exod 3:6, 15-16) showed that God’s covenant with the patriarchs could not be broken by death. They were still alive (Matt 8:11-12; 13:17; Luke 16:19-31; John 8:56), for God is the God of the living, not the…
