Texts in Conversation
In Mark, the Sadducees ask Jesus a question about a woman who marries seven brothers, raising an objection about resurrection. This hypothetical situation echoes Tobit, where Sarah is married to seven husbands who die before the marriages are fulfilled.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Tobit 3:8
Deuterocanon
7 On this day it happened to Sarah the daughter of Raguel who was in Ecbatana of Media, that she also heard reproaches by one of her father’s maidservants; 8 because that she had been given to seven husbands, and Asmodaeus the evil demon had slain them, before they had been with her as it is appointed for women. And the maidservant said to her, It is you that slay your husbands; behold you have already been given to seven husbands, and you have not been named of one of them. 9 Why do you scourge us on account of your husbands because they have died? Go your -o ways with them and let us see neither son nor daughter of yours for ever. 10 In that day she was grieved in her soul and wept; and she went up into her father’s upper room, and desired to hang herself; and again she considered and said, No, lest they reproach my father; and shall say to him, You had one beloved daughter, and she has hanged herself because of her calamities! and I shall bring down my father's old age with sorrow to Hades. It is fitter for me not to hang myself, but to supplicate the Lord that I may die and no longer hear reproaches during my life.
Date: 225–175 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Mark 12:20
New Testament
18 Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) also came to him and asked him, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us: ‘If a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man must marry the widow and father children for his brother.’ 20 There were seven brothers. The first one married, and when he died he had no children. 21 The second married her and died without any children, and likewise the third. 22 None of the seven had children. Finally, the woman died too. 23 In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For all seven had married her.” 24 Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you deceived for this reason because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
Date: 60–75 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... to sum up so far, the concern of the Sadducees' case study for brothers and Levirate marriage is exactly the same concern as that of the book of Tobit. In fact, since the loss of the seven 'brothers' in the context of Levirate practice is central to Tobit's story, an allusion to them would be an ideal way to evoke the entire message of the book. Is this what the Sadducees were doing? ... It has become clear, then; that the stories of the seven brothers in the book of Tobit and the Sadducees' case study are much closer than at first sight. The suggestion of Pesch and Lane has been fruitfully pursued to a conclusion: the Sadducees are quite probably primarily referring to the book of Tobit ..."
Peter G. Bolt, “What Were the Sadducees Reading? An Enquiry into the Literary Background of Mark 12:18-23,” TynBul 45.2 (1994): 369–394.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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