For Sadducees say there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but Pharisees confess both of them.
This short note explains why one sentence from Paul tore the council in half. It names the three things the two ruling parties could not agree on. The first of them, resurrection, is the foundation of everything Paul preached.
Who the Sadducees Were
The verse describes this party by what they denied. A reference work fills in what they did and did not believe:
Next to the Pharisees, the Sadducees were the most prominent sect of the Jews. The Pharisees made converts. The Sadducees were far more exclusive, so they stayed fewer in number. They did not believe in resurrection, angels, or spirits. They held that the soul died with the body. They were strict about the written law of Moses. But they rejected the traditions of the elders, known as the oral law.
Why This Party Opposed the Gospel
In the earlier chapters of Acts, the Sadducees lead the attacks on the apostles, not the Pharisees. One writer explains why they fought so hard:
All through the Acts of the Apostles we have seen the Sadducees lead the opposition. They led it after Christ rose and the Spirit came, just as the Pharisees had led it while the Lord was on earth… The resurrection of Jesus was a death blow to their system, as it is to unbelief at all times. For it is God's intervention in power while the world goes on as it is, the pledge that the risen One will come and judge it.
What "Spirit" Means Here
The verse lists three denials. "Angel" and "spirit" are not two words for the same thing. One writer uses this verse, and the words shouted at the council soon after, to pin down what "spirit" means:
There the word "spirit" means what our word "ghost" means now: the spirits of people apart from the body. The verse puts angels in a separate class. And the context confirms this… "We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?"
The Lord Himself had already answered this same party, and His reply touched every item on their list:
The Sadducees had raised a question about a resurrection of the body. The Lord in reply showed that He rejected all their distinctive beliefs, as stated in Acts 23:8. The resurrection is a Scripture truth. Angels there are, and the saints when raised will be equal to them. Spirits also exist, for all who have left the body live to God.
Paul's Move, and Two Readings of It
Commentators differ on whether Paul's cry was wisdom or a lapse. One reads it as a shrewd and true statement. It exposed how little the council cared about anything but party:
He presented himself as a Pharisee, on trial about the hope of resurrection. He was indeed a Pharisee by birth and early training, and resurrection does lie at the very foundation of the gospel… The Pharisees took him for one of their own, and swung round in his favour. Truth and righteousness did not count with them, but party did. The same kind of thing is very common today, and Christians are not immune from it.
Another agrees the words were true, but asks whether they were the testimony Paul usually gave:
The apostle uses a split between the two great parties of the Jews. He takes the ground that would win the more orthodox and God-fearing to his side… It was true beyond question. But did it put Christ at the centre? Was it not simply a careful appeal? It was sure to divide the crowd in front of him, and it let him fall back on much lower ground than he usually took.
The Same Denial Today
The Sadducee outlook did not die with the council. One writer names what lay behind it:
The Sadducees were the sceptics of that day and of the lowest kind; materialism had blinded them… A person's present life becomes everything. They shut God out, and even deny Him, because He is unseen.
The cure they point to is not argument. It is the preaching of the risen Christ:
Resurrection of the dead is faith's great weapon against the error of the day, and for souls in danger of destruction. Resurrection from among the dead is a greater weapon still. The God who raised Jesus from the dead is sending forgiveness of sins through His name… That alone is the true deliverance from what the Sadducees taught, and from anything like it today.
Summary
- Denial — the Sadducees cut out three things — resurrection, angels, and spirits. They taught that the soul died with the body.
- Motive — the risen Jesus destroyed that system. So this party, not the Pharisees, led the opposition in Acts.
- Distinction — "spirit" here means people's spirits apart from the body. Angels are a separate class.
- Division — Paul's claim was true, but commentators differ. One sees a shrewd move that exposed party spirit. Another asks whether it put Christ at the centre.
- Deliverance — the same denial lives on as materialism. The cure is the truth that split the council: resurrection, and forgiveness through the name of the risen Christ.