The Biblical Basis of His Reflections

As usual, Pope John Paul II begins a new cycle of reflections on the Theology of the Body by taking a key Biblical passage as a kinf of a jumping board. This time, the passage is a passage from Chapter 12 of the Gospel of St. Mark.

On one occasion, a group of Sadducees approached Jesus to ask him a question about the so-called law of levirate marriage. This law is contained in Deuteronomy 25:7-10 and concerns brothers who lived under the same roof: “If one of them died without leaving children, the brother of the deceased had to take the widow of his dead brother as his wife. The child born from this marriage was recognized as the son of the deceased, so that his bloodline would not become extinct and that his heredity would be preserved in the family” (see Gen 38:8).

The Sadducees presented Jesus with the following case: “There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; and the second married her and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. In the resurrection, when they will rise, whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her” (Mk 12:20-23). This argument was intended to prove that there is no resurrection.

In reply, Jesus said: “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they take neither wife nor husband, but are like angels in heaven” (Mk 12:24-25). These words, says John Paul II, complete “the revelation of the body.”

According to the Holy Father, Jesus, in his reply, affirmed that God who is the Giver of Life is not bound by the law of death brought about by sin. God rules over man’s earthly history of which death is a part because of man’s Fall. God triumphs over death. God, who revealed Himself to Moses as “He who is,” constitutes the inexhaustible fountain of existence and life. Moreover, in his reply to the Sadducees who denied the resurrection, Jesus enunciated two important teachings: 1) He affirmed the future resurrection of the body, and 2) He made a statement about the state of the bodies of risen human beings.