The Resurrection in The Torah.

In Matthew 22:31-32 Jesus proves The Resurrection of The Dead from The Torah to the Sadducces.

"But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?" God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."

Josephus tells us a few important things about the Sadducees that this part of The Gospel narrative verifies.  They denied The Resurrection, as well as The Afterlife.  And they limited the Canon to just the Torah.  That's why Jesus didn't just prove it by quoting Ezekiel 37, Isaiah 26, Daniel 12, or Psalm 16:10.

While the Sadducees of the First Century were wiped out in 70 AD, there are some just like them around today.  Like the website TheDesertTabernacle.com.  And the YouTube Channel Remember The Commands.

While by definition no Christians can be strictly Torah only, there are some within the Hebrew Roots movement that get pretty close, the gateway drug is Rob Skiba calling the Torah "The Bible of The Bible", but others go further then that, often deciding to do things like reject David as a tyrant.

Since most today don't have The Torah as memorized as Jesus immediate listeners in Matthew 22 did, I want to break down Jesus argument here.  I think there is more then one verse of The Torah being utilized.

Strictly speaking he's directly quoting Exodus 3:6 (as well as 3:15-16 and 4:5), where the voice from the Burning Bush calls Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  With terminology that is clearly present tense.

However what he says was also bound to bring to mind Deuteronomy 5:26.  The KJV's reading of that verse is.

"For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?"

Yahuah being called the "Living God" here could be interpreted as carrying the meaning of "God of the Living" and thus part of the basis of Jesus' argument.

If it was only one of either the Afterlife or Resurrection the Sadducees were denying, Jesus argument here wouldn't quite be so destructive to them.  It's that they denied both that made God proclaiming himself in the present tense to be the God of those three individuals long dead by Moses time, that proves their lives are not simply over and done with.

That was Jesus argument for the Resurrection in The Torah.  The Talmud (composed by descendants of the Hillel Pharisees) has it's own.  Referencing Exodus 15:1, and also possibly Deuteronomy 32.

“Rabbi Meir asked, whence is the Resurrection derived from the Torah? As it is said, ‘Then will Moses and the children of Israel sing this song unto the Lord.’ It is not said ‘sang’ but will sing; hence the Resurrection is deducible from the Torah” (Sanhedrin 90b).

I'm not sure that argument will hold up under scrutiny as well as Jesus' argument.  But it's interesting to us Christians since Revelation 15:3 seems to refer back to this same Torah subject.

The Samaritans are also a Torah as the only real Canon community, and they affirm The Resurrection based on Deuteronomy 32:39.

See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.

Genesis 22 implies Abraham believed Isaac would be resurrected, God had earlier promised him he'd have many descendants specifically through Isaac.  And in verse 5 he tells the servants that he and Isaac both will be back.

Also the Messiah Ben Joseph doctrine is partly built on seeing Moses blessing on Joseph in Deuteronomy 33 as implying Josephus or someone of Joseph will be sacrificed and then resurrected.

I normally talk about the doctrine of the Resurrection on my Prophecy Blog. But I do have an earlier post on this Blog responding to Lex Meyer's book.

Since I tie my belief in The Resurrection to my belief in Universal Salvation, perhaps this is a good time to discus proving Universal Salvation from The Torah.  I made a thread on the subject in a Facebook group recently, so I've gathered some thoughts on that.

In Genesis 12:3 God promises Abraham that in him will "All the Families of the Earth be Blessed", families could be translated peoples.  Genesis 22:18 says in Abraham's Seed shall "all the Nations of the Earth be blessed", nations could also be translated gentiles.

A lot of other arguments are more typological, like the Law of the Jubilee.

There is also an important message to be learned from the Image of the Burning Bush itself.  What caught Moses attention was that it was a bush that was on fire yet the fire did not consume it.

I was suggested an article about the story of Joseph's Brothers being used to make the case for the redemption of Judas, who Jesus defined as more damned then anyone else.  And also a website called God's Kingdom ministries.

And then there is the fact that Dispensationists love to go on and on about how God's promise to Abraham was not dependent on Obedience. Well I do believe God will literally fulfill that Covenant.  But perhaps it's also a picture of God's love for Humanity as a whole and every individual Human.  He intends to Save us regardless of our obedience or faithfulness.