3.4 The Resurrected Will Not Marry like Angels (22.23–33)
Matt 22.23–33, which is the famous debate on resurrection between Jesus and Sadducees, is the most significant passage pertaining to the angelification in the Gospel of Matthew. For the purpose of this essay, we will focus on Jesus’ response, which consists of two theses: (1) The resurrected will not marry nor be given in marriage (vv. 29–30); (2) The resurrection of the dead exists (vv. 31–32).
For the reasoning of thesis (1), scholars generally agree that angels were thought to be deathless and thus not to marry nor be given in marriage for the purpose of procreation. There is, however, no consensus on whether the likeness of angel is meant ontologically. In this regard, Wright claims that the likeness of angel is meant neither in the ontological sense (i.e. the essence of the resurrected is angelic) nor in the locative
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This essay also demonstrates that this notion is closely related to the Gospel of Matthew. Matt 13.43 suggests that the author of Matthew probably believed in the star-like angelification as his contemporaries; Matt 17.2 reflects the angelification of Jesus, which foreshadows the glorification of Jesus’ followers by the parallelism between Matt 17.2 and 13.43; Matt 18.10 echoes Matt 5.8 and demonstrates the motif of seeing God that is applied to the angelified righteous in other Jewish writings; Matt 22.23–33 suggests an ontological likeness of angel, which links Jesus’ arguments together. All in all, although the Gospel of Matthew does not contain much content about afterlife as its contemporary apocalypses, the notion of angelification is attested