Bruce Henning asks a fascinating question: When defending the doctrine of resurrection against the Sadducees from the Old Testament, why does Jesus appeal to Exodus 3:6: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”?
He casts doubt on common answers, such as the assertion that the Sadducees recognized only the books of Moses as authoritative. Then he offers an alternative from the Old Testament’s more basic logic of resurrection.
The covenant wasn’t about a bodiless existence in heaven but a physical one, living in the tangible land. And this land prophetically anticipates the entire world (Rom. 4:13). Since God promised the land personally to Abraham and he hasn’t received it, Jesus expects his audience to conclude he must be raised from the dead and receive his inheritance (see also Heb. 11:19).
If Henning is on to something, it’s worth considering how much of God’s old covenant promises similarly presume the fact of bodily resurrection.
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