Mark 12:18-34

18Sadducees (who say there is no resurrection) also came to him and asked him,

19“Teacher, Moses wrote for us: ‘If a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, that man must marry the widow and father children for his brother.’

20There were seven brothers. The first one married, and when he died he had no children.

21The second married her and died without any children, and likewise the third.

22None of the seven had children. Finally, the woman died too.

23In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For all seven had married her.”

24Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you deceived for this reason, because you don’t know the scriptures or the power of God?

25For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

26Now as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?

27He is not the God of the dead but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

28Now one of the experts in the law came and heard them debating. When he saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

29Jesus answered, “The most important is: ‘Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

30Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’

31The second is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

32The expert in the law said to him, “That is true, Teacher; you are right to say that he is one, and there is no one else besides him.

33And to love him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

34When Jesus saw that he had answered thoughtfully, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Then no one dared any longer to question him.