Mark 12:24

And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) Because ye know not the scriptures.—More literally, as in St. Matthew, not knowing the scriptures.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:18-27 A right knowledge of the Scripture, as the fountain whence all revealed religion now flows, and the foundation on which it is built, is the best preservative against error. Christ put aside the objection of the Sadducees, who were the scoffing infidels of that day, by setting the doctrine of the future state in a true light. The relation between husband and wife, though appointed in the earthly paradise, will not be known in the heavenly one. It is no wonder if we confuse ourselves with foolish errors, when we form our ideas of the world of spirits by the affairs of this world of sense. It is absurd to think that the living God should be the portion and happiness of a man if he is for ever dead; and therefore it is certain that Abraham's soul exists and acts, though now for a time separate from the body. Those that deny the resurrection greatly err, and ought to be told so. Let us seek to pass through this dying world, with a joyful hope of eternal happiness, and of a glorious resurrection.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this passage fully explained in the notes at Matthew 22:23-33.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures—regarding the future state.

neither the power of God?—before which a thousand such difficulties vanish.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Mark 12:19"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Jesus answering said unto them,.... Which they thought he was not able to do, but would have been silenced at once by them, as many of their antagonists had been:

do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the Scriptures, neither the power of God? what is expressed in Matthew affirmatively, is here put by way of interrogation, which, with the Jews, was a more vehement way of affirming; See Gill on Matthew 22:29.

Geneva Study Bible

And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 12:24. οὐ πλανᾶσθε, do ye not err? not weaker but stronger than a positive assertion: “pro vehementi affirmatione,” Grotius.—διὰ τοῦτο usually refers to something going before, and it may do so here, pointing to their question as involving ignorant presuppositions regarding the future state, an ignorance due, in turn, to ignorance of Scripture teaching and the power of God. But it is more natural to connect it with the following clause, as in cases when the expression precedes ὅτι, ἵνα, ὅταν, etc., for μὴ εἰδότες is = ὅτι οὐκ οἴδατε. So De Wette and others, vide Winer, sec. xxiii. 5.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. because ye know not] Our Lord traces their error to ignorance (i) of the Scriptures, and (ii) of the power of God. He deals with the latter phase of ignorance first.

Bengel's Gnomen

Mark 12:24. Διὰ τοῦτο, on this account) The particle strengthens the refutation: your very words betray your error, Lat. atqui. Psalms 66(65):19.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - These Sadducees erred in two ways:

(1) They did not know or remember the Scriptures, such as that in Job (Job 21:25), "I know that my Redeemer liveth," etc., or in Isaiah (Isaiah 26:19), "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise;" or in Daniel (Daniel 12:2), "Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake," etc.

(2) They did not know the power of God, namely, that he can raise the bodies of the dead again to life, even as at first he created them out of nothing; for a greater power is required to make that to be which was not, than to make that again to be which once was. But then the resurrection life will be a new life, spiritual, glorious, eternal, like that of the angels. So in these words our Lord struck at the double root of the error of the Sadducees:

(1) ignorance of the Scriptures, which plainly teach the resurrection; and

(2) ignorance of the power of God, which led them to interpret these Scriptures, which speak of the resurrection, to mean only a mystical resurrection from vice to virtue. Mark 12:24

Vincent's Word Studies

Therefore (διὰ τοῦτο)

A rendering which obscures the meaning. The words point forward to the next two clauses. The reason of your error is your ignorance of the scriptures and of the power of God. Hence Rev., correctly, Is it not for this cause that ye err?

Err (πλανᾶσθε)

Lit., wander out of the way. Compare Latin errare. Of the wandering sheep, Matthew 18:12; 1 Peter 2:25. Of the martyrs wandering in the deserts, Hebrews 11:38. Often rendered in the New Testament deceive. See Mark 13:5, Mark 13:6. Compare ἀστέρες πλανῆται, wandering stars (Jde 1:13), from which our word planet.