Acts 23:8

8 For Sadducees say there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but Pharisees confess both of them.

Acts 23:8 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 23:8

For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection
Of the dead, being ignorant of the Scriptures, and the power of God; see ( Matthew 22:23 Matthew 22:29 ) .

neither angel nor spirit;
the Ethiopic version reads, "nor Holy Spirit": but the sense seems to be, that they did not believe any such species of beings as angels, nor indeed any spirits whatever, which were immaterial or immortal; for as for the spirit or soul of man, they took that to be only the temperament of the body, and that it died with it, and did not exist in any separate state after this life: for so Josephus F24 says, that they deny the permanence of the soul, and rewards and punishments in the invisible state. And, according to the Talmudic F25 writers, they denied that there was any other world than this:

but the Pharisees confess both;
the resurrection of the dead, and that there are spirits, both angels and the souls of men, which are immortal. Josephus, in the place before referred to, says, that they hold that every soul is incorruptible or immortal; and that they held the resurrection of the dead, is manifest from the Talmud F26, and other writings of theirs; the Syriac version renders it, "the Pharisees confess all these things"; to which agree the Arabic and Ethiopic versions.


FOOTNOTES:

F24 De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 10. sect. 19.
F25 T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 54. 1. & Gloss. in ib. & Pirke Abot R. Nathan, c. 5.
F26 T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 90. 2.

Acts 23:8 In-Context

6 But Paul, knowing that the one part [of them] were of the Sadducees and the other of the Pharisees, cried out in the council, Brethren, *I* am a Pharisee, son of Pharisees: *I* am judged concerning the hope and resurrection of [the] dead.
7 And when he had spoken this, there was a tumult of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the multitude was divided.
8 For Sadducees say there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but Pharisees confess both of them.
9 And there was a great clamour, and the scribes of the Pharisees' part rising up contended, saying, We find nothing evil in this man; and if a spirit has spoken to him, or an angel ...
10 And a great tumult having arisen, the chiliarch, fearing lest Paul should have been torn in pieces by them, commanded the troop to come down and take him by force from the midst of them, and to bring [him] into the fortress.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.