“For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.”
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees affirm them all — the theological anthropology is starkly opposed: Sadducean materialism denies the invisible world; Pharisaic dualism affirms spirits and resurrection. Paul's defense becomes a proxy for this eschatological divide.
Church Fathers on Acts 23:8
Again he discourses simply as man, and he does not on all occasions alike enjoy the benefit of supernatural aid. I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: both in this, and in what comes after it, he wished to divide the multitude, which had an evil unanimity against him. And he does not speak a falsehood here either: for he was a Pharisee by descent from his ancestors. Of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. For since they would not say for what…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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