Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; and the second married her and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her.’ (Mark 12: 18-23)

This is less a question and more a challenge. The Sadducces - a group closely tied to the priestly families - are raising another partisan issue.

As Mark explains the Sadducees understood that death brought an end to the individual. The Pharisees believed in an eventual resurrection of the body. The Essenes taught the body dies but the soul continues in perpetuity.

Lawyers are cautioned not to ask a witness a question for which they do not already know the answer. The Sadducees were trying to ask such a question.

The Greek translated as "asked him a question" is eperotao. Just erotao would be to ask, to search, or to examine. The prefix epi transforms the asking into an interrogation. The prefix suggests that the questioning is a kind of attack and a demand.

We can see in question the English "quest." A real question takes us on a journey of self-discovery. Too often we ask questions to justify staying where we are.