Martyrs Adrian and Natalia; Vladimir Icon; Our Holy Father Tithoës of the Thebaid (4th c.)

But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: ³³partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions, and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so. ³⁴For you both had compassion on me in my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens. ³⁵Therefore don’t throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. ³⁶For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. ³⁷“In a very little while, he who comes will come and will not wait. ³⁸But the righteous one will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him, ²⁴saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.’ ²⁵Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. ²⁶In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh. ²⁷After them all, the woman died. ²⁸In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”

²⁹But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. ³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven. ³¹But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, ³²‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

³³When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.