Floyd Parker, «The Terms "Angel" and "Spirit" in Acts 23,8», Vol. 84 (2003) 344-365
In any discussion of the Sadducees, there will always remain a certain amount of doubt due to the paucity of sources about them. Based on what data has survived, the older theory that the Sadducees rejected the extravagant beliefs about angels and spirits provides the most convincing solution to the problem of Acts 23,8. The Sadducees’ reasons for rejecting these views were twofold: 1) angels were integrated into the apocalyptic world view that they rejected; and 2) angels often served as God’s servants to administer predestination or providence. Thus, when Paul claimed that a heavenly being had appeared to him in a manner and with a message that appeared to be predestinarian in nature, the Sadducees were unwilling to entertain the idea that an angel or spirit had appeared to him. Certainly new theories will arise in an attempt to grapple with this issue, but to re-appropriate the words of Jesus in Luke 5,39, "the old is good enough".
but that immediately at death their souls would ascend to heaven" (Dial., 80)52. Augustine wrote that while, "on the immortality of the soul many gentile philosophers have disputed at great length and in many books they have left it written that the soul is immortal, when they came to the resurrection of the flesh, they doubt not indeed, but they most openly deny it, describing it to be absolutely impossible that this earthly flesh can ascend to heaven" (Enarr. in Psalm 88,5)53. Even Luke distinguished between a resurrection body which had "flesh and bone" and a spirit that had none (Luke 24,37-39). Thus, there is ample justification for making a distinction between immortality of the soul and the resurrection based on ancient literature.
In closing our argument, there are three general points that need to be made about the concept of resurrection. First of all, to define "resurrection" in the form of a spirit as being "without a body" is out of line with most Jewish, Christian, and even Greek54 thinking of the day, as we have just seen. Although the ways in which Jews and Christians envisioned the resurrection body could vary greatly, most have in common the belief in some sort of body. Resurrection could entail a simple restoration of the body to life (Sib 4.181-182; ApcBar(syr) 50,2; LAB 3.10, animam et carnem), a transformation of the body (ApcBar[syr] 51,1; 1 Cor 15,51; Phil 3,21), or the soul’s migration to a new body (Ant. 18.14; BJ 3.374; Ap. 2.218). It could involve a solid body or a less solid one. But, "resurrection" is not an appropriate term to describe the survival of the spirit without a body.
Second, texts mentioning the resurrection of the soul or spirit are rare55. One might even inquire as to how well Lachs, Viviano, and Taylor provide textual evidence for the "resurrection" as a spirit as a major category of afterlife, for: 1) some texts speak of the immortality of the soul rather than resurrection (Wis 3,1-3; 4,7; 5,16; 7,20; Jub 23,31; 4 Macc 9,8.22; 10,15; 14,5; 15,2; 16,13; 17,5.18; several texts