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".
from Philo)56. None of these texts use the word resurrection, but rather speak of the immortality and incorruption of the soul (e.g.Wis 2,23; 9,15). Some texts indicate that at the death of the body the soul is granted immortality and is immediately taken into heaven (4 Macc 9,22; 13,17; 14,5; 16,13.15; 17,18; Josephus’ description of the Essenes, BJ 2.154-55). In others, particularly the works of Philo where Platonic influence is strong, souls are portrayed as immortal by nature and will escape their bodies at death57; 2) in some texts it is unclear whether resurrection of the soul alone is implied. For instance, Hen(aeth) 103,3-4, says that the spirits of the righteous "shall live". Is this an allusion to resurrection of the spirit alone or to the raising of the soul from the underworld for reunion with its body?58; and 3) more often, the resurrection of souls refers to conjuring the dead59.
Third, if resurrection is the survival of bodily death, as Viviano and Taylor would have it, from whence is the immortal soul "raised"? It would not be raised "from the dead", for it never died. It would not be raised from the tomb, for it never went there. Rather, the immortal soul sloughs off the body at death (e.g., Wisdom; Philo) or it is made immortal at death and assumed into heaven (e.g., 4 Maccabees). So then, in what sense is it meaningful to speak of the "resurrection" or "raising" of the immortal soul when it merely survives death?
In summary, the attempt to explain "angel or spirit" as forms of resurrection in Acts 23,8 fails because: 1) the meaning for the words "angel" and "spirit" in Acts 23,9, as modes of resurrection, places the Pharisees in the unhappy position of acknowledging the possibility of the resurrection of Jesus and perhaps the onset of the age to come; 2) the theory of Viviano and Taylor uses an unusual definition for "resurrection" which does not fit well with the ancient or modern use of that term.
II. A New Proposal on an Old Theme