Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
How the Lord, in the one who spoke to Moses from the bush, confesses that He is the God of the living.
For our Lord and Master, in that reply He returned to the Sadducees — who deny any resurrection, and thereby dishonor God and set the Law at naught — both proved the resurrection and disclosed God, telling them: You wander astray, ignorant of the Writings and of God's might. As regards the raising of the dead, have you never read what God declared, saying: I am Abraham's God, and Isaac's God, and Jacob's God? And He went on: He is God not of corpses, but of the living, since to Him they are all alive. By these words He showed plainly that the one who addressed Moses from the bush, and made Himself known as the fathers' God, is this very God of the living. For who else could be the God of the living, save Him who alone is God, beside whom there exists no other? Daniel the prophet likewise proclaimed this, when Cyrus, ruler of the Persians, asked him why he refused to worship Bel — to which he answered: Because I honor no handmade idols, but the living God, founder of heaven and earth, master over all flesh. And elsewhere he declared: I will adore the Lord my God, for He is the living God.
He, then, whom the prophets worshipped as the living God, is the God of the living; and it is His Word that likewise addressed Moses, likewise silenced the Sadducees, likewise granted the resurrection — instructing those blind on both counts, namely the raising of the dead and the knowledge of God. For if God is not a God of corpses but of the living, and yet is called the God of the fathers who sleep, then beyond doubt they remain alive before Him and have not perished. This overturns entirely the errors of the Sadducees and kindred sects. For He who addressed Moses declared this, seeing that they are children of the resurrection. And the resurrection is none other than the Lord Himself, as He states: I am the resurrection and the life. And the fathers are His children, for the prophet has written: In place of your fathers, sons were born to you. Christ, then, together with the Father, is Himself the God of the living, the very one who addressed Moses and who was likewise disclosed to the patriarchs.