Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 23:8

"For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both." — Acts 23:8 (ASV)

For the Sadducees say. They believe.

No resurrection. Meaning, of the dead. By this doctrine, they also understood that there was no future state and that the soul did not exist after death. (See Barnes' commentary on Matthew 22:23).

Neither angel. Meaning, that there are no angels. They deny the existence of good or bad angels. (See Barnes' commentary on Matthew 3:7).

Nor spirit. Meaning, no soul. They believed that there was nothing but matter. They were materialists and supposed that all the operations which we ascribe to mind could be traced to some modification of matter.

The Sadducees, says Josephus (Jewish War, Book 2, Chapter 8, Section 14), "take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in hades." "The doctrine of the Sadducees is this," says he (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 1, Section 4), "that souls die with the bodies."

The opinion that the soul is material, and that there is nothing but matter in the universe, has been held by many philosophers, ancient and modern, as well as by the Sadducees.

Confess both. That is, they acknowledge or receive both as true: namely, that there is a future state, and that there are spirits distinct from matter, such as angels and the disembodied souls of men. The two points in dispute were:

1. Whether the dead would be raised and exist in a future state; and
2. Whether mind was distinct from matter.

The Sadducees denied both, and the Pharisees believed both. Their belief of the latter point was that spirits existed in two forms: that of angels, and that of souls of men distinct from the body.