On
that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.” But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.”
Matthew 22:23-29
Matthew 22 [22.] When they heard it, they marveled, and left him, and went away.
Matthew 22 [23.] On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”
Matthew 22 [29.] But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘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.”
Matthew 22 [33.] When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
Meaning:
On the same day that the Pharisees and Herodians had tried to trap Jesus with a question about taxes (Matthew 22:17-21), a second group came with a question of their own. Mark and Luke tell the same story (Mark 12:18-23; Luke 20:27-33).
- “Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection)”
The Sadducees were a powerful party connected with the chief priests and the temple. Unlike the Pharisees, they rejected belief in a future resurrection. Luke explains in Acts, “the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess all of these” (Acts 23:8). They placed great weight on the books of Moses, which is why they built their question on the law of Moses.
- “If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife”
The Sadducees referred to the law of levirate marriage: “Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife ... that his name not be blotted out of Israel” (Deuteronomy 25:5-6). This law protected widows and kept a family’s name and inheritance alive. Boaz acted in this spirit when he married Ruth “to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance” (Ruth 4:10).
- “Now there were with us seven brothers”
The story of a woman married in turn to seven brothers was probably invented to make belief in the resurrection look ridiculous. If all seven rise from the dead, “whose wife will she be of the seven?” The Sadducees assumed that life after the resurrection would simply be a continuation of life on earth, with the same marriages and family claims. The question was not an honest search for truth; it was a trap meant to make Jesus look foolish before the people.
- “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God”
Jesus does not answer the riddle directly at first. He exposes the two roots of their error. First, they did not know the Scriptures. The Old Testament speaks of the resurrection: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). Isaiah wrote, “Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise” (Isaiah 26:19). Second, they did not know the power of God. They imagined that God could not create a new kind of life beyond death. But Abraham believed in “God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were” (Romans 4:17). Jesus goes on to explain that in the resurrection people “neither marry, nor are given in marriage” (Matthew 22:30) and that God “is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:31-32).
The Significance of Matthew 22:23-29
- Knowing the Scriptures
Error often comes from reading only part of God’s word or reading it through our own assumptions. The Sadducees knew the law of Moses well, yet missed what it meant. Careful and humble study of the whole of Scripture guards against such mistakes.
- Trusting God’s power
The resurrection is not a problem for God. The God who created life can raise the dead and give a new life fitted for his Kingdom. Paul wrote, “now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).
Cross-References:
Mark 12:24: “Isn’t this because you are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God?” Mark’s account of Jesus’ answer.
Acts 23:8: “the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection.” The belief of the Sadducees.
Deuteronomy 25:5: “Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife.” The law the Sadducees quoted.
Daniel 12:2: “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” The resurrection in the Old Testament.
Conclusion: The Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, tried to make it look absurd with the story of a woman married to seven brothers. Jesus answered that their mistake came from not knowing either the Scriptures or the power of God. The resurrection is taught in God’s word and guaranteed by his power, and it brings a life far greater than anything people can imagine from this present life.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible