What is the meaning of Matthew 22:25? Now there were seven brothers among us • The Sadducees introduce their illustration with a seemingly ordinary family detail—seven brothers living within the same covenant community (Matthew 22:23–24). • Their backdrop is the practice of levirate marriage commanded in Deuteronomy 25:5–6, where a surviving brother takes his deceased brother’s widow to raise up offspring. • By stacking the number of brothers to seven (Mark 12:20; Luke 20:28), they hope to magnify the difficulty of deciding whose wife she will be “in the resurrection.” • In doing so, they are challenging Jesus on the reality of bodily resurrection, a doctrine they deny (Acts 23:8). The first one married and died without having children • Childlessness in Israel carried heartache and legal implications, because an heir was needed to preserve the family name and inheritance (Genesis 15:2–3; Ruth 1:11). • The first brother’s death without offspring triggers the levirate obligation: – It protects the widow from poverty and social exclusion. – It safeguards the deceased brother’s inheritance within the tribe (Numbers 27:8–11). • The Sadducees highlight the tragic beginning to set up their later question—if one brother dies childless, succession begins; if it happens repeatedly, whose wife is she in the afterlife? So he left his wife to his brother • The phrase describes the straightforward application of Deuteronomy 25:5: “Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife, to fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.” • By portraying the custom as merely procedural, the Sadducees ignore its deeper covenant purpose—continuity of the family line and promise of inheritance (Genesis 38:8; Ruth 4:10). • Their scenario assumes earthly marriage arrangements must be replicated in eternity, revealing their misunderstanding of both Scripture and God’s power (Matthew 22:29). • Jesus will soon correct them, teaching that resurrection life transcends earthly marriage (Matthew 22:30) and is guaranteed by God’s covenant faithfulness (Matthew 22:31–32; Exodus 3:6). summary Matthew 22:25 sets the stage for the Sadducees’ challenge by describing a levirate-marriage situation: seven brothers, the first dying childless, and the widow passed to the next brother. The verse underscores the legal and familial responsibilities rooted in Deuteronomy 25:5–6. The Sadducees use the story to dispute resurrection, assuming earthly marital bonds must persist beyond death. Jesus will expose their error, affirming both the authority of Scripture and the reality of resurrection life that surpasses present-age institutions. |
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