And the third took her. And in like manner, all the seven: and they left no children and died.
και ο τριτος ελαβεν αυτην ωσαυτως ωσαυτως δε και οι επτα ου κατελιπον τεκνα και απεθανον
9 Church Fathers comment on this verse · 10 commentaries
The Sadducees rejected the teaching of the resurrection, standing on a flimsy belief system. Their assumption that there could be physical existence following resurrection led them astray. Consequently, they mocked the concept of resurrection as absurd and concocted a truly foolish tale.
They come to Christ, our shared Savior, who embodies Life and Resurrection, in an effort to refute the idea of resurrection. Being filled with disdain and skepticism, they concoct a narrative rife with ignorance, and through a string of unfounded assumptions, they arrogantly try to eradicate the hope of humanity. We maintain that this hope, which encompasses all of humanity, lies in the resurrection from the dead, with Christ being the firstborn and firstfruits of this promise.
For the Apostle Paul, emphasizing our resurrection's reliance on His, states, “If the dead are not raised, neither was Christ raised;" and he further emphasizes the point, asking, “But if Christ was raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead?” Those questioning the resurrection were the Sadducees, whom we are discussing now. Let us examine their absurd assertions. They claim that seven brothers married one woman in accordance with the Mosaic Law, and she died childless: whose wife will she be in the resurrection? The question itself is nonsensical and fundamentally at odds with the inspired Scriptures. Our Savior's response effectively highlights the folly of their narrative and compels us to dismiss both their fiction and its underlying premise.
However, it is essential to directly accuse them of their misguided challenge to the sacred Scriptures and to reveal their ignorance of the teachings contained within. Let us explore what the holy prophets have conveyed regarding this matter and what declarations the Lord of hosts has issued through them. He spoke concerning those who slumber, declaring, “I will deliver them from the hand of the grave; I will redeem them from death: Where is thy judgement, O death? O grave, where is thy sting?” The condemnation of death and its sting is explained by Blessed Paul when he states, “But the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” He likens death to a scorpion, where sin is its sting, for through its venom, it seals the fate of the soul. The law, Paul explains, serves as the source of sin, stating elsewhere, “I learnt sin no other way than through the law; for where there is no law, there is no transgression of the law.” Thus, Christ released those who believe in Him from the clutches of the condemning law and abolished the sting of death—that is, sin. When sin was eradicated, death, as a natural consequence, also ceased to hold sway; for it was through him and due to him that death first entered the world.
Therefore, as God promises, “I will deliver them from the hand of the grave, and from death I will redeem them,” the blessed prophets echo these divine decrees, proclaiming not through their own will or hearts, but speaking from the mouth of God, as it is written. The Holy Spirit speaks through them, revealing what embodies God's judgement and His all-powerful, unchanging will. Consequently, the prophet Isaiah announces, “Thy dead shall rise, and they that are in the graves shall rise again, and they that dwell in the earth shall rejoice; for the dew from thee shall heal them.” The dew here symbolizes the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, which acts to abolish death in its divine and vital essence. Additionally, Blessed David declares in the Psalms that “Thou takest away their spirit, and they die, and return to their dust: thou sendest forth thy Spirit, and they are built up, and thou renewest the face of the earth.” Do we grasp that it is the working and life-giving grace of the Holy Spirit that will rejuvenate the earth? The “face of the earth” signifies its beauty, and the beauty of humanity is aptly seen as incorruptibility. “For what is sown in corruption shall rise in incorruption; what is sown in weakness shall rise in strength; what is sown in dishonour shall rise in glory.” The prophet Isaiah reassures us that death, which entered owing to sin, will not maintain its hold indefinitely over those who dwell on earth, but is instead vanquished by the resurrection of Christ, who renews the cosmos and restores it to its original state—“For God created all things for incorruption,” as it is written. He proclaims, “He hath swallowed up death, becoming mighty: and God shall take away every cry from every face; He shall remove the reproach of the people from all the earth.” Here, sin represents the reproach of humanity, and its removal signifies the destruction of death along with it, leading to the departure of corruption from among people. By ending this, He puts an end to the lamentation of all, silencing mourning, so that henceforth, there is no longer any cause for sorrow or complaint among humankind.
If a person has a brother who passes away... (Luke 20:28). This inquiry posed by the Sadducees, who were among the most astute of the Jewish leaders, was intended to challenge the Lord. In this instance, their misunderstanding is clearly addressed, and the matter of marital fidelity they raised is intriguingly turned against them. In the scenario they presented, the woman is forced, against her wishes, to take a husband so that her brother may produce offspring for her deceased sibling, as is instructed in Deuteronomy 25:5-10. This exemplifies that the letter can lead to death (2 Cor. 3:6), revealing the nature of vice, while it is only the Spirit that imparts understanding of purity.
Let us examine the woman who had seven husbands; she can be likened to a synagogue. The Samaritan woman was told, "You had five husbands” (John 4:18), as the Samaritans adhere only to the five books of Moses. The synagogue represents seven, reflecting that the Samaritans acknowledged only the Pentateuch, while the Jews accepted both the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges. She will not be united with any of her husbands in the resurrection since she has corrupted the spiritual commandment with her earthly desires. The ordinance from the Old Testament does not pertain to a physical brother producing offspring for a deceased brother but refers to the Brother who would claim the wisdom of the true and living God from a dead nation and restore it to life through the apostles. They remained within the confines of the synagogue, akin to the unborn offspring of the deceased Jewish people, yet through the grace of God, they were blessed with a new lineage.
The synagogue is often adorned in festive attire, symbolizing marriage, as it is the mother of believers. Yet, it is frequently rejected (cf. Is. 50:1; Jer. 3:1) for also being the mother of the unfaithful. To her, the law of the flesh has come to an end so that the spiritual law may arise. If the holy people of God cherish the seven books of the law with a spousal love and adhere to them as if they were commands from a beloved, they will find fellowship with the Bridegroom in the Resurrection, being enriched with divine gifts, free from confusion arising from physical entanglements.
This chapter in the Gospel of Matthew is the fifty-third, and within it, one can seek a complete understanding.
When the Pharisees were left speechless by this reply, the faction of Sadducees in the same Sanhedrin, pleased by their embarrassment, quickly questioned Him about the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which they had dismissed as absurd based on the implausible conclusions they had drawn. Just as the Lord had denounced the Pharisees, He addressed this situation by uprooting the very concept they had opposed. They presented the case of a woman who had married seven brothers according to the law of levirate marriage. The Lord demonstrated that the Sadducees’ error arose from their (1) lack of understanding of the Scriptures and (2) lack of comprehension of God’s omnipotence.
Had they truly grasped even the texts they accepted—not only their literal meaning but also their spiritual essence—they would have recognized the vital link between the religious truths within those texts and the belief in the eternal, personal existence of individuals. If they had acknowledged God's omnipotence, they would not conflate humanity's future existence with its current form and relationships but would realize that God can bestow upon human existence a transformed and glorified state. He made it clear that the afterlife must resonate with the existence of higher beings. To reinforce this concept, He referred to the frequent declarations in the writings of Moses, identifying God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. How could God maintain such a profound connection with these figures and grant them such significance and honor—being called their God—if they were nothing more than temporary beings, rather than souls destined for eternity?
The signs indicating the approach of various ages are evident in the unfolding events. Just as we can discern the impending arrival of summer by observing the tender branches and the budding leaves of a fig tree, we can likewise understand the nearness of any age through the signs presented in these occurrences. Specifically regarding Jerusalem, the Lord has affirmed with greater clarity that this generation will not pass away until all that has been proclaimed about Jerusalem is fulfilled. My declarations hold more permanence than the heavens and the earth. However, it is not possible to ascertain the exact day or hour of these events.
The collaboration between the Sadducees and the Pharisees is not clearly indicated in the Gospel narratives. It is possible that, having witnessed Jesus Christ's embarrassment of the Pharisees, the Sadducees took pleasure in this and sought to join Him in mocking the Pharisees' conviction in the resurrection of the dead. According to their belief, the coming of the Messiah would lead to the resurrection of all Israelites, allowing them to live again in the promised land. Certainly, Jesus’ response was well received by the scribes, as noted in Luke 39, and the Sadducees' defeat invigorated the Pharisees, as recorded in Matthew 34.
The Sadducees argue that the law of levirate marriage, outlined in Deuteronomy 25:5-6, creates difficulties for the Pharisees' understanding of resurrection life, making it seem unrealistic. Thus, they conclude that this law either must be deemed unreasonable or the resurrection denied altogether. Since the divine law cannot be considered unjust, they assert that it itself signifies the absence of resurrection. The Sadducees' objection stems from the Pharisees’ overly materialistic view of life after death. Consequently, Jesus asserts that both groups "do not know the Scriptures" and clarifies that in the resurrection "they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven" (Matthew 30).
Since the Sadducees' argument hinges on the belief that a decayed human body cannot be restored, the Lord counters by stating that they are ignorant of "the power of God." He cites the Scriptures (Exodus 3:6) to demonstrate that there is life beyond death, affirming the promise of resurrection.
The Sadducees were in constant conflict with the Pharisees concerning the resurrection of the souls. They sought to demonstrate that the writings of Moses offered no evidence for the immortality of souls and that certain laws imposed on the Jews directly opposed the belief in the resurrection of the dead. An example of this was the commandment regarding a widow without children, which required that she marry her deceased husband's brother to ensure the continuation of her late husband's lineage. Citing this Mosaic law, they presented a scenario: “There were seven brothers; the first married and died without children. The second brother married her, and he too died childless.
This happened with the third, the fourth, and so forth, until all seven brothers had taken her as wife and all died without offspring. Finally, the woman herself passed away. In the event of a resurrection of the dead, whose wife will she be, given that she had seven husbands?” They argued it was illogical for her to belong to all or none of them, and it would be unreasonable for such an esteemed and divinely guided legislator as Moses to permit such absurdities in his laws. Therefore, according to their interpretation of Moses’ teachings, the conclusion was that there would be no resurrection.
To illustrate their point, they referenced a scenario from rabbinic legal discussions involving a woman who had been married, in succession, to seven brothers, all of whom died without leaving heirs. They sought to determine to whom she would be married in the resurrection. While this situation was hypothetical, it was plausible within the framework of Jewish law, which dictated that if a man passed away childless, his brother was required to take his widow as a wife to continue the deceased’s lineage; thus, the firstborn of this second marriage would be regarded as the child of the late husband.
Lacking belief in life after death and the resurrection, and presuming that Jesus shared similar views as their Pharisaical adversaries, they expected to challenge Him with this perplexing inquiry, attempting to mock Him and the concept of resurrection itself. Although some rabbinic scholars maintained higher views of the afterlife, most adhered to more crude beliefs. They imagined that resurrection entailed a return not only to physical forms but also to former desires and inclinations; the resurrected would eat, drink, and marry, reappearing in the same garments as in life, complete with the same distinguishing features and blemishes, enabling others to recognize them as the individuals they once knew. Even the question posed by the Sadducees had already found its answer among the Rabbis, asserting that a woman married to two men in this life would be united with the first in the next. With such coarse and fleshly ideas about existence and a general denial of resurrection—believing it absent from the Law of Moses, which they accepted—they approached the Savior with their query.
Luke's narrative regarding the inquiry from the Sadducees and the Lord's response mirrors that of the first two Gospel writers, with only slight variations in wording. Refer to Matthew 22:23-33 and Mark 12:18-27. Notably, "Moses showed when he called” could be interpreted as "proclaimed," indicating that he recorded in his book the words of God communicated to him at the Tabernacle, where God identifies Himself as the God of Israel’s patriarchs. Moses, who received commandments from God, referred to Him as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
When mentioning "some of the scribes," it is likely they were not from the Sadducees, who would not easily praise the Lord for His astute reply. Instead, they were possibly Pharisees who, despite having collaborated with the Sadducees to challenge the Lord, found pleasure in witnessing the embarrassment of their rival sect (as noted in Matthew 22:34 ff.). The Gospel of Mark indicates that the scribe who questioned the Lord recognized His wise response to the Sadducees (Mark 12:23) and later expressed his approval openly (Mark 12:32). It is likely that this particular scribe, along with others of similar disposition, remarked to Jesus, "Master, you have spoken well,” after witnessing how adeptly He demonstrated the truth of resurrection from Scripture, earning respect even from His adversaries (Luke 20:40-44).
The Lord's inquiry concerning the Messiah—whom He identifies as the Son—appears identically in Luke as well as in Matthew and Mark. Consult Matthew 22:41-46 and Mark 12:35-37. The statement “They dared not ask Him” signifies that, following the Sadducees' humiliation, a scribe questioned Him about the foremost command in the law (Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-34). After this exchange, Mark notes that no one dared to question Him further, and Matthew remarks on the same reluctance after the Lord addressed the query about His sonship.
Since Luke does not recount the dialogue with the scribe regarding the greatest commandment, the Lord's question about the Messiah originated from Him. Thus, Luke emphasizes their hesitation to pose further questions after His answer concerning the resurrection. He does not detail the impact of the Lord's inquiry on His audience, but such details are provided by Matthew and Mark, where Matthew states that no one could respond, and Mark notes that the crowd listened to Him with delight.
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THEOSIS