Matthew 22:26

Matthew 22:26, in plain English

The same thing kept happening through all seven brothers. Each one married her, and each one died without children. It's a story designed to make an impossible puzzle.

Why it's here

By using all seven brothers, they're making their point as strongly as possible. In Jewish culture, seven represents completeness.

Who's speaking

The Sadducees are still telling their story, getting closer to the punchline they've been building toward.

Where it sits in the story

They're stacking the deck, making sure there's no easy way out of their puzzle. Every possible brother has been involved.

The scholarly reading

The pattern of sequential levirate marriages continues through all seven brothers, each dying without producing an heir. The repetition emphasizes the completeness of the scenario and the thoroughness of the Sadducean argument.

Language and setting

The number seven carries symbolic completeness in Jewish thought, making this the most extreme possible version of the levirate dilemma.

Voice

The Sadducees continue narrating their hypothetical, building toward their climactic question.

Significance

The scenario reaches its fullest extent with all seven brothers having married the same woman, setting up what they believe is an inescapable logical contradiction for resurrection belief.

24“Teacher,” they said, “Moses declared that if a man dies without having children, his brother is to marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.

25Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died without having children. So he left his wife to his brother.

26The same thing happened to the second and third brothers, down to the seventh.

27And last of all, the woman died.

28In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For all of them were married to her.”

Read all of Matthew 22 — A wedding banquet, a trick question about taxes, and the greatest commandment — Jesus outmaneuvers every trap set for him.