Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Matthew 22:23-33, Seven brothers and one bride
Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, pose a riddle about a woman married in turn to seven brothers. Jesus answers that the raised do not marry, and that God is the God of the living.
Matthew 22:23-33, in every translation this tool compares.
Sadducees, who deny any resurrection, try to make it look absurd with the case of a widow married in turn to seven brothers under the law of levirate marriage. Jesus says they misunderstand both Scripture and God's power: the raised do not marry, and live instead like the angels. He then argues from God's words to Moses at the burning bush that the patriarchs are still alive to God. He answers from the books of Moses, as Pharisees did when debating Sadducees.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/chief-priests-and-council\/","n":"Chief priests, elders and the council","s":"The Jerusalem aristocracy of priestly families and elders who ran the temple and the Sanhedrin and dealt with Rome.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/resurrection-of-the-dead\/","n":"The resurrection of the dead","s":"Most Jews, with the Pharisees, expected God to raise the dead to bodily life at the end of the age. The Sadducees denied it. Nobody expected one man to rise ahead of everyone else.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/marriage-and-divorce\/","n":"Divorce and the certificate","s":"A Jewish husband ended a marriage, or a betrothal, by handing his wife a written certificate before witnesses that left her free to marry again, and the teachers argued over the grounds. In Greek and Roman law either partner could end a marriage by leaving.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
The law of the brother-in-law marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5) protected widows who could not earn a living and kept the dead man's line alive (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes; Wright). The riddle borrows the plot of Tobit, where Sarah's seven husbands die one after another, and the Sadducees were known for posing such conundrums (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Marry refers to the groom and be given in marriage to the bride given by her father (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes). Jesus argues from the books of Moses, as Pharisees did when facing Sadducees, and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the God named in one of the most common prayers of the day (Keener). The cultural backgrounds chart of Jewish sects says the Sadducees accepted only the books of Moses as Scripture, and rejected belief in angels and demons as well as the resurrection. The Zondervan Bible Dictionary calls that inference about Scripture unnecessary and puts the dispute in the Sadducees' rejection of the oral traditions.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 22:24, 22:25-27 and 22:29-33
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 22:24, 22:28, 22:29 and 22:30
- N. T. Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part Two, comment on Matthew 22:23-33
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 23, Giant Problems
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article Jewish Sects
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Sadducee
