NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Part VII

Verse 25: “Now, there were seven brothers among us. The first brother married but died. He had no children. So his brother married the widow.”

It is possible that these Sadducees took this story from their own Mishnah where it states: “If there were two brothers and one of them died childless, and the second performed the levirate marriage with his deceased brother’s wife, and after a third brother was born the second died childless, the first [wife i.e., the widow of the first deceased brother, who is also the widow of the second], is now exempt from halitzah and levirate marriage with the third brother on account of her being the wife of his brother who was not his contemporary.”¹

So we can see that Jesus had a pat answer, but He took this occasion to teach an important lesson even though these Sadducees extended the required law to seven brothers just to make it complicated for Him. In addition, there was another factor that I’m sure both the questioners and Jesus knew was in the teaching of the Rabbis, about how long each brother must wait before they married their brother’s widow: “The deceased brother’s wife shall neither perform the halizah nor contract levirate marriage before three months have passed.”² Jewish scholars explain, this 90 day period was to protect the younger brother from getting married, only to find out that his brother’s widow was already pregnant by his deceased brother or someone else.³

Early church preacher Chrysostom has his own opinion about this story. He says: “To avoid censure for the fact that the seven brothers had one wife, they refer to Moses’ authority. However, I believe that their whole story was just fiction. For the third would not have taken her when he saw the two bridegrooms dead, or if the third, yet not the fourth or the fifth; and if even these, much more the sixth or the seventh would not have come to the woman but have shrunk from her. For such is the custom of the Jews. If they now still have this resistance, how much more did they have it then? They often avoided marrying under these circumstances, even when the law was restricting them.”⁴

Verses 26-28: “Then the second brother also died. The same thing happened to the third brother and all the other brothers. The woman was the last to die. But all seven men had married her. So when people rise from death, whose wife will she be?”

Their question involved the teaching of Moses on marriage, and the obligation that any brother who died childless, should be honored by his younger brother marrying his widow so as to bring a son into the world who might bear his name as a legacy, is reflected in the story told about Judah: “Judah chose a woman named Tamar to be the wife of his first son Er. But Er did many bad things. The Lord was not happy with him, so the Lord caused him to die. Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, ‘Go and sleep with your dead brother’s wife. Become like a husband to her. If children are born, they will belong to your brother Er.’”⁵

This was based on the Law given by Moses, “If two brothers live together, and one of them dies without a son, the wife of the dead man must not marry a stranger outside the family. Her husband’s brother must take her as his wife and be intimate with her. He must do the duty of a husband’s brother for her. Then the first son she has will be considered the dead man’s son in order to keep the dead man’s name alive in Israel.”⁶ However, Moses added this: If the brother refuses to cooperate, “Then the leaders of the city must call the man and talk to him. If the man is stubborn and says, ‘I don’t want to take her,’ then his brother’s wife must come to him in front of the leaders. She must take his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. She must say, ‘This is being done to the man who will not give his brother a son!’”⁷

According to Jewish customs and manners, this sandal used to slap the uncooperative brother is called a “Ḥaliẓah.” Jewish scholars say that the law given here in Deuteronomy made a change from what was given in Genesis.⁸ They teach that by the second giving of the Law, only one brother-in-law needed to perform the ceremony. The old custom of the levirate marriage,⁹ is thus modified in the Deuteronomic code by permitting the surviving brother to refuse to marry his brother’s widow, provided he submits to the ceremony of ḥaliẓah. So by knowing all of the legal twists and turns contained in this statute, it was chosen by the Sadducees as a test case just for that reason, hoping it would confuse Jesus and force Him to show His ignorance of the law.

So, between Genesis and Deuteronomy came a taboo mentioned in Leviticus: “You must not be intimate with your brother’s wife. That would be like being intimate with your brother.”¹⁰ And later,¹¹ such a forbidden union would not allow any children to be recognized. So the only exclusion from this would be if the brother married his brother’s widow in order to raise up a child in his honor as part of this “Levirate Marriage.” But Jesus had no interest in parsing words with these Sadducees. That’s why He gives a blunt and direct response.

Chrysostom puts it this way: “Watch Jesus answering these like a crafty teacher. For though they deceitfully came to Him, yet their question was one of ignorance. Therefore He does not say to them, “You hypocrites.”¹² Jesus knew that if He gave His own opinion on this subject these opponents could go away and tell others that the prophet from Galilee was making up His own rules. But our Master knew their cunning and was able to quickly outmaneuver them. The Psalmist describes Him this way: “Lord, you are faithful to those who are faithful. You are good to those who are good. You never do wrong to those who have done no wrong. But you outsmart the wicked, no matter how clever they are. You help those who are humble, but you humiliate the proud.”¹³

Verse 29: Jesus answered, “You are so wrong! You don’t know what the Scriptures say. And you don’t know anything about God’s power.”

So we see that in response, our Lord does not call them names, nor does He foster His own opinion on the matter, but He does what He so often did and that was turn to the Scriptures. The two things that He says these people missed was what the Word of God had to say about it, and what the power of God had to do with it.

Let’s look at how the Jews interpreted the Scriptures and how the power of God to raise the dead was understood. We find one example in their Babylonian Talmud: “How is resurrection derived from the Torah? — As it is written, And you will give the Lord’s heave-offering to Aaron the priest.¹⁴ But would Aaron live forever; he did not even enter Palestine that offerings should be given him? But it teaches that he would be resurrected, and Israel would give him offerings. Therefore, resurrection is derived from the Torah.”¹⁵ In the same document, we read: “Rabbi Simai said: How do we learn about the resurrection from the Torah? — From the verse, ‘And I also have established my covenant with them, [the Patriarchs] to give them the land of Canaan.’¹⁶”¹⁷

On another occasion, several Sadducees asked Rabban Gamaliel: “How do we know that the Holy One, blessed be He, will resurrect the dead?” Gamaliel answered these skeptics: “From the Torah, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings…‘From the Torah’: for it is written, And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, you will sleep with your fathers and rise up [again].¹⁸ ‘But perhaps,’ said they to him, ‘[the verse reads], and the people will rise up?’ ‘From the prophets’: as it is written, Your dead men will live, together with my dead body will they arise. Awake and sing, you that dwell in the dust: for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out its dead.¹⁹ But perhaps this refers to the dead whom Ezekiel resurrected?²⁰ ‘From the Holy Writings’: as it is written, And the roof of your mouth, like the best wine of my beloved, that goes down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.²¹ But perhaps it means merely that their lips will move, even as Rabbi Johanan said: If a halachah²² is said in any person’s name in this world, his lips speak in the grave, as it is written, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak? [Thus he did not satisfy them] until he quoted this verse, which the Lord swore unto your fathers to give to them;²³ not to you, but to them is said; hence resurrection is derived from the Torah. Others say that he proved it from this verse, But you that did hold fast onto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day;²⁴ just as you are all alive today, so shall you all live again in the world to come.”²⁵

None of this should surprise us today because there are many around who do not believe in life beyond the grave. They say that we evolved from animals, and like animals when we die we cease to exist in any fashion because our bodies are consumed in the grave. While serving in the military, I was confronted by a fellow soldier who told me he did not believe in God, heaven or hell. So he asked me how could I accept such false notions. So I replied to him: Let’s say that you and I die right now. If you’re right, you’ve won but I haven’t lost anything. But if I’m right, then you’ve lost and I’ve won everything. I’ll end up in heaven and you’ll end up in hell. So it all depends on if you want to take a chance on being wrong. He looked at me and said, “I never thought of it that way before.” So I said to him, “Once you’re dead, it will be too late to think about it, so you’d better think about it now.”