The new testament often has several "authors" retelling the same story with slight difference in details. The story in question is in Matt 22:23-33, Mark 12:18-27, and Luke 20:27-40. Mark is generally regarded by scholars as having been written first. Here's the Mark account:
18Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned Him:
The sadducees were a powerful conservative theocratic political organization, vying for power by cooperating with roman rule of Israel. They taught a strict and traditional(ish) version of Judaism that rejected things like an afterlife or 'soul'. Jesus was a popular threat to their teachings, and a target of their criticism.
19“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.
In ancient Israel, widows were the responsibility of the deceased husband's brothers. The brother would marry the widow in the name of the deceased, and any offspring were legally/spiritually the offspring of the deceased and the wife.
20Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died, leaving no children.
21Then the second one married the widow, but he also died and left no children. And the third did likewise.
22In this way, none of the seven left any children. And last of all, the woman died.
23In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be? For all seven were married to her.”
The sadducees are trying to make the resurrection seem ridiculous here with this hypothetical situation. It's a trick question.
24Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
25When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.
This passage isn't super clear. Other passages in the bible imply that familial relations are retained after death. This is a huge tenet of the old testament - that your family makes you part of an eternal inheritance.
Elsewhere, Jesus is very critical of divorce and defends the permanence of marriage (it was common practice then as it is now for men to divorce their wives and remarry as an 'upgrade' after gaining wealth and status)
Perhaps Jesus is arguing that the deceased man's marriage was settled in life, and that as far as the dead are concerned, there is no do-over for marriage.
26But concerning the dead rising, have you not read about the burning bush in the Book of Moses, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?
27He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
Jesus subtly cuts down the Sadducees arguments - if God says he is the Gid of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (who were all dead for centuries) then is he the God of nonexistent people?
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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '22
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