Motley Crew
December 15, 2010
Stay Warm!
The Questions
Matthew 22:23-33
1. Did you know they were quoting Deuteronomy 25:5?
2. Did you know that the first son of the new marriage would be considered the dead brother’s child?
3. I wonder if the Sadducees had tried this trick question before with the Pharisees?
4. Notice how Jesus explains Scripture with Scripture?
5. What do you think about verse 32?
6. When was the last rime Jesus astonished you?
All citations from the Holy Bible are from the New International Version, used with permission.
Motley Crew
December 15, 2010
Stay Warm!
Some Suggested Answers
Matthew 22:23-33 (NIV)
Marriage at the Resurrection
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26 The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27 Finally, the woman died. 28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’[b]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
Parallel Verses:
|
The Sadducees confuted |
Matthew 22:23-33 |
Mark 12:18-27 |
Luke 20:27-40 |
The verses are reproduced below.
Due to inclement weather, I didn't make the drive from Priceville to Decatur for Bible Study on Dec. 15th. Some others, however, were present. Pastor Eddie emailed me the questions, together with this note: “Good fellowship and prayer. A little shorter study because I wanted to get the “Crew” on the road before the worst of the weather set in. I think all of our folks were fine on the roads yesterday.”
1. Did you know they were quoting Deuteronomy 25:5?
Deuteronomy 25:5
If
brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his
widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother
shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law
to her.
Some Study Bibles will include a footnote that directs readers to that verse.
Whose wife shall she be of the seven? - The rabbins have said, That if a woman have two husbands in this world, she shall have the first only restored to her in the world to come. Sohar. Genes. fol. 24. The question put by these bad men is well suited to the mouth of a libertine. Those who live without God in the world have no other god than the world; and those who have not that happiness which comes from the enjoyment of God have no other pleasure than that which comes from the gratification of sensual appetites. The stream cannot rise higher than the spring: these men, and their younger brethren, atheists, deists, and libertines of all sorts, can form no idea of heaven as a place of blessedness, unless they can hope to find in it the gratification of their sensual desires. Clarke's Commentary on the Bible.
2. Did you know that the first son of the new marriage would be considered the dead brother’s child?
Nope. That's a surprise!
Raise up seed unto his brother [NIV: Raise up offspring for him] – This law is mentioned Deuteronomy 25:5. The meaning of the expression is, that the children produced by this marriage should be reckoned in the genealogy of the deceased brother, and enjoy his estates. The word seed should be always translated children or posterity. There is a law precisely similar to this among the Hindoos. Clarke's Commentary on the Bible.
A quotation from Deut 25:5. This practice is called levirate marriage (see also Ruth 4:1-12; Mishnah, m. Yevamot; Josephus, Ant. 4.8.23 [4.254-256]). The levirate law is described in Deut 25:5-10. The brother of a man who died without a son had an obligation to marry his brother’s widow. This served several purposes: It provided for the widow in a society where a widow with no children to care for her would be reduced to begging, and it preserved the name of the deceased, who would be regarded as the legal father of the first son produced from that marriage. The NET Bible.
3. I wonder if the Sadducees had tried this trick question before with the Pharisees?
Probably. These two groups were constantly arguing with each other.
These understanding that the former had not succeeded, came with a knotty question, with which they had often puzzled the Pharisees, and hoped they should nonplus Christ with it, showing the absurdity of the doctrine of the resurrection, an article which they denied.... Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
Shall marry (epigambreusei). The Sadducees were "aiming at amusement rather than deadly mischief" (Bruce). It was probably an old conundrum that they had used to the discomfiture of the Pharisees. This passage is quoted from Deuteronomy 25:5,6. The word appears here only in the N.T. and elsewhere only in the LXX. It is used of any connected by marriage as in Genesis 34:9;1 Samuel 18:22. But in Genesis 38:8 and Deuteronomy 25:5 it is used specifically of one marrying his brother's widow. Robertson's Word Pictures of the New Testament.
The word "resurrection" usually means the raising up the "body" to life after it is dead, John 11:24; John 5:29; 1 Corinthians 15:22. But the Sadducees not only denied this, but also a future state, and the separate existence of the soul after death altogether, as well as the existence of angels and spirits, Acts 23:8. Both these doctrines have commonly stood or fallen together, and the answer of our Saviour respects both, though it more distinctly refers "to the separate existence of the soul, and to a future state of rewards and punishments," than to the resurrection of the body. Barnes' Notes on the Bible.
4. Notice how Jesus explains Scripture with Scripture?
Always the best way to explain Scripture, as we have so often seen.
Ye do err - Or, Ye are deceived - by your impure passions: not knowing the scriptures, which assert the resurrection: - nor the miraculous power of God (την δυναμιν του Θεου) by which it is to be effected. In Avoda Sara, fol. 18, Sanhedrin, fol. 90, it is said: "These are they which shall have no part in the world to come: Those who say, the Lord did not come from heaven; and those who say, the resurrection cannot be proved out of the law." Clarke's Commentary on the Bible.
Have ye not read - This quotation is taken from Exodus 3:6, Exodus 3:16; and as the five books of Moses were the only part of Scripture which the Sadducees acknowledged as Divine, our Lord, by confuting them from those books, proved the second part of his assertion, "Ye are ignorant of those very scriptures which ye profess to hold sacred." Clarke's Commentary on the Bible.
It was not taught that people would marry there. The "Scriptures," here, mean the books of the Old Testament. By appealing to them, Jesus showed that the doctrine of the future state was there, and that the Sadducees should have believed it as it was, and not have added the absurd doctrine to it that people must live there as they do here. The way in which the enemies of the truth often attempt to make a doctrine of the Bible ridiculous is by adding to it, and then calling it absurd. The reason why the Saviour produced a passage from the books of Moses Matthew 22:32 was that they had also appealed to his writings, Matthew 22:24. Other places of the Old Testament, in fact, asserted the doctrine more clearly Daniel 12:2; Isaiah 26:19, but he wished to meet them on their own ground. None of those scriptures asserted that people would live there as they do here, and therefore their reasoning was false. Barnes' Notes on the Bible.
5. What do you think about verse 32?
Verse 32. ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Queen Victoria is not the queen of Bacon, Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, but only of her living subjects. The Savior teaches that the soul is resurrected when it leaves the body, and that there is no unconscious state between death and the final resurrection of the body. People's New Testament.
He is not God of the dead but of the living. Jesus’ point was that if God could identify himself as God of the three old patriarchs, then they must still be alive when God spoke to Moses; and so they must be raised. The NET Bible.
I am the God of Abraham - Let it be observed, that Abraham was dead upwards of 300 years before these words were spoken to Moses: yet still God calls himself the God of Abraham, etc. Now Christ properly observes that God is not the God of the dead, (that word being equal, in the sense of the Sadducees, to an eternal annihilation), but of the living; it therefore follows that, if he be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, these are not dead, but alive; alive with God, though they had ceased, for some hundreds of years, to exist among mortals. We may see, from this, that our Lord combats and confutes another opinion of the Sadducees, viz. that there is neither angel nor spirit; by showing that the soul is not only immortal, but lives with God, even while the body is detained in the dust of the earth, which body is afterwards to be raised to life, and united with its soul by the miraculous power of God, of which power they showed themselves to be ignorant when they denied the possibility of a resurrection. Clarke's Commentary on the Bible.
6. When was the last time Jesus astonished you?
Daily, when I consider the depth of His love, and the depth of His patience.
The multitude were astonished at his doctrine - God uses the infidelity of some for the edification of others. Had no false doctrine been broached in the world, we had not seen the full evidence of the true teaching. The opposition of deists and infidels has only served to raise up men in behalf of the truth of God, who not only have refuted them, but shown, at the same time, that the sacred testimonies are infinitely amiable in themselves, and worthy of all acceptation. Truth always gains by being opposed. Clarke's Commentary on the Bible.
We closed with prayer.
"Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits..."
Psalm 103:1-2
Harmony of the Gospels @ Blue Letter Bible
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Matthew |
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John |
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Parable of the great supper |
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Parable of the wedding-garment |
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The tribute money |
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The Sadducees confuted |
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The great commandment |
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David's Son and David's Lord |
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Marriage at the Resurrection Matthew 22 23That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24"Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. 25Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother.26The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh.27Finally, the woman died. 28Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?" 29Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living." 33When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. |
Marriage at the Resurrection Mark 12 18Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.19"Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother.20Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?" 24Jesus replied, "Are you not in error 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; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to 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!" |
The Resurrection and Marriage Luke 20 27Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28"Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30The second 31and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32Finally, the woman died too. 33Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?" 34Jesus replied, "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37But in the account of the bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' 38He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive." 39Some of the teachers of the law responded, "Well said, teacher!" 40And no one dared to ask him any more questions. |
Online Resources
Book of Concord in PDF Format, The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod <http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/LCMS/TrigBOC.pdf> (2MB file)
These texts are in the public domain and may be copied and distributed freely. The source of these translations is Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921).
A number of important Lutheran texts can be found in the Belief and Practice section of the website of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod: http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=112
John
S. C. Abbott and Jacob Abbott, Illustrated
New Testament
http://www.studylight.org/com/ain/
Albert
Barnes, Notes
on the New Testament
http://www.studylight.org/com/bnn/
Harold
F. Buls
http://www.pericope.org/buls-notes/index.html
and
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/wittenberg-bul.html
Adapted
from Exegetical
Notes, Series A, Festival Season Sundays, Gospel Texts,
by Harold H. Buls, Concordia Theological Seminary Press: Ft Wayne IN,
1980
The
Adam Clarke Commentary
http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/
Burton
Coffman, Commentary
on the Whole Bible
http://www.studylight.org/com/bcc/
John Darby, Synopsis of the Bible
http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/matthew/darby/matthew1.htm
The
Greek Interlinear Bible,
http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/Greek_Index.htm
Based
on NA26/27. A word-by-word translation of the Greek New Testament.
David
Guzik, Commentaries
on the Bible
http://www.studylight.org/com/guz/
The Geneva Study Bible
http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/matthew/geneva/matthew1.htm
John Gill, Exposition of the Bible
http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/matthew/gill/matthew1.htm
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete)
http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/matthew/mh/matthew1.htm
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)
http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/matthew/mhc/matthew1.htm
Jamieson, Faussett and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/matthew/jfb/matthew1.htm
B.W. Johnson, People's New Testament
http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/matthew/johnson/matthew1.htm
John Lightfoot, Bible Commentary
http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/matthew/light/matthew1.htm
Martin
Luther, Commentary
on Galatians
http://www.studylight.org/com/mlg/
J.
W. McGarvey, Original
Commentary on Acts
http://www.studylight.org/com/oca/
J.
W. McGarvey and Philip Y. Pendleton, The
Fourfold Gospel
(also
known as "Harmony Of the Four Gospels")
http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/matthew/four/matthew1.htm
Alexander
Maclaren's commentaries on the books of the Bible (various titles)
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/m#a2330
The NET Bible. <http://bible.org/netbible/> A completely new translation of the Bible with 60,932 translators’ notes. It was completed by more than 25 scholars – experts in the original biblical languages – who worked directly from the best currently available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Excellent notes, citing both the Greek and Hebrew, as needed. Greek and Hebrew fonts available without cost.
A.T.
Robertson, Word
Pictures of the New Testament
http://www.studylight.org/com/rwp/
C.
I. Scofield, The
Scofield Reference Notes
(1917
Edition)
http://www.studylight.org/com/srn/
Charles
H. Spurgeon, The
Treasury of David
http://www.studylight.org/com/tod/
R.A.
Torrey, The
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
http://www.studylight.org/com/tsk/
W.E.
Vine, Expository
Dictionary of New Testament
Words
http://www.antioch.com.sg/bible/vines/
John
Wesley, Explanatory
Notes on the Whole Bible
http://www.ewordtoday.com/comments/matthew/wesley/matthew1.htm
Other
Additional
Resources:
http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/SPLC/Motley%20Crew%20Research%20Resources.html
Other Resources
Barker, Kenneth L., ed., TNIV Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006)
Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. Readers Edition. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006)
Davies, Benjamin, ed., Baker's Pocket Harmony of the Gospels (Baker Book House, 1975). Formerly printed as Harmony of the Four Gospels.
Goodrick, Edward W. and John R. Kohlenberger III, eds., The Strongest NIV Exhaustive Concordance (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999). This is the second edition, originally published as the Zondervan NIV Exhaustive Concordance. It was originally published as The NIV Exhaustive Concordance. It should be distinguished from The NIV Complete Concordance by the same authors.
Green, Jay P., ed., The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. Vol. IV. Second Edition. (Hendrickson Publishers, 1985)
Halley, Henry H., Halley's Bible Handbook. New Revised Edition (24th Edition). (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1965)
Hickie, W.J., Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977). This is a reprint of an older edition, originally published by Macmillan, August. 1893. A contemporary review described this as "A handy little volume, compiled on sound principles from trustworthy authorities." The 1911 edition is available online and for download at http://openlibrary.org/b/OL17866849M/Greek-English_lexicon_to_the_New_Testament
Hoerber, Robert G., ed., Concordia Self-Study Bible. NIV (Great Rapids, Zondervan: 1973, 1984).
Lenski, R.C.H., The Interpretation of St. Matthew's Gospel (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1943, reprinted 1964)
The Lutheran Study Bible (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009).
Nave, Orville J., ed., Nave's Topical Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1979)
New Bible Dictionary. Second Edition. (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1962)
Nicoll, W. Robertson, The Greek Expositor's Testament. Vol. 1. Five Volumes. (New York: George H. Doran Co., ca. 1910). Excellent notes on the Greek text and summaries of commentators. Available at Google Books ( www.books.google.com ) and the Internet Archive ( www.archive.org - easier to find here than at Google Books).
NIV Archeological Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005)
Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (Text from Project Gutenberg)
Robertson, A.T., Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2000). This “Concise Edition” is derived from the six-volume work by Robertson published in 1933. Robertson was also the author of 45 books, including numerous commentaries, a Harmony of the Gospels, etc. Also available online
Rogers, Cleon L. Jr., and Cleon L. Rogers III, eds., The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998). This is the second edition of the excellent work by Fritz Rienecker, A Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament, translated and edited by Cleon L. Rogers, Jr.
Strong, James, ed., The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990)
Vine, W.E., Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words: A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Original Greek Words with their Precise Meanings for English Readers (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, no date). Originally published circa 1940.