Luke 20 29

Luke 20:29 kjv

There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children.

Luke 20:29 nkjv

Now there were seven brothers. And the first took a wife, and died without children.

Luke 20:29 niv

Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless.

Luke 20:29 esv

Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children.

Luke 20:29 nlt

Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children.

Luke 20 verses

Luke 20 29 Meaning

This verse introduces the hypothetical scenario presented by the Sadducees to Jesus, serving as the setup for their challenge regarding the resurrection. It describes the beginning of a lineage crisis where a man marries but dies without producing offspring, thereby invoking the ancient levirate marriage custom from the Torah. Their elaborate illustration, starting with "seven brethren," is designed to create an impossible situation if there were to be a resurrection, intending to ridicule the concept itself.

Luke 20 29 Context

Luke 20:29 occurs within Jesus' final days in Jerusalem, just before His crucifixion. He is teaching in the temple courts, where He is repeatedly confronted and challenged by various Jewish religious factions. Immediately preceding this, Jesus had faced attempts to trap Him regarding His authority (Lk 20:1-8) and payment of taxes to Caesar (Lk 20:20-26).

The Sadducees, distinct from the Pharisees, were a conservative Jewish sect primarily composed of priestly families and the aristocracy. Their theological distinctives included rejecting the oral law and extra-Torah doctrines, thus they believed only the Pentateuch (first five books of Moses) was authoritative. Crucially for this passage, they denied the resurrection of the dead, the existence of angels, and spirits (Acts 23:8). Their worldview was heavily focused on the earthly life and material blessings.

Their challenge in Luke 20:27-40 centers on a convoluted scenario involving a woman, seven brothers, and the Mosaic Law of levirate marriage (Deut 25:5-10). This law stipulated that if a man died childless, his brother should marry his widow to raise offspring for the deceased, thus preserving the family name and inheritance. By presenting a complex case where all seven brothers marry the same woman and die childless, they attempt to demonstrate the absurdity of the resurrection belief: who would be her husband in the resurrection? Luke 20:29 initiates this hypothetical dilemma, laying the groundwork for their perceived 'irrefutable' argument.

Luke 20 29 Word analysis

• Now there were seven brethren:
  • Now: Gr. de (δὲ). A particle indicating transition or continuation, introducing a new part of the narrative or an example.
  • there were seven: Gr. ēsan hepta (ἦσαν ἑπτὰ). The number "seven" is significant in biblical numerology, often symbolizing completeness, totality, or perfection. The Sadducees likely chose seven brothers to make their hypothetical case seem utterly exhaustive and thus, in their minds, absurd if the resurrection were true. It creates a seemingly perfect loop of dilemma.
  • brethren: Gr. adelphoi (ἀδελφοὶ). Plural of adelphos, meaning male siblings born of the same parents or having common ancestry. It establishes the familial relationship crucial for the levirate law.
• and the first took a wife:
  • and: Gr. kai (καὶ). Standard conjunction.
  • the first: Gr. ho prōtos (ὁ πρῶτος). This emphasizes the sequence and the initial actor in their fabricated scenario, beginning the chain of events leading to their "problem."
  • took a wife: Gr. elaben gynaika (ἔλαβεν γυναῖκα). An idiomatic expression for marriage in both Greek and Hebrew (lāqaḥ iššâ), denoting the act of entering into a marital covenant. It means "took as a wife" or "married."
• and died without children:
  • and died: Gr. kai apethanen (καὶ ἀπέθανεν). The verb apothnēskō (to die) in the aorist tense simply states the fact of death. This is the crucial event that triggers the levirate marriage requirement.
  • without children: Gr. ateknos (ἄτεκνος). An adjective meaning "childless," "barren," "without offspring." It's derived from the negative prefix a- (un-, not) and teknon (child). This is the pivotal condition that necessitated the application of the levirate law. In ancient Israel, childlessness was a great sorrow and concern, as it meant the potential loss of a family line, inheritance, and name (Gen 15:2; 1 Sam 1:5). The Sadducees introduce this specific condition to accurately apply the levirate law within their challenging question.

Luke 20 29 Bonus section

The Sadducees' choice of "seven brethren" is not arbitrary. Beyond signifying completeness, it represents their attempt to make the situation maximally perplexing, implying that if the woman married seven successive brothers, her legal marital ties would be inextricably complicated if a bodily resurrection meant a return to earthly marital status. This reflects a deeper polemic: they aimed to show that a physical resurrection as understood by Pharisees (and Jesus) would lead to absurd social and legal dilemmas that would render God's law (which they held supreme) into confusion. Their failure to grasp the distinction between "this age" and "that age" (Luke 20:34-35) was their critical flaw, which Jesus swiftly corrected by showing that in the resurrection, believers are like angels—neither marrying nor being given in marriage—thus removing the basis for their "problem." This also highlights the Sadducees' theological limitation; by limiting scripture to the Pentateuch, they missed broader eschatological truths found in other prophetic books, such as Daniel 12, which clearly spoke of a future resurrection.

Luke 20 29 Commentary

Luke 20:29 serves as the critical exposition of the Sadducees' challenge to Jesus concerning the resurrection. Their argument is carefully constructed, grounding itself in a literal interpretation of the Mosaic Law of levirate marriage. By starting with "seven brethren" and stating that "the first took a wife, and died without children," they perfectly outline the exact circumstances that would trigger the subsequent application of the law to the remaining brothers. This verse highlights their shrewdness in crafting a dilemma, using the well-known custom of preserving a brother's name and lineage to underscore their belief that the resurrection was illogical or would create absurdity in a supposed afterlife where earthly relations persisted. They implicitly argued that God's law (Torah), which they acknowledged, seemed to create a paradox if one accepted a bodily resurrection where the same woman might be married to seven different men. This setup subtly positions their rejection of resurrection as a logical consequence of God's own laws. Jesus’ subsequent response directly addresses their fundamental errors, specifically their lack of understanding regarding both the Scriptures and God’s power, rather than getting caught in their earthly construct.