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Matthew 22:22-24
New Catholic Bible
Matthew 22:22-24
New Catholic Bible
22 Stunned on hearing this reply, they went away and left him alone.
23 Marriage and the Resurrection.[a] On that same day, the Sadducees, who assert that there is no resurrection, approached him and posed this question, 24 “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies without having children, his brother[b] is to marry his brother’s wife and raise up children for his brother.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Matthew 22:23 Faith in a resurrection became common only toward the end of the Old Testament period. Not all shared the certainty; the Sadducees, the aristocrats of the priestly class and men concerned more with politics than with religion, considered it a rather debatable theological novelty. They debate it with Jesus, using arguments that emerge as caricature and prevent access to the heart of the question. Jesus answers in the name of the Jewish faith in God: God stands on the side of life.
- Matthew 22:24 If a man dies . . . his brother: this custom is known as the “law of the levirate,” from the Latin word for brother-in-law (levir). It was intended to continue the family line of the deceased brother (see Deut 25:6).
