saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’
Parallel Translations
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saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’
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sayinge: Master Moses bade yf a man dye havinge no chyldre that the brother mary his wyfe and reyse vp seed vnto his brother.
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Saying, Master, Moses sayd, If a man die, hauing no children, his brother shall marie his wife by the right of alliance, and raise vp seede vnto his brother.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Matthew 22:24 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 25:5-10 If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel. If the man doesn’t want to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.” Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him. If he stands and says, “I don’t want to take her,” then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his sandal from off his foot, and spit in his face. She shall answer and say, “So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.” His name shall be called in Israel, “The house of him who had his sandal removed.”
- Luke 20:28 They asked him, “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should take the wife and raise up children for his brother.
- Ruth 1:11 Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
- Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
- Matthew 22:16 They sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are honest, and teach the way of God in truth, no matter whom you teach, for you aren’t partial to anyone.
- Mark 12:19 “Teacher, Moses wrote to us, ‘If a man’s brother dies, and leaves a wife behind him, and leaves no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.’
- Genesis 38:8 Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”
- Genesis 38:11 Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, until Shelah, my son, is grown up;” for he said, “Lest he also die, like his brothers.” Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
- Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
- Luke 6:46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things which I say?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Under which name are daughters also comprehended, but yet…
Under which name are daughters also comprehended, but yet as touching the family and name of a man, because he that left daughters was in no better case, than if he had left no children at all, (for they were not reckoned in the family) by the name of children are Sons understood.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 24 Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die,…
24 Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
Ver. 24. Master, Moses said] They pretend Scripture; so did the devil, Mat 4:1-11. So do heretics all; Sed sensum afferunt non auferunt, but they fetch not the meaning from the Scripture, but fasten a sense (even that of their own devising) on the Scripture: Caedem Scripturarum faciunt ad materiam suam, saith Tertullian. They taw the text, as shoemakers do their leather uppers, saith Polydore Virgil, that they may bring them to serve their turns; they lay the dead child of their own corrupt glosses in the bosom of holy Scripture, and then cry out, It is hers, and not theirs.
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If a man die, having no children] This law these Sadducees seem to approve, when indeed they jeer it, as the mother of much monstrous confusion, if there ever be a resurrection. So deals the devil and his janizaries {a} (Jesuits, I should say) at this day, by both Scriptures and fathers, whom they either elude or deride, further than they serve their turn, to confirm their falsehoods.
Raise up seed unto his brother] Our children are a principal part of ourselves, even the seed; as though now there were nothing left in us but the chaff.
{a} One of a former body of Turkish infantry, constituting the Sultan’s guard and the main part of the standing army. The body was first organised in the 14th century, and was composed mainly of tributary children of Christians; after a large number of them had been massacred in 1826, the organization was finally abolished. ŒD
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Likewise the second also,.... The eldest of the surviving…
Likewise the second also,.... The eldest of the surviving brethren, having married his brother's wife, after sometime died also without children, and left her to his next brother to marry her; and the third brother accordingly did marry her, and in process of time died likewise, leaving no issue behind him; and thus they went on in course, unto the seventh: the fourth, fifth, and sixth, married her in turn, and so did the seventh; and all died in the same circumstances, having no children by her.
Likewise the second also,.... The eldest of the surviving brethren, having married his brother's wife, after sometime died also without children, and left her to his next brother to marry her; and the third brother accordingly did marry her, and in process of time died likewise, leaving no issue behind him; and thus they went on in course, unto the seventh: the fourth, fifth, and sixth, married her in turn, and so did the seventh; and all died in the same circumstances, having no children by her.
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Matthew 22:27
mat 22:27
mat 22:27
mat 22:27And last of all the woman died also. A widow and childless, having never married another person but these seven brethren; and the case with them being alike, no one having any child by her, upon which any peculiar claim to her could be formed, the following question is put.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Deut. xxv, 5.
Deut. xxv, 5.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 24. Raise up seed unto his brother.] This…
Verse 24. Raise up seed unto his brother.] This law is mentioned De 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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Mat 22:24-28. Master, Moses said, If a man die,…
Mat 22:24-28. Master, Moses said, If a man die, &c. — “The argument by which the Sadducees endeavoured to confute the notion of a future state was taken from the Jewish law of marriage, which, to give their objection the better colour, they observed was God’s law, delivered by Moses. As they believed the soul to be nothing but a more refined kind of matter, they thought if there was any future state, it must resemble the present; and, that men being in that state material and mortal, the human race could not be continued, nor the individuals made happy, without the pleasures and conveniences of marriage. Hence they affirmed it to be a necessary consequence of the doctrine of the resurrection, or future state, that every man’s wife should be restored to him.” — Macknight.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Raise up issue to his brother, to be heirs…
Raise up issue to his brother, to be heirs of his name and of his effects, as we read in Ruth, chap. iv, ver. 10: suscitare nomen defuncti, &c. to raise up the name of the deceased in his inheritance, lest his name be cut off from among his family, and his brethren, and his people. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 24. Moses said, If a man die — Deu_25:5-6.…
24. Moses said, If a man die — Deu_25:5-6. This law requiring a man to marry the widow of a deceased elder brother and raise up children as being his, was intended to prevent the loss of the memory of a son of Abraham. It was a part of the system by which the memory of the institutes of the old and true religion was to be preserved.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 24. his brother shall marry his wife] This is…
24. his brother shall marry his wife] This is sometimes called the “levirate law,” from Lat. levir, a brother-in-law; see Deu_25:5. “The law on this subject is not peculiar to the Jews, but is found amongst various Oriental nations, ancient and modern.” Speaker’s Comment., Deu_25:5.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Moses said. They quote the substance of the law…
Moses said. They quote the substance of the law of the levirate (i.e. the brother-in-law) in Deu_25:5, Deu_25:6, by which it was enacted that if a married man died without a son, his brother or the next of kin should marry the widow, and the firstborn son of this union should be regarded and registered as the son of the deceased. This was a law not peculiar to the Hebrews, but prevalent from immemorial times among many ancient peoples, e.g. Persians, Egyptians, and found in force among some nations in modern times, as Arabians, Druses, Cireassians, etc. It seems not to have been enforced in any case, but to have been left to the good will of the survivor, who might escape the obligation by submitting to a certain social obloquy. (Deu_25:7-10) The motive of the regulation was the maintenance of a family and the non-alienation of property. Many authorities assert that the law did not apply in the case of a man who left daughters, (Num_27:8) but only in that of a childless widow. Later rabbinism limited the obligation to a betrothed woman, not yet actually married. But whatever may have been the limitations allowed in these days, the question of the Sadducees took its stand on the old legal basis, and endeavoured to draw there from a ridiculous inference. Shall marry; epigambreusei . The verb, found in the Septuagint, is used properly signifying "to take a woman to wife as the husband"s kinsman" (gambrov), and generally, "to contract affinity by marriage." Raise up seed. The firstborn son of such a marriage was the legal heir of the deceased brother, and bore his name. The natural and the legal paternities are seen in the genealogies of our Lord, and occasion some difficulties in adjustment.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 24. Moses said. Deut. 25:5.
24. Moses said. Deut. 25:5.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.