Matthew 22:23-33

CRITICAL NOTES

Matthew 22:23. The Sadducees.—The article is properly omitted in the R.V. See note on Matthew 3:7. That the Pharisees had an understanding with them also seems likely from what is said both in Matthew 22:15, which seems a general introduction to the series of questions, and in Matthew 22:34, from which it would appear that they were somewhere out of sight waiting to hear the result of this new attack. Though the alliance seems a strange one, it is not the first time that common hostility to the Christ of God has drawn together the two great rival parties (see Matthew 16:1). If we are right in supposing them to be in combination now, it is a remarkable illustration of the deep hostility of the Pharisees that they should not only combine with the Sadducees against Him, as they had done before, but that they should look with complacency on their using against Him a weapon which threatened one of their own doctrines (Gibson).

Matthew 22:24. Moses said.—See Deuteronomy 25:5. These were called levirate marriages, from the Latin word, levir, “a brother-in-law.” His brother shall marry his wife.—The root of the obligation here imposed upon the brother of the deceased husband lies in the primitive idea of childlessness being a great calamity, and extinction of name and family one of the greatest that could happen (Speaker’s Commentary). The law on this subject is not peculiar to the Jews, but is found amongst various Oriental nations, ancient and modern (ibid.). Raise up seed unto his brother.—This indicates that the child, which might be the issue of the second marriage, would be entered in the genealogical register as the child, not of the natural father, but of the deceased brother, and would thus become his heir (Morison).

Matthew 22:28. In the resurrection.—The puzzle of the Sadducees had no special relation to what may be involved in the resurrection of the body as contra-distinguished from what is involved in the immortality of the soul. Their objection was, generically, against the idea that men are to exist at all in the future. “The doctrine of the Sadducees” says Josephus, “is, that souls die with the bodies” (Antiq., XVIII. i. 4) (Morison). Whose wife shall she be?—Stress is laid on the childlessness of the woman in all the seven marriages, in order to guard against the possible answer that she would be counted in the resurrection as the wife of him to whom she had borne issue (Plumptre).

Matthew 22:29. Ye do err.—This is, it may be noted, the one occasion in the Gospel history in which our Lord comes into direct collision with the Sadducees. On the whole, while strictly condemning and refuting their characteristic error, the tone in which He speaks is less stern than that in which He addresses the Pharisees. They were less characterised by hypocrisy, and this was that which called down His sternest reproof (ibid.).

Matthew 22:31. Spoken unto you by God.—In Exodus 3:6. The Sadducees while recognising the authority of the Hebrew Scriptures generally, seem to have attached supreme importance to the Pentateuch. Dean Alford says, “The assertion of the resurrection comes from the very source whence their difficulty had been constructed.”

Matthew 22:32. The dead.—The word has here its lowest Sadducean import, denoting those who have ceased to be (Morison).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 22:23

A sceptical snare.—After the Pharisees have been disposed of, the Sadducees appear on the scene. They also have a question to ask. It is one connected with their avowed disbelief in the doctrine of the resurrection (Acts 23:8), and calculated, as they hope, to bring equal discredit both on that doctrine and on Christ. It will be well, therefore, to consider, first, the exact nature of the question propounded; and so to pass, secondly, to the exact nature of the reply it received.

I. The question propounded.—This turned, in the first place, on three separate points connected with the question of marriage. The first of these was that well-known Mosaic enactment on this subject which pronounced the marriage tie to come to an end on the death of either party concerned; and therefore fully allowed the survivor, if so disposed, to contract marriage again. The second was the injunction, in the same quarter, which commanded any man whose married brother should have died without issue to take that brother’s widow to wife. And the third was the alleged occurrence among them of a most remarkable and highly exceptional contingency of this kind; even of a case in which it came to pass that as many as seven brothers in succession, under this rule, had the same woman to wife (Matthew 22:24). On these three points, three inferences were, next, drawn virtually by these Sadducean inquirers. The first, that each of those seven brethren had really and truly, in his life-time, been married to that woman. The next, that each of them—in the resurrection—could therefore claim her for his. And the last was this, that, such being so, there could not possibly be a resurrection at all. That was the only way, according to them, of solving the difficulty involved (Matthew 22:28). How could a doctrine, therefore, which led to so absurd a result be a doctrine of truth? At any rate, if there was another solution, let that solution be given. They had the right to ask this from such a teacher as Jesus was now professing to be.

II. The Saviour’s answer to this subtle and insidious question was of a three fold description. In the first place, it completely disposed of the difficulty advanced. There was another and better solution than that insinuated by them. In that higher and better sphere to which their inquiry referred, there was, in reality, no room for putting such a question at all. And it was simple ignorance on their part to suppose anything else (Matthew 22:29). The question, therefore, “Whose wife shall she be?” was so far from being insoluble, that it was only unnecessary, and such as ought not be asked. In the next place, the Saviour’s answer fully vindicated the doctrine disputed. Taking the Sadducees on their own ground, referring only to those Books of Moses in which alone they professed to believe, and dealing only with one of the names of God ascribed to Him there, there was proof enough of its truth. What did God mean when He described Himself there as the God of certain men who were dead? (Matthew 22:32). Did He not mean that these men were still “alive” unto Him? “Still alive,” that is to say—though, for a time it may be—in a different way from before? And therefore, further, to be alive again afterwards in the same way as before? Where would be the comfort, where the value, where the sense, of meaning anything less? Why should these men have been named at all if they had ceased to exist? The “living God,” in a word, was the God of the living, and not of the dead (end of Matthew 22:32). Finally, the answer thus given fully vindicated the Teacher Himself. All who heard His answer acknowledged it by their conduct to be of a simply unanswerable description. The “multitude” were “astonished,” the “Sadducees” silenced, by such flashes of truth (Matthew 22:33).

This old-world battle may teach us much in these new-world times. It may show us:—

1. How great was the authority in old days of the Old Testament Scriptures!—How great especially of that portion of them which by some in these days is cavilled at most. Is it not worthy of notice that the most unbelieving of men in those days believed in this portion to the full? Also that the Saviour, in answering them, appealed to this only? Also that, before then, in dealing with a still greater adversary, He had done the same thing (Matthew 4:1)? Also yet, that, in this way, He silenced them all!

2. How great their fulness and depth!—See here how much is covered by one single expression! How much can be learned from it, as it were, “by the way,!” Little less, as a matter of fact, than the whole world of the unseen!

3. How equally great, therefore, the evidence given of the fulness and wisdom of Christ!—Ages of study and strife had never shown previously in these words of Moses what He sees in them at a glance. No “contradiction of sinners,” also, can help seeing it when once it is shown! Is it possible, in the way of teaching, to surpass this double Success?

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Matthew 22:25. Christ and the Sadducees.—

1. The conceiving of spiritual things in a fleshly manner is the ground of mistaking the truth and setting up of errors and heresies, as appeareth in these Sadducees; they apprehend the doctrine of eternal life to be this, that the course of this temporary life shall be renewed and made perpetual.
2. No man seemeth wiser in his own eyes than the blindest heretics do; they conceive that Christ Himself cannot answer their objections against the truth; and this emboldeneth these Sadducees to dispute.—David Dickson.

Matthew 22:29. The Sadducees confuted.—

1. If the Scriptures be not understood and believed, it cannot miss but errors will arise, for nothing else but this light can prevent or remove errors. They erred, “not knowing the Scriptures.”
2. It is necessary for quieting of our minds in the truth of God’s word that we look only to the promise of God, and to His ability to perform all He hath promised.
3. After the resurrection we shall be set free from the infirmities whereunto now we are subject; and shall neither need meat nor drink nor marriage, but shall be upholden immediately of God, without means, as angels are, and shall be employed only in the immediate service of God.—Ibid.

Christ’s reply to the Sadducees.—I. He charges them with error.—Concerning:

1. The fact of the resurrection.
2. The nature of the future state.

II. He corrects their mistake.—Implying:

1. The existence of a high order of intelligences.
2. Social elevation of humanity in the future state.

III. He convicts them out of their own Scriptures.—Showing:

1. That the highest property an intelligent being can possess is God, and this property is possessed by the good.
2. Its possession implies conscious existence.
3. The Scripture teaches that this highest property is possessed by departed men.—D. Thomas, D.D.

Matthew 22:29. Sources of unbelief.—

I. Want of Scriptural knowledge.
II. Want of spiritual experience—J. P. Lange, D.D.

Matthew 22:30. The beautiful idea of the future life.—

I. Elevated above temporal transitoriness.
II. Like the angels of God.
III. A life in heaven.—J. P. Lange, D.D.

Life in heaven.—Will there, we ask, be no continuance there of the holiest of the ties of earth? Will the husband and the wife, who have loved each other until death parted them be no more to each other than any others who are counted worthy to obtain that life? Will there be no individual recognition, no continuance of the love founded upon the memories of the past? The answer to all such questionings is found in dwelling on the “power of God.” The old relations may subsist under new conditions. Things that are incompatible here may there be found to co-exist. The saintly wife of two saintly husbands may love both with an angelic, and therefore a pure and unimpaired affection. The contrast between our Lord’s teaching and the sensual paradise of Mahomet, or Swedenborg’s dream of the marriage state perpetuated under its earthly conditions, is so obvious as hardly to call for notice.—E. H. Plumptre, D.D.

Matthew 22:31. Interpreting Scripture.—

1. No sufficient silencing of error can be till the contrary truth be made clear by Scripture.
2. Whatsoever is said in the Scripture should be taken as spoken unto us, and that by God.
3. Whatsoever the Scripture doth import, by good consequence is to be accounted for God’s speech. “Concerning the resurrection, have ye not read?” saith He; for the Scripture doth not stand in letters or syllables, but in the sense of the words, and in the truly inferred consequences from thence.
4. Whosoever are within the covenant of grace, whose God the Lord is by covenant, are sure to live in heaven with God after this life, and to have their bodies raised at last unto immortal life; because God is the Saviour and Redeemer not of the soul of His elect only, but also of the body. Therefore there must be a resurrection of the body, for “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”—David Dickson.

Matthew 22:32. God and Immortality.—Our Lord’s answer suggests the best way of assuring ourselves of this glorious hope. Let God be real to us, and life and immortality will be real too. If we would escape the doubts of old Sadducee and new Agnostic, we must be much with God, and strengthen more and more the ties which bind us to Him.—J. M. Gibson, D.D.