New Testament · Gospel

Mark 12:21

The Widow's Offering

Then the second one married the widow, but he also died and left no children. And the third did likewise. Mark 12:21 · Berean Standard Bible
What It Means

Mark 12:21, in plain English

The second brother married the widow and also died without children. Then the third. Same pattern, no resolution.

Why it's here

They're stacking the scenario to make it seem impossible to sort out in an afterlife. Who would she belong to?

Who's speaking

The Sadducees continue laying out their scenario.

Where it sits in the story

You can almost hear them enjoying the buildup. Each brother adds another layer to what they think is an unsolvable puzzle.

A Closer Look

The scholar's commentary

The pattern repeats with the second and third brothers, establishing the absurd regularity that makes the Sadducees' riddle seem logically airtight.

Language and setting

The repetitive structure emphasizes the apparent impossibility of resolving marital status in a resurrection, which the Sadducees consider the fatal flaw in resurrection theology.

Voice

The Sadducees continue their hypothetical with additional brothers.

Significance

The repetition builds the rhetorical weight of the puzzle: with each successive brother, the question of 'whose wife?' becomes increasingly complex.

In context

Mark 12:19–23

19“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.

20Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died, leaving no children.

21Then the second one married the widow, but he also died and left no children. And the third did likewise.

22In this way, none of the seven left any children. And last of all, the woman died.

23In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be? For all seven were married to her.”

Read all of Mark 12 — Trick questions from every direction, a scribe who almost gets it, and a poor widow who gives everything — two small coins that outweigh them all.

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