Mark 12:23

23 In the resurrection, when they rise,^[a] whose wife will she be, since the seven had married her?"^[b]

Mark 12:23 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 12:23

In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise
This last clause, "when they shall rise", is omitted in two copies of Beza's, and in the Syriac, Arabic, Persic, and Ethiopic versions, because, perhaps, it might be thought superfluous; but this is agreeably to the way of speaking and writing with the Jews: so in the Targum on ( Zechariah 3:7 ) : (Knyxa aytym twyxab) , "in the quickening of the dead I will quicken thee"; or, in the resurrection of the dead I will raise thee. The question put on supposition of a resurrection, and that these seven brethren, and the wife they all had should rise, then is,

whose wife shall she be of them?
of the seven brethren;

for the seven had her to wife.
She was, according to law, the lawful wife of all seven; what particular and special claim could one have to her above the rest? (See Gill on Matthew 22:28).

Mark 12:23 In-Context

21 The second also took her, and he died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise.

22 The seven also left no offspring. Last of all, the woman died too.

23 In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be, since the seven had married her?"

24 Jesus told them, "Are you not deceived because you don't know the Scriptures or the power of God?

25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven.

Footnotes

• [a]. Other mss omit when they rise
• [b]. Lit the seven had her as a wife