Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 22:29
Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
29. not knowing ] i. e. “because ye do not know” (1) the Scriptures, which affirm the doctrine; nor (2) the power of God, which is able to effect the resurrection, and after the resurrection to create a new order of things in the new world.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 29. Ye do err] Or, Ye are deceived – by your impure passions: not knowing the scriptures, which assert the resurrection: – nor the miraculous power of God ( ) by which it is to be effected. In Avoda Sara, fol. 18, Sanhedrin, fol. 90, it is said: “These are they which shall have no part in the world to come: Those who say, the Lord did not come from heaven; and those who say, the resurrection cannot be proved out of the law.”
Their deception appeared in their supposing, that if there were a resurrection, men and women were to marry and be given in marriage as in this life; which our Lord shows is not the case: for men and women there shall be like the angels of God, immortal, and free from all human passions, and from those propensities which were to continue with them only during this present state of existence. There shall be no death; and consequently no need of marriage to maintain the population of the spiritual world.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Mark hath the same, Mar 12:24,25, only he propounds it as a question, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know, not the Scriptures? Luke saith, Luk 20:34,35, And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. The discourse of the Sadducees was bottomed upon this mistake, that there should not only be a resurrection of bodies, but of relations too; and the state of the world to come should be like the state of this world, in, which, for the propagation and continuance of mankind, men and women marry, and are given in marriage. Now, saith our Saviour, your error is bottomed in your ignorance, because ye know not the Scriptures, ( which indeed is the foundation of all mens errors in matter of faith),
nor the power of God. If you knew the power of God, you would know that God is able to raise the dead. To confirm our faith in the resurrection, the Scripture every where sendeth us to the consideration of the Divine power, Rom 8:11; Phi 3:21. If you knew the Scriptures, you would know that God will raise the dead, and the state of men in the resurrection shall not be as in this life, where men and women die daily; and in case they did not marry and give in marriage, the generation of men would quickly be extinct. But (saith Luke) they who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead. It is manifest by the first words, that the latter words are not to be understood of the general resurrection, (to which all shall come, worthy or unworthy), but of the resurrection unto life; that resurrection which is not the mere effect of Divine providence, necessary in order to the last judgment, but that resurrection to life which is the effect of Christs purchase. And this is observable, that the resurrection from the dead will be of so little advantage, nay, of such miserable disadvantage, to wicked men, that the Scripture sometimes speaketh of the resurrection as if it were peculiar to saints, 1Co 15:22; Phi 3:11; so in this text. Hence Luke calls them afterward, the children of the resurrection; not that others shall not rise, but the children of God alone shall be the favourites of the resurrection, those who shall rise as children to an eternal inheritance. Concerning the state of persons in the resurrection our Saviour thus describes it: that men and women there shall be
as the angels, not in all things, but in the things mentioned, which are two, one of them mentioned by Matthew, both by Luke:
1. They shall not die any more.
2. They shall not marry, nor be given in marriage.
The first showeth the needlessness of the latter, for one great reason of marriage was to supply the gaps which death maketh in the world; but men shall not die any more, therefore there will be no need of conjugal relations amongst men, more than among angels. The children of this world (saith Luke) marry, and are given in marriage. Marriage was only an institution for this world, and is to continue no longer than this world stands; for the state of men in another world will be such as needs it not, being a state of immortality, so not needing it for propagation; and a state for perfection, and so not needing it for mutual help in the affairs of mans life, nor a remedy against extravagant lust.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Jesus answered and said unto them,…. The Sadducees: as idle and impertinent as the case they put may seem to be and really was, our Lord thought fit to return an answer to them, thereby to expose their ignorance, and put them to silence and confusion: ye do err; not only in that they denied the immortality of the soul and the resurrection, but that supposing that there would be a resurrection, things in that state would be just they were in this; as particularly for instance, that there would be the same natural relation of husband and wife, which their question supposes. Mark reads these words by way of interrogation,
do ye not therefore err, because? c] And by Luke they are wholly omitted, as also what follows,
not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. These two things were the spring and source of their errors: they had not a true knowledge, and right understanding of the Scriptures which if they had had, it must have appeared to them, from many places in the Old Testament, that the soul remains after death, and that the body will be raised from the dead: they owned the authority of the Scriptures, and allowed of all the writings of the Old Testament; for it seems to be a mistake of some learned men, who think that they only received the five books of Moses, and that therefore Christ takes his proof of his doctrine from thence; but though they had the greater esteem for the law, and would admit of nothing that was not clearly proved from that; yet they did not reject the other writings, as what might serve to confirm and illustrate what was taught in the law; but then, though they approved of the Scriptures and read them, yet they did not understand them, and so fell into those gross errors and sad mistakes; nor did they attend to the power of God, which, as it was able to make men out of the dust of the earth, was able to raise them again, when crumbled into dust; but this was looked upon by them, as a thing impossible, and so incredible; see Ac 26:8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
29. You err, not knowing the Scriptures. Though Christ addresses the Sadducees, yet this reproof applies generally to all inventors of false doctrines. For, since God makes known His will clearly in the Scriptures, the want of acquaintance with them is the source and cause of all errors. But this is no ordinary consolation to the godly, that they will be safe from the danger of erring, so long as they humbly, modestly, and submissively inquire from the Scriptures what is right and true. As to the power of God being connected by Christ with the word, it refers to the present occasion. For, since the resurrection far exceeds the capacity of the human senses, it will be incredible to us, till our minds rise to the contemplation of the boundless power of God, by which, as Paul tells us,
he is able to subdue all things to himself, (Phi 3:21.)
Besides, the Sadducees must have been void of understanding, when they committed the error of estimating the glory of the heavenly life according to the present state. In the meantime, we learn that those men form and express just and wise sentiments respecting the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom, who join the power of God with the Scriptures.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(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 distinctly 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 that, as the pessima corruptio optimi, was that which called down His sternest reproof. The causes of their error were, He told them, two-fold: (1) an imperfect knowledge even of the Scriptures which they recognised; (2) imperfect conceptions of the divine attributes, and therefore an priori limitation of the divine power. They could not conceive of any human fellowship in the life of the resurrection except such as reproduced the relations and conditions of this earthly life.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
29. Ye do err To err means to wander. They do not merely make a mistake, but they wander in ignorance of the Scriptures. Not knowing the Scriptures What they have to say, namely, with regard to man’s relations in eternity. Nor the power of God By which he is able to carry our resurrection through, despite all the difficulties raised by theology or science. Even at the present day the main objections against the resurrection are at issue with its possibility, through not knowing the Scriptures and the power of God.
‘But Jesus answered and said unto them, “You go astray, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” ’
Jesus, however, pointed out that they went astray in their thinking for two reasons. Firstly because they did not know the Scriptures, and secondly because they did not appreciate the power of God. He then deals with these ideas in the reverse order in a typical chiasmus.
Christ’s answer:
v. 29. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.
v. 30. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.
In an entirely dispassionate way, but with crushing emphasis, Jesus gives them His answer: Ye are altogether wrong, and that because ye know neither the plain facts of Scripture nor the power of God. According to the first, they should have known that the fact of the resurrection is stated in the Old Testament. According to the second, they should have known that God is able to raise from the dead. Note: Their question itself is a secondary consideration with Christ; the motive for the question concerns Him far more. And so far as their story goes, the difficulty which, they sneeringly imply, exists in case there is a resurrection, is by no means so great. In heaven, Christ tells them, the resurrected believers will be sexless, like the angels, since there is no longer any need for marriage, both the procreation of children and the sexual desires of the body being things of the past.
Mat 22:29-30. Jesus answered and said, &c. Jesus confuted their argument, by telling the Sadducees that they were ignorant of the power of God, who has created spirit as well as matter, and who can make man completely happy in the enjoyment of himself. He observed further, that the nature of the life obtained in the future state, makes marriage altogether superfluous; because in the world to come, men being immortal, like the angels, , there is no need of an increase of mankind. See on Luk 20:36.
Mat 22:29 . Jesus answers that, in founding upon Deu 25:5 the denial of the resurrection, which their question implies, they are mistaken , and that in a twofold respect: (1) they do not understand the Scriptures, i.e. they fail to see how that doctrine actually underlies many a scriptural utterance; and (2) they do not sufficiently realize the extent of the power of God , inasmuch as their conceptions of the resurrection are purely material, and because they cannot grasp the thought of a higher corporeality to be evolved from the material body by the divine power. And then comes an illustration of the latter point in Mat 22:30 , and of the former in Mat 22:31 .
28 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
Ver. 29. Ye do err, not knowing ] Ignorance is a breeder. All sins are seminally in ignorance. St Paul thanks it for all his persecutions, 1Ti 1:13 . Aristotle makes it the mother of all the misrule in the world. (Ethic. 3.) All heresies, saith Chemnitius, are known to have proceeded, Vel ex supercilio Samosateni fastu, vel ex Arrii dialectica, vel ex Aetii , from pride, sophistry, or ignorance.
Nor the power of God ] Who can as easily raise the dead as he did at first create them. This the Athenians, with all their learning, understood not; and therefore counted all that St Paul could say to it, bibble babble ( ), because he preached Jesus, and Anastasis , or the resurrection, which they took to be some strange goddess,Act 17:18-19Act 17:18-19 . They saw not how there could possibly be a regress from a privation to a habit. Neither can any of us see it, unless God by his Spirit of revelation give us to know what is the exceeding greatness of his power, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in raising Christ, and us by him,Eph 1:19-20Eph 1:19-20 , where it is easy to observe a six-fold gradation in the original, and all to set forth the power of God, in Christ’s and our resurrection.
29, 30. ] . . . . . ., not = . . . ., but to be rendered literally; ye do not understand the Scriptures, which imply the resurrection ( Mat 22:31 ), nor the power of God, before which all these obstacles vanish ( Mat 22:30 ). See Act 26:8 ; Rom 4:17 ; Rom 8:11 :1Co 6:14 .
, of males; ., of females. Our Lord also asserts here against them the existence of angels , and reveals to us the similarity of our glorified state to their present one. Not . , . [ ], but , . [ ] . (see note on Luk 20:35 , and 1Co 15:44 ); the risen are not in heaven , but on earth .
Wetstein quotes the Rabbinical decision of a similar question ‘Mulier illa qu duobus nupsit in hoc mundo, priori restituitur in mundo futuro.’
Mat 22:29-33 . Christ’s answer . One at first wonders that He deigned to answer such triflers; but He was willing meekly to instruct even the perverse, and He never forgot that there might be receptive earnest people within hearing. The Sadducees drew from Him one of His great words.
Mat 22:29 . , ye err, passionless unprovocative statement, as if speaking indulgently to ignorant men. , etc.: doubly ignorant; of the Scriptures and of God’s power, the latter form of ignorance being dealt with first.
Jesus = But Jesus (App-98. X).
not knowing. Note the negative, implying their unwillingness to know, not stating the mere fact. See App-105. All are sure to err who do not know the Scriptures.
29, 30.] . . . . . ., not = . . . .,-but to be rendered literally; ye do not understand the Scriptures, which imply the resurrection (Mat 22:31), nor the power of God, before which all these obstacles vanish (Mat 22:30). See Act 26:8; Rom 4:17; Rom 8:11 :1Co 6:14.
, of males; ., of females. Our Lord also asserts here against them the existence of angels, and reveals to us the similarity of our glorified state to their present one. Not . , . [], but , . [] . (see note on Luk 20:35, and 1Co 15:44);-the risen are not in heaven, but on earth.
Wetstein quotes the Rabbinical decision of a similar question-Mulier illa qu duobus nupsit in hoc mundo, priori restituitur in mundo futuro.
ye do err
Or, ye deceive yourselves, etc. Jesus’ answer gives the three incapacities of the rationalist: self-deception, Rom 1:21; Rom 1:22 ignorance of the spiritual content of Scripture, Act 13:27, disbelief in the intervention of divine power, 2Pe 3:5-9.
not: Job 19:25-27, Psa 16:9-11, Psa 17:15, Psa 49:14, Psa 49:15, Psa 73:25, Psa 73:26, Isa 25:8, Isa 26:19, Isa 57:1, Isa 57:2, Dan 12:2, Dan 12:3, Hos 13:14, Luk 24:44-47, Joh 20:9, Rom 15:4
nor: Gen 18:14, Jer 32:17, Luk 1:37, Act 26:8, Phi 3:21
Reciprocal: Job 14:14 – shall he live Psa 119:139 – because Isa 8:20 – it is Jer 31:11 – stronger Zec 13:9 – It is my people Mat 12:7 – if Mar 12:24 – Do Luk 20:35 – neither Joh 3:10 – Art Joh 5:39 – Search Act 13:27 – nor 1Co 15:35 – with 1Co 15:43 – in power Gal 4:21 – do 2Ti 2:18 – concerning 2Ti 3:15 – the holy Jam 1:16 – Do 2Pe 3:16 – the other
2:29.
Err, not knowing the scriptures. At the time Jesus was speaking the New Testament had not been written, hence he had reference to the Old Testament. That book does not say much about the future state, yet had the Sadducees been as familiar with it as they pretended to be they would have understood that in the next world the marriage relation will not be continued because it will not be needed. The beginning paragraphs of Genesis reveal the command given to the first man and woman to multiply and replenish the earth. After the earth ceases to be there will be no need for the marriage relation. Nor the power of God. The Sadducees supposed they could disprove the truth of a resurrection by describing a situation that would make it impossible without causing great domestic trouble. They should have understood that nothing is “too hard for the Lord” (Gen 18:14).
Mat 22:29. Ye do err. How, is immediately added.
Not knowing the Scriptures. In that ye do not understand the Scriptures, i.e., the Old Testament, which they professed to hold free from tradition. That Scripture plainly implies the resurrection.
Nor the power of God. His power to raise the dead. Modern Sadducism usually knows the meaning of the Scriptures, but denies the power of God, in this as in many other things.
Mat 22:29-30. Jesus answered, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures Which plainly assert a future state; nor the power of God Who created spirit as well as matter, and can preserve it in existence when the body is dissolved, and can also raise the body from the dust and render it immortal; and who can make the whole man completely happy in the knowledge, love, and enjoyment of himself, without any of the pleasures or objects of this visible and temporal world. For in the resurrection they neither marry, &c. Our Lord proceeds to observe further, that they entirely mistook the nature of the life to be enjoyed in a future state: that those who attained it being as the angels of God, incorruptible and immortal, marriage and the procreation of an offspring were no longer necessary to continue the species, or maintain the population of the spiritual world.
Verse 29
Ye do err; in imagining the future life to be similar, in its circumstances and relations, to the present.
The Sadducees did not understand the Scriptures because the Scriptures taught resurrection (e.g., Psalms 16; et al.). They did not understand God’s power because they assumed life after resurrection, in heaven, would be the same as it is now. They assumed that the resurrection would just involve an awakening, not a transformation. God is able to raise people to a form of existence unlike what we experience now (cf. 1Co 15:35-49).
In the resurrection form of existence, sexual relationships will be different from what they are now. Jesus was speaking of the resurrection life, not a particular resurrection event, as is clear from the Greek preposition en ("in," Mat 22:30, not "at," NIV). Marriage relationships as we now know them will not exist after our resurrection. Jesus’ reference to the angels was an additional correction of their theology since the Sadducees also denied the existence of angels (Act 23:8).
Jesus did not say that in the resurrection state all memory of our former existence and relationships will end. This is a conclusion some interpreters have drawn without warrant. Neither did He say that we will become angels. We will not be. We will be like the angels.
"The greatness of the changes at the Resurrection (cf. 1Co 15:44; Php 3:21; 1Jn 3:1-2) will doubtless make the wife of even seven brothers (Mat 22:24-27) capable of loving all and the object of the love of all-as a good mother today loves all her children and is loved by them." [Note: Carson, "Matthew," pp.461-62.]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)