Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 22:23-28

"On that day there came to him Sadducees, they that say that there is no resurrection: and they asked him, saying, Teacher, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first married and deceased, and having no seed left his wife unto his brother; in like manner the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And after them all, the woman died. In the resurrection therefore whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her." — Matthew 22:23-28 (ASV)

(23-28) The Sadducees (see note on Matthew 3:7). We must remember that these were largely from the upper class of the priesthood (Acts 5:17). The form of their attack implies that they viewed our Lord as teaching the doctrine of the resurrection. They based their denial on the fact that they found no mention of it in the Law, which they recognized as the only rule of faith.

The case they presented, as far as the principle involved was concerned, did not need to go beyond any instance of remarriage without children. However, the questioners pushed it to its extreme, as what seemed to them a reductio ad absurdum.

Emphasis is placed on the woman’s childlessness in all seven marriages to guard against the possible answer that she would be considered, in the resurrection, the wife of the one to whom she had borne children.