Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Mark 12:22

"and the seven left no seed. Last of all the woman also died." — Mark 12:22 (ASV)

The address by the Sadducees to Jesus is ironic; although they addressed him with the honorific title “Teacher,” they did not intend to learn from him. The case cited arose out of a provision in the Mosaic Law , which required that if a man died without children, his brother had to marry his widow. The purpose of the law was to protect the widow and guarantee the continuance of the family line. The Sadducees presented a hypothetical case in which one woman married seven brothers in turn, all of whom died childless. In the Resurrection whose wife of the seven would she be? The case is so ludicrous it may have been a well-known Sadducean joke that was used for poking fun at the Pharisees’ doctrine of the Resurrection.