Luke 20:36

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(36) Neither can they die any more.—The record of this teaching is peculiar to St. Luke. The implied thought is that death and marriage are correlative facts in God’s government of the world, the one filling up the gaps which are caused by the other. In the life eternal there is no need for an addition in this way to the number of the elect, and therefore there is no provision for it.

Equal unto the angels.—The one Greek word which answers to the English four is again peculiar to St. Luke.

The children of God, being the children of the resurrection.—It is obvious that here the resurrection is assumed to be unto life and to a share in the divine kingdom. The fact that men were counted worthy to obtain that resurrection was a proof that they were “children of God,” and as such on the same footing as those other “sons of God,” whom the language of Scripture (Job 1:6; Job 38:7, and possibly Genesis 6:12) identified with the angels.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:27-38 It is common for those who design to undermine any truth of God, to load it with difficulties. But we wrong ourselves, and wrong the truth of Christ, when we form our notions of the world of spirits by this world of sense. There are more worlds than one; a present visible world, and a future unseen world; and let every one compare this world and that world, and give the preference in his thoughts and cares to that which deserves them. Believers shall obtain the resurrection from the dead, that is the blessed resurrection. What shall be the happy state of the inhabitants of that world, we cannot express or conceive,

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this explained in the Matthew 22:15-33 notes, and Mark 12:13-27 notes.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

36. neither … die any more—Marriage is ordained to perpetuate the human family; but as there will be no breaches by death in the future state, this ordinance will cease.

equal—or "like."

unto the angels—that is, in the immortality of their nature.

children of God—not in respect of character but nature; "being the children of the resurrection" to an undecaying existence (Ro 8:21, 23). And thus the children of their Father's immortality (1Ti 6:16).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 20:27"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Neither can they die any more,.... Therefore there will be no need of marrying to procreate children, to keep up a succession of men, any more than there is among the angels:

for they are equal unto the angels; in spirituality, purity and immortality; See Gill on Matthew 22:30.

and are the children of God: as they are now by adopting grace; but, as yet, it does not appear as it will then, what they are and will be:

being the children of the resurrection; as Christ was declared to be the son of God by his resurrection, so will they appear to be the children of God by their resurrection to eternal life; for though others will rise, yet not to everlasting life, and thus appearing to be children of God, they will also be heirs of God, and enjoy the inheritance, which they will always live to possess in their persons; and therefore the case being different with them from the children of the world, they will not marry, nor be given in marriage, as they are.

Geneva Study Bible

Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the {h} children of the resurrection.

(h) That is, men who partake in the resurrection: for as we truly say that they will indeed live who will enjoy everlasting bliss, so do those indeed rise who rise to life; though if this word resurrection is taken generally, it refers also to the wicked, who will rise to condemnation, which is not properly life, but death.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 20:36. ἀποθανεῖν: marriage, birth, death, go together, form one system of things, that of this world. In the next they have no place. Here Lk. expatiates as if the theme were congenial.—ἰσάγγελοι, angel-like, here only in N.T.—καὶ υἱοί εἰσιν, etc.: sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. This connection of ideas recalls St. Paul’s statement in Romans 1:4 that Christ was declared or constituted Son of God with power by the resurrection.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 20:36. Οὔτε, neither) They have a body so perfect, that they are subject neither to the law of marriage nor to death, which gave occasion to the succession of brothers in the having to wife the one woman. That shall be a state more firm and lasting than the Adamic state.—ἰσάγγελοι γὰρ, for they are like [equal to] the angels) An Ætiology (see Append. on this figure), assigning the reason why there shall then be no marriages.—υἱοὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ, sons of God) Equally as are the angels.—τῆς ἀναστάσεως) of the resurrection, which comprehends under it immortality. An antithesis to die (ἀποθανεῖν), and an instance of the figure Ploce.[219]—ὄντες) Resolve this into, inasmuch as they are.

[219] See Append. A word employed twice, once to express the simple meaning, and afterwards an attribute of it. Ἀνάστασις first simply, then including immortality in it.—E. and T.

Luke 20:36

Vincent's Word Studies

Equal unto the angels (ἰσάγγελοι)

Only here in New Testament.