Mark 12:23

In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:18-27 A right knowledge of the Scripture, as the fountain whence all revealed religion now flows, and the foundation on which it is built, is the best preservative against error. Christ put aside the objection of the Sadducees, who were the scoffing infidels of that day, by setting the doctrine of the future state in a true light. The relation between husband and wife, though appointed in the earthly paradise, will not be known in the heavenly one. It is no wonder if we confuse ourselves with foolish errors, when we form our ideas of the world of spirits by the affairs of this world of sense. It is absurd to think that the living God should be the portion and happiness of a man if he is for ever dead; and therefore it is certain that Abraham's soul exists and acts, though now for a time separate from the body. Those that deny the resurrection greatly err, and ought to be told so. Let us seek to pass through this dying world, with a joyful hope of eternal happiness, and of a glorious resurrection.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this passage fully explained in the notes at Matthew 22:23-33.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

23. In the resurrection therefore when they shall rise, &c.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Mark 12:19"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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, , "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.

Geneva Study Bible

In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 12:23. τίνος αὐτῶν, etc., of which of them shall she be the wife? (γυνή, without the article, vide notes on Mt.).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

23. In the resurrection therefore] Their difficulty originated entirely in a carnal notion that the connections of this life must be continued in another.

Bengel's Gnomen

Mark 12:23. Ὅταν ἀναστῶσι, when they shall rise again) viz. the brothers and the wife.

Mark 12:23