Matthew 22:26 is a short line in a longer story. It describes how a hypothetical family situation repeats itself through seven brothers, each one dying in turn without leaving children, and the same woman passing from one to the next. The verse is not teaching anything on its own. It is setting up a question the Sadducees planned to use against Jesus about the resurrection. Matthew records it as part of their challenge, spoken to Jesus in front of the crowd.
In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh.
Matthew 22:26 (WEB)
What Matthew 22:26 Means
The phrase “In the same way” points back to the first brother’s story. Each brother marries the widow, dies without children, and the widow goes to the next brother. The verse repeats that pattern. The phrase “the second also, and the third, to the seventh” moves quickly through the chain, so the reader feels the monotony of the scenario. The Sadducees wanted the story to sound absurd, and the repetition helps them do that.
What the verse does not do is give any teaching about marriage, death, or family life. It describes a case the Sadducees invented, following the rule in Deuteronomy about levirate marriage. Matthew is reporting their argument, not endorsing it. Read on its own, the verse is simply a setup, and its meaning only becomes clear when you see the question that follows in verse 28.
The Context of Matthew 22:26
Matthew wrote his Gospel mainly for a community of Jewish followers of Jesus, and he often explains Jewish customs and disputes for readers familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures. The Sadducees were a priestly group in Jerusalem who accepted only the five books of Moses as authoritative and did not believe in a bodily resurrection. That background explains why they reached for a law from Deuteronomy to test Jesus. Verse 23 says they “say that there is no resurrection,” so their question begins from a position they already held.
The verses just before and after show the purpose of the scenario. Verse 25 introduces the seven brothers, and verse 27 closes the story with the woman’s death. Verse 28 asks whose wife she will be in the resurrection. Because the story is built to produce that question, verse 26 reads as one link in a deliberate trap. Jesus’s answer in verse 29, that they err because they do not know the Scriptures or the power of God, turns the whole setup back on its authors.
Key Phrases in Matthew 22:26
Matthew 22:29
But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
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This is Jesus’s direct reply to the Sadducees. It names their two errors, a lack of knowledge of the Scriptures and a lack of trust in God’s power. Reading it right after verse 26 shows how the setup of the trap leads straight into the correction.
Matthew 22:30
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven.
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Jesus continues by describing life after the resurrection, where people are not given in marriage. This answers the Sadducees’ question about whose wife the woman will be, showing that their puzzle rests on a wrong picture of what the resurrection involves.
A Short Prayer From Matthew 22:26
Lord, you see the questions I bring to you, including the ones I ask to win an argument instead of to learn the truth. Help me to read your Word carefully and to trust your power more than my own cleverness. When I am tempted to build clever traps for others or for myself, turn my heart back toward honest seeking. Give me patience to listen, humility to admit what I do not know, and confidence that you are faithful to what you have promised. Amen.
