Matthew 22:24

22:24 “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and father children ¹  for his brother.’ ² 

Matthew 22:31-32

22:31 Now as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, ³  22:32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ⁴  He is not the God of the dead but of the living!” ⁵ 

Matthew 22:43

22:43 He said to them, “How then does David by the Spirit call him ‘Lord,’ saying,

¹ tn Grk “and raise up seed,” an idiom for fathering children (L&N 23.59).

² sn A quotation from Deut 25:5. This practice is called levirate marriage (see also Ruth 4:1-12; Mishnah, m. Yevamot; Josephus, Ant. 4.8.23 [4.254-256]). The levirate law is described in Deut 25:5-10. The brother of a man who died without a son had an obligation to marry his brother’s widow. This served several purposes: It provided for the widow in a society where a widow with no children to care for her would be reduced to begging, and it preserved the name of the deceased, who would be regarded as the legal father of the first son produced from that marriage.

³ tn Grk “spoken to you by God, saying.” The participle λέγοντος (legontos) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.

⁵ sn A quotation from Exod 3:6.

⁶ sn He is not God of the dead but of the living. Jesus’ point was that if God could identify himself as God of the three old patriarchs, then they must still be alive when God spoke to Moses; and so they must be raised.