SIL Translator’s Notes on Matthew 22:28



22:28a

In the resurrection: The resurrection refers to the time when God will cause people who have died to live again. Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

when people rise from the dead (New Century Version)
-or-
When God raises people from death (Contemporary English Version)

therefore: The Greek conjunction that the English Standard Version translates as therefore means that the Sadducees wanted Jesus to draw a conclusion. In some languages, it is natural to put this word first in 22:28. Here are some other ways to translate this word:

So
-or-
So tell us (New Living Translation (2004))

of the seven, whose wife will she be: The phrase of the seven refers to the seven brothers. Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

among the seven brothers, whose wife will she be
-or-
she will be the wife of which one of the seven brothers
-or-
which one of the seven brothers will be her husband

22:28b

For: This conjunction introduces the reason why the Sadducees think that the idea of a resurrection is absurd. They seem to think there is no good answer to the problem their story presents. Here are some other ways to translate this word:

Since (New International Version)
-or-
Because it is true that

they all had her: The pronoun they all refers to all seven of the brothers. The Greek verb that the English Standard Version translates as had implies that they married her or “had her as a wife.” Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

all seven men had married her (New Century Version)

-or-

She had been married to all seven brothers. (Contemporary English Version)

© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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