Luke 20:19-34

¹⁹The chief priests and the men who taught the Jewish laws realized that he was accusing them when he told the parable about what those wicked men did. So they immediately tried to find a way to seize MTY him, but they did not seize him, because they were afraid of what the people there would do if they did that.

²⁰So they watched him carefully. They also hired ◄spies/secret agents► who pretended to be sincere. But they really wanted to get him to say something for which they could accuse him. They wanted to be able to turn him over to the authority of the governor of the province. But they also knew that the Jews were disgusted with having to pay taxes to the government.

²¹So one of them asked Jesus, “Teacher, we (exc) know that you (sg) speak and teach what is right. You tell the truth even if important people do not like it. You teach truthfully what God wants us to do.

²²So tell us what you think about this matter: Is it right that we pay taxes to the Roman government MTY, or not?”

²³But Jesus knew that they were trying to trick him to get him into trouble, either with the Jews, who hated to pay those taxes, or with the Roman government. So he said to them,

²⁴“Show me a Roman coin. Then tell me whose picture is on it. And tell me whose name is on it.” They showed him a coin and said, “It has the picture and name of Caesar, the head of the Roman government.”

²⁵He said to them, “In that case, give to the government MTY what they require, and give to God what he requires.”

²⁶While the people were there, the spies were unable to find fault with him for what he said. And they were amazed at his answer. So they said nothing.

²⁷Some Sadducees came to Jesus. They are a Jewish sect who do not believe that people will become alive again after they die.

²⁸They wanted to ask Jesus a question in order to discredit the idea that dead people will live again. One of them said to Jesus, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us Jews about situations where a man who has a wife but no children. If the man dies, his brother should marry the dead man's widow so that she can have a child by him. People will consider that the child is the descendant of the man who died, and in that way the dead man will have descendants.

²⁹Well, there were seven brothers in one family. The oldest one married, but he and his wife did not bear any children. Later he died.

³⁰The second brother followed this law and married the widow, but the same thing happened to him.

³¹Then the third brother married her, but the same thing happened again. All seven brothers, one by one, married that woman, but they had no children, and one by one they died.

³²Afterwards, the woman died, too.

³³Therefore, if it is true that there will be a time when dead people will become alive again, whose wife do you think that woman will be then? ◄ Keep in mind that she was married to all seven brothers!/It will be impossible to decide because she was married to all seven brothers!► RHQ”

³⁴Jesus replied to them, “Men who live here in this world take wives, or are given wives by their parents {their parents choose wives for them}.