Later text
Luke 20:28BSB
“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.
Intertextuality Pair
Luke 20:28 → Deuteronomy 25:5
Quotation
Earlier text
When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.
+ 2 more earlier texts
Earlier text
Genesis 38:8BSB
Then Judah said to Onan, "Sleep with your brother's wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother."
Earlier text
"Who are you?" he asked. "I am your servant Ruth," she replied. "Spread the corner of your garment over me, for you are a kinsman-redeemer." Then Boaz said, "May the LORD bless you, my daughter. You have shown more kindness now than before, because you have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now do not be afraid, my daughter. I will do for you whatever you request, since all my fellow townspeople know that you are a woman of noble character. Yes, it is true that I am a kinsman-redeemer, but there is a redeemer nearer than I. Stay here tonight, and in the morning, if he wants to redeem you, good. Let him redeem you. But if he does not want to redeem you, as surely as the LORD lives, I will. Now lie here until morning." So she lay down at his feet until morning, but she got up before anyone else could recognize her. Then Boaz said, "Do not let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor." And he told her, "Bring the shawl you are wearing and hold it out." When she did so, he shoveled six measures of barley into her shawl. Then he went into the city. When Ruth returned to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked her, "How did it go, my daughter?" Then Ruth told her all that Boaz had done for her. And she said, "He gave me these six measures of barley, for he said, 'Do not go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'" "Wait, my daughter," said Naomi, "until you find out how things go, for he will not rest unless he has resolved the matter today." Meanwhile, Boaz went to the gate and sat down there. Soon the kinsman-redeemer of whom he had spoken came along, and Boaz said, "Come over here, my friend, and sit down." So he went over and sat down. Then Boaz took ten of the elders of the city and said, "Sit here," and they did so. And he said to the kinsman-redeemer, "Naomi, who has returned from the land of Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. I thought I should inform you that you may buy it back in the presence of those seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, do so. But if you will not redeem it, tell me so I may know, because there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am next after you." "I will redeem it," he replied. Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the land from Naomi and also from Ruth the Moabitess, you must also acquire the widow of the deceased in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance." The kinsman-redeemer replied, "I cannot redeem it myself, or I would jeopardize my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption, because I cannot redeem it." Now in former times in Israel, concerning the redemption or exchange of property, to make any matter legally binding a man would remove his sandal and give it to the other party, and this was a confirmation in Israel. So the kinsman-redeemer removed his sandal and said to Boaz, "Buy it for yourself." At this, Boaz said to the elders and all the people, "You are witnesses today that I am buying from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon. Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow, as my wife, to raise up the name of the deceased through his inheritance, so that his name will not disappear from among his brothers or from the gate of his home. You are witnesses today."
Significance
The Sadducees open their case against the resurrection by citing Moses: "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother's widow and raise up offspring for him" (Luke 20:28). The statute is Deuteronomy 25:5: "When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her." Luke gives a free citation rather than a transcript. In the Greek it keeps the law's own terms (brother, die, wife, seed, take), and its closing phrase echoes Judah's charge to Onan, "raise up offspring for your brother" (Genesis 38:8), so that the statute and its oldest narrative instance are cited as one. In its own setting the law is a mercy against death: a man who dies without a son loses his name among his people, and his brother is charged to give it back in a child who will carry it, "so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel" (Deuteronomy 25:6). The custom is older than Sinai, as Genesis 38 shows, and Scripture's fullest picture of the kindred duty is Ruth, whose appeal to Boaz — "Spread the corner of your garment over me, for you are a kinsman-redeemer" (Ruth 3:9) — ends at the gate with Boaz taking her "to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance" (Ruth 4:5). The whole provision assumes that the dead stay dead, and that the most a brother can do is keep a name from disappearing. That assumption is what Jesus answers. He does not set Moses aside; He says the law belongs to an age in which people die. Those counted worthy of the age to come "can no longer die, because they are like the angels. And since they are sons of the resurrection, they are sons of God" (Luke 20:36). Where there is no death there is no dead man's name to raise up, and the provision has done its work. Then He takes the Sadducees back to Moses on better ground, at the bush: "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive" (Luke 20:38). The method is Analogy, as in Matthew's account of the same exchange: the law is not treated as a type and no promise is said to be fulfilled; the correspondence is between what a brother could do under the law and what God does. The levirate gave a dead man a name that outlived him in another's child. The resurrection gives back the man. The One who says so is days from His own death, and Luke's Gospel ends with Him raised (Luke 24:5-7): where the law's brother could only keep a name alive, the risen Christ, who is not ashamed to call His people brothers (Hebrews 2:11-15), raises the dead themselves. The passage leaves its reader not with a puzzle solved but with a God who will not let death keep those who are His, and a Savior worth having on the far side of the grave.
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Direct Quotation
- Connection Method(s)
- Analogy
Linked Mentions 1