⭐WEB · Matthew 22:29
What does Matthew 22:29 mean?
"But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God."
— Matthew 22:29 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh.
After them all, the woman died.
In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”
But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven.
But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying,
‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Explanation
Matthew 22:29 records Jesus' sharp response to the Sadducees, a Jewish religious party that did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. In this passage, they had just posed a trick question designed to make resurrection sound absurd: they described a woman who had been married successively to seven brothers, each of whom died, and asked whose wife she would be in the resurrection. Jesus cuts through their scheme with this direct rebuke, telling them they are wrong on two fronts—they don't understand the Scriptures, and they don't understand the power of God.
The context matters here. The Sadducees were a wealthy, priestly aristocratic group who accepted only the five books of Moses (the Torah) as authoritative Scripture and rejected later Jewish beliefs about resurrection and angels, which they felt lacked clear grounding in those books. Their question wasn't sincere curiosity; it was a calculated attempt to embarrass Jesus and make belief in resurrection look logically incoherent. Matthew places this episode among a series of hostile questions from various Jewish factions (Pharisees, Herodians, Sadducees) trying to trap Jesus publicly before his crucifixion, each testing a different area of his teaching authority.
Theologically, Jesus' answer exposes two intertwined errors. First, ignorance of Scripture: in the verses that follow, he shows that even the Torah itself implies resurrection, citing God's words to Moses at the burning bush, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Compare translations
Go deeper with ScriptureCompanion AI
Ask questions about any verse, follow reading plans, write personal prayers, and track your daily habit — all grounded in verified scripture text.