Luke 20:34
in Luke 20Jesus answered, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And Jesus said unto them, The sons of this world marry, and are given in marriage:
KJV
And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:
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This verse in Luke 20
Commentary
19 notes on this verseLet us also see what Christ said to them. He says, "The children of this world that lead worldly, fleshly lives full of fleshly lust marry and are married for the procreation of children. Those who have maintained an honorable and chosen life, full of all excellence, and have been accounted worthy of attaining to a glorious and marvelous resurrection, certainly will be raised far above the life which people lead in this world. They will live as is suitable for saints who already have been brought near to God.
This site's exposition
The children of this world marry
on Luke 20:34-36
The children of this world marry and are given in marriage, Jesus answers, but they which are accounted worthy to obtain the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they can die no more, being equal unto the angels and children of the resurrection. The bench is careful that this does not abolish the marriage bond as worthless but names it as belonging to the mortal order that death makes necessary for the race's continuance, an order the resurrection body no longer needs. Equal unto the angels describes a shared freedom from death and its institutions, not a loss of the particular love shared in this life, a point the exposition states honestly without settling every pastoral question it raises.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
But because the Lord says in Matthew, which is here omitted, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, (Mat. 22:29.) I ask the question, where is it so written, They shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage? for as I conceive there is no such thing to be found either in the Old or New Testament, but the whole of their error had crept in from the reading of the Scriptures without understanding; for it is said in Esaias, My elect shall not have children for a curse. (Isai. 65:23.) Whence they suppose that the like will happen in the resurrection. But Paul interpreting all these blessings as spiritual, knowing them not to be carnal, says to the Ephesians, Ye have blessed us in all spiritual blessings. (Eph. 1:3.)
He had nobody to fear; that it should seem advisable for Him either to evade their questions, or to make them the occasion of indirectly mooting a subject which He was not in the habit of teaching publicly at any other time. He therefore gave His answer, that "the children of this world marry." You see how pertinent it was to the case in point.
And those whose life is common, have common graces and a common salvation; common to them are love and training. "For in this world," he says, "they marry, and are given in marriage," in which alone the female is distinguished from the male; "but in that world it is so no more." There the rewards of this social and holy life, which is based on conjugal union, are laid up, not for male and female, but for man, the sexual desire which divides humanity being removed.
A commentator
Justin MartyrFragments of the Lost Work of Justin on the Resurrection, Chapter III · Written before 165.
proposed
And our Lord Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, for no other reason than that He might destroy the begetting by lawless desire, and might show to the ruler that the formation of man was possible to God without human intervention. And when He had been born, and had submitted to the other conditions of the flesh,-I mean food, drink, and clothing,-this one condition only of discharging the sexual function He did not submit to; for, regarding the desires of the flesh, He accepted some as necessary, while others, which were unnecessary, He did not submit to. For if the flesh were deprived of food, drink, and clothing, it would be destroyed; but being deprived of lawless desire, it suffers no harm. And at the same time He foretold that, in the future world, sexual intercourse should be done away with; as He says, "The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage; but the children of the world to come neither marry nor are given in marriage, but shall be like the angels in heaven." Let not, then, those that are unbelieving marvel, if in the world to come He do away with those acts of our fleshly members which even in this present life are abolished.
A commentator
CyprianTreatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews · Written before 258.
proposed
Of the benefit of virginity and of continency. In Genesis: "Multiplying I will multiply thy sorrows and thy groanings, and in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children; and thy turning shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Of this same thing in the Gospel according to Matthew: "All men do not receive the word, but they to whom it is given: for there are some eunuchs who were born so from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who have been constrained by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He who can receive it, let him receive it." Also according to Luke: "The children of this world beget, and are begotten. But they who have been considered worthy of that world, and the resurrection from the dead, do not marry, nor are married: for neither shall they begin to die: for they are equal to the angels of God, since they are the children of the resurrection. But, that the dead rise again, Moses intimates when he says in the bush, The Lord, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto Him." Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: "It is good for a man not to touch a woman. But, on account of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render what is due to the wife, and similarly the wife to the husband. The wife hath not power over her own body, but the husband. And in like manner, the husband hath not power over his own body, but the wife. Defraud not one the other, except by agreement for a time, that ye may have leisure for prayer; and again return to the same point, lest Satan tempt you on account of your incontinency. This I say by way of allowance, not by way of command. But I wish that all men should be even as I am. […]
12 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers2 voices
God; who have restored the honour of their flesh, and who have already dedicated themselves as sons of that (future) age, by slaying in themselves the concupiscence of lust, and that whole (propensity) which could not be admitted within Paradise! Whence it is presumable that such as shall wish to be received within Paradise, ought at last to begin to cease from that thing from which Paradise is intact.
If anyone ponders over this answer about the resurrection of the dead, he will find that the Lord is not rejecting marriage but is purging the expectation of physical desire in the resurrection. The words "the children of this age" were not spoken in contrast to the children of some other age. It is like saying, "those born in this generation," who are children by force of birth, being born and engendering themselves, since without the process of birth no one will pass into this life. This process of birth is balanced by a process of decay and is no longer in store for the person who has once been cut off from life here.
The Medieval Church6 voices
But the Lord refutes their premise and declares that life there is not bodily. And together with this weak premise and assumption He destroys their teaching as well, saying: you are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures and misinterpreting their meaning. "The children of this age," …
But our Lord shows that in the resurrection there will be no fleshly conversation, thereby overthrowing their doctrine together with its slender foundation; as it follows, And Jesus said unto them, The children of this world marry, &c.
And Jesus said to them, etc. After the erroneous inquiry, he here subjoins the truthful response. Concerning which four things are introduced, namely the assertion of truth, the reason for the assertion, the confirmation of the reason, and the commendation of the confirmation. First, as …
A commentator
BonaventureDisputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
Against conjugal chastity it is objected: Luke 20: The children of this age marry and are given in marriage, etc.: but the children of this age are not children of God: therefore through the conjugal act which they exercise, they are not children of God: …
A commentator
BonaventureDisputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
To that which is objected concerning the children of this world, it must be said that the children of the world are sometimes distinguished from the children of light, as in Luke 16: The children of this world are more prudent than the children of …
And Jesus said to them: The children of this age marry, and are given in marriage. When the Lord says: Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine (Matthew 7), because He is found to have said certain things …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
And Jesus answering, said unto them,....
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
The children of this world - Men and women in their present state of mortality and probation; procreation being necessary to restore the waste made by death, and to keep up the population of the earth.
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1858)
We see in these verses — what an old thing unbelief is. We are told that "Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question." Even in the Jewish Church, the Church of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, the Church of Moses, and Samuel, and David, and the prophets — we find that there were bold, avowed, unblushing skeptics . If infidelity like this existed among God's people, the Jews — then what must have been the state of heathenism?
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1858)
proposed
We see in these verses — what an old thing unbelief is. We are told that "Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question." Even in the Jewish Church, the Church of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, the Church of Moses, and Samuel, and David, and the prophets — we find that there were bold, avowed, unblushing skeptics . If infidelity like this existed among God's people, the Jews — then what must have been the state of heathenism? If these things existed in a green tree — what must have been the condition of the dry? We must never be surprised when we hear of infidels, deists, heretics and free-thinkers rising up in the Church, and drawing away disciples after them. We must not count it a rare and a strange thing. It is only one among many proofs, that man is a fallen and corrupt being. Since the day when the devil said to Eve "You shall not surely die" — and Eve believed him, there never has been lacking a constant succession of forms of unbelief. There is nothing new about any of the modern theories of infidelity. There is not one of them, which is not an old disease under a new name . They are all mushrooms which spring up spontaneously in the hot-bed of human nature. It is not in reality an astonishing thing that there should rise up so many who call in question the truth of the Bible. The marvel is rather, that in a fallen world — the sect of the Sadducees should be so small. Let us take comfort in the thought that in the long run of years, the truth will always prevail. Its advocates may often be feeble, and their arguments may appear to be very weak. But there is an inherent strength in the cause itself, which keeps it alive. Bold infidels like Julian, and Hobbes, and Hume, and Voltaire, and Paine — arise from time to time, and make a stir in the world. But they produce no lasting impression.
The words behind it
13 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Καὶ | kai | And | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| εἶπεν | eipen | said | G2036 → | 925 times |
| αὐτοῖς | autois | to them | G846 → | 5565 times |
| ὁ | ho | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| Ἰησοῦς· | iesous | Jesus; | G2424 → | 908 times |
| οἱ | hoi | The | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| υἱοὶ | huioi | sons | G5207 → | 377 times |
| τοῦ | tou | of the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| αἰῶνος | aionos | age | G165 → | 121 times |
| τούτου | toutou | this | G3778 → | 1381 times |
| γαμοῦσιν | gamousin | marry | G1060 → | 28 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| γαμίσκονται, | gamiskontai | are given in marriage, | G1061 → | 8 times |
ΚαὶAnd
kaiG2532 →9120 times
εἶπενsaid
eipenG2036 →925 times
αὐτοῖςto them
autoisG846 →5565 times
ὁ<the>
hoG3588 →19766 times
Ἰησοῦς·Jesus;
iesousG2424 →908 times
οἱThe
hoiG3588 →19766 times
υἱοὶsons
huioiG5207 →377 times
τοῦof the
touG3588 →19766 times
αἰῶνοςage
aionosG165 →121 times
τούτουthis
toutouG3778 →1381 times
γαμοῦσινmarry
gamousinG1060 →28 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
γαμίσκονται,are given in marriage,
gamiskontaiG1061 →8 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Hebrews 13:4Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
it leads to
- Genesis 2:24
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 5:15–23
Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
- 1 Corinthians 7:2–16
But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.
- Galatians 5:19
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;
- Genesis 1:27–28
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- Genesis 2:24
Through
Ephesians 5:31“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
it leads to
- Matthew 19:5
and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?
- Mark 10:7–8
‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
- Matthew 19:5
Through
Luke 16:8The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the sons of light.
it leads to
- 1 Thessalonians 5:5
For you are all sons of the light and sons of the day; we do not belong to the night or to the darkness.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
On this verse
About Luke
This page draws on 18 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, On the Gospel of Luke; Bonaventure, Commentary on Luke, Chapter 20; Bonaventure, Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 3; Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor Book 1; Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 3; Cyprian, Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews; Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 136; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Justin Martyr, Fragments of the Lost Work of Justin on the Resurrection, Chapter III; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Tertullian, Against Marcion Book IV; Tertullian, On Exhortation to Chastity; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Luke and Theophylact of Ohrid, Catena Aurea by Aquinas.