Luke 20:32
in Luke 20And last of all, the woman died.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Afterward the woman also died.
KJV
Last of all the woman died also.
⋯
This verse in Luke 20
Commentary
11 notes on this verseA 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?
This site's exposition
all seven died, leaving no children
on Luke 20:31-33
After all seven brothers and the woman die, the Sadducees ask whose wife she will be in the resurrection. The case is built to make the resurrection an absurd tangle. Jesus answers by correcting its assumption, that life after death copies life on earth.
This site's exposition
the woman died
The woman outlives all seven husbands and dies last. Gill adds that she had borne no child to any of them. Every line of the story has been built toward the question of verse 33.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
The Sadducees were a particular sect of the Jews that did not believe in the resurrection. When the Sadducees posed this problem, the Jews were uncertain, hesitant and could not really answer it, because they assumed that flesh and blood could possess the kingdom of God, that is, the perishable could possess imperishability. Along comes Truth. The misguided and misguiding Sadducees questioned him and posed that problem to the Lord. The Lord, who knew what he was saying and who wished us to believe what we did not know, gives an answer by his divine authority which we are to hold by faith. The apostle, for his part, explained it to the extent that it was granted him. We must try to understand this as fully as we can.
Mystically, this woman is the synagogue, which had seven husbands, as it is said to the Samaritan, Thou hadst five husbands, (John 4:18.) because the Samaritan follows only the five books of Moses, the synagogue for the most part seven. And from none of them has she received the seed of an hereditary offspring, and so can have no part with her husbands in the resurrection, because she perverts the spiritual meaning of the precept into a carnal.
The Medieval Church3 voices
Third, regarding the allegation of those introducing the case, it is added: Therefore there were seven brothers, and the first took a wife and died without children. And the next took her, and he himself died without a son. And the third took her. Likewise …
Therefore, there were seven brothers, and the first took a wife, and died without children. And the second took her, and he too died without children. And the third took her. Similarly, all seven, and they left no seed, and died. Last of all, the …
They devise this story in order to convict those of folly, who assert the resurrection of the dead. Hence they object a base fable, that they may deny the truth of the resurrection.
3 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church1 voice
Or these seven brothers answer to the reprobate, who throughout the whole life of the world, which revolves in seven days, are fruitless in good works, and these being carried away by death one after another, at length the course of the evil world, as the barren woman, itself also passes away.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Last of all the woman died also. Having had no children by either of her seven husbands.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
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
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ὕστερον | husteron | Finally | G5306 → | |
| καὶ | kai | also | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| ἡ | he | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| γυνὴ | gune | woman | G1135 → | 211 times |
| ἀπέθανεν. | apethanen | died. | G599 → | 110 times |
ὕστερονFinally
husteronG5306 →
καὶalso
kaiG2532 →9120 times
ἡthe
heG3588 →19766 times
γυνὴwoman
guneG1135 →211 times
ἀπέθανεν.died.
apethanenG599 →110 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 9:27Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,
it leads to
- 2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.
- Ecclesiastes 12:7
before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
- Ecclesiastes 12:14
For God will bring every deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.
- Acts 17:31
For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”
- 2 Samuel 14:14
For surely we will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises ways that the banished one…
- 2 Corinthians 5:10
Through
Ecclesiastes 9:5For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten.
it leads to
- Isaiah 26:14
The dead will not live; the departed spirits will not rise. Therefore You have punished and destroyed them; You have wiped out all memory of them.
- Ecclesiastes 1:11
There is no remembrance of those who came before, and those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow after.
- Isaiah 26:14
Through
Ecclesiastes 1:4Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
it leads to
- Psalms 104:5
He set the earth on its foundations, never to be moved.
- Psalms 104:5
Where this verse is studied
About Luke
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Gospels; Ambrose of Milan, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 362.18; Bede, On the Gospel of Luke; Bede, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Bonaventure, Commentary on Luke, Chapter 20; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748) and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament.