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Mark 12:25

in Mark 12

When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as angels in heaven.

KJV

For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.

This verse in Mark 12

Commentary

19 notes on this verse

A commentator

Tertullian

On Monogamy · Written before 220.

"But if 'in that age they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be equal to angels,' is not the fact that there will be no restitution of the conjugal relation a reason why we shall not be bound to our departed consorts? "Nay, but the more shall we be bound (to them), because we are destined to a better estate-destined (as we are) to rise to a spiritual consortship, to recognise as well our own selves as them who are ours.

This site's exposition

Aren’t you mistaken

on Mark 12:24-25

Jesus names a double failure behind their question: you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. Their case assumed marriage would go on unchanged, but when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage.

This site's exposition

like the angels in heaven

Albert Barnes limits the likeness to the angels to relationships, so that marriage as a bond will cease. He adds that the verse leaves open the memory and recognition of those once married. Bede applies marry to men and given in marriage to women.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers4 voices

A commentator

Tertullian

ON MONOGAMY 10 · Written before 220.

proposed

All the more we shall be bound to them [our departed spouses], because we are destined to a better estate, destined to rise to a spiritual partnership. We will recognize both our own selves and those to whom we belong. Else how shall we sing thanks to God to eternity, if there shall remain in us no sense and memory of this relationship? Or if we shall be reformed only materially, but not in consciousness? Consequently, we who are together with God shall remain together.… In eternal life God will no more separate those whom he has joined together than in this life where he forbids them to be separated.

A commentator

Tertullian

On the Apparel of Women Book I · Written before 220.

proposed

With what consistency do we mount that (future) judgment-seat to pronounce sentence against those whose gifts we (now) seek after? For you too, (women as you are, ) have the self-same angelic nature promised as your reward, the self-same sex as men: the self-same advancement to the dignity of judging, does (the Lord) promise you.

A commentator

Justin Martyr

On the Resurrection - Fragments, Chapters II-III · Written before 165.

proposed

But is it not absurd to say that these members will exist after the resurrection from the dead, since the Saviour said, "They neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but shall be as the angels in heaven?" And the angels, say they, have neither flesh, nor do they eat, nor have sexual intercourse; therefore there shall be no resurrection of the flesh. ... Now it is indeed evident that the members which discharge functions discharge those functions which in the present life we see; but it does not follow that they necessarily discharge the same functions from the beginning. ... 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 be 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

Clement of Alexandria

The Stromata Book 3 · Written before 215.

proposed

In us it is not only the spirit which ought to be sanctified, but also our behaviour, manner of life, and our body. What does the apostle Paul mean when he says that the wife is sanctified by the husband and the husband by the wife? And what is the meaning of the Lord's words to those who asked concerning divorce whether it is lawful to put away one's wife as Moses commanded? "Because of the hardness of your hearts," he says, "Moses wrote this; but have you not read that God said to the first man, You two shall be one flesh? Therefore he who divorces his wife except for fornication makes her an adulteress." But "after the resurrection," he says, "they neither marry nor are given in marriage."

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Commentary on Mark · Written before 1107.

proposed

What then does the Lord say? Since they presented the Law of Moses as the basis of their question, He convicts them of ignorance of the Scriptures. You, He says, do not understand what kind of Resurrection is spoken of in Scripture: you think that …
11 more voices on this verse

The Medieval Church5 voices

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 1107.

proposed

As if He had said, Ye understand not what sort of a resurrection the Scriptures announce; for ye believe that there will be a restoration of our bodies, such as they are now, but it shall not be so. Thus then ye know not the Scriptures; neither again do ye know the power of God; for ye consider it as a difficult thing, saying, How can the limbs, which have been scattered, be united together and joined to the soul? But this in respect of the Divine power is as nothing. There follows: For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven; as if He had said, There will be a certain heavenly and angelic restoration to life, when there shall be no more decay, and we shall remain unchanged; and for this reason marriage shall cease. For marriage now exists on account of our decay, that we may be carried on by succession of our race, and not fail; but then we shall be as the Angels, who need no succession by marriage, and never come to an end.

A commentator

Bede

On the Gospel of Mark · Written before 735.

proposed

For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven. The Latin custom does not correspond to the Greek idiom. Women are properly said to marry, and men to take wives. But …

A commentator

Bede

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 735.

proposed

(ubi sup.) We must here consider that the Latin custom does not answer to the Greek idiom. For properly 1different words are used for the marriage of men, and that of women; but here we may simply understand that, marry is meant of men, and given in marriage of women.

A commentator

John Damascene

ORTHODOX FAITH 4.27 · Written before 749.

proposed

The body of the Lord after the resurrection was such that it entered through the closed doors without difficulty, and needed neither food, nor sleep, nor drink. "For they shall be," says the Lord, "like the angels of God," and there shall no longer be marriage or the procreation of children.
Thus then they do not understand the Scripture, in that in the resurrection, men shall be as the Angels of God, that is, no man there dies, no one is born, no infant is there, no old man.

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

It is a folly to ask, Whose wife shall she be of the seven? For the relation between husband and wife, though instituted in the earthly paradise, will not be known in the heavenly one. Turks and infidels expect sensual pleasures in their fools' paradise, but Christians know better things--that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God ( 1 Cor. xv.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

For when they shall rise from the dead,.... These seven brethren, and the woman; and so any, and every other: they neither marry, nor are given marriage: there will be no such natural relation subsisting, nor any need of any: but are as the angels which are in heaven; See Gill on Mat 22:30.

The Nineteenth Century4 voices

See this passage fully explained in the notes at Mat 22:23-33. Mar 12:25 Are as the angels - That is, as the angels in respect to connections and relations. What those connections and relations may be we know not, but this passage teaches that the special relation of “marriage” will not exist. It does not affirm, however, that there will be no recollection of former marriages, or no recognition of each other as having existed in this tender relation. Mar 12:26 How in the bush - At the burning bush. See Exo 3:
These verses relate a conversation between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Sadducees. The religion of these men, we know, was little better than infidelity. They said there was "no resurrection." They too, like the Pharisees, thought to entangle and perplex our Lord with hard questions. The Church of Christ must not expect to fare better than its Master. Formalism on one side and infidelity on another, are two enemies for whose attacks we must always be prepared. We learn from this passage, how much unfairness may often be detected in the arguments of infidels .

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

A beautiful clause is added in Luke (Lu 20:36) --"and are the children of God"--not in respect of character, which is not here spoken of, but of nature--"being the children of the resurrection," as rising to an undecaying existence (Ro 8:21, 23), and so being the children of their Father's immortality (1Ti 6:16).
These verses relate a conversation between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Sadducees. The religion of these men, we know, was little better than infidelity. They said there was "no resurrection." They too, like the Pharisees, thought to entangle and perplex our Lord with hard questions. The Church of Christ must not expect to fare better than its Master. Formalism on one side and infidelity on another, are two enemies for whose attacks we must always be prepared. We learn from this passage, how much unfairness may often be detected in the arguments of infidels . The question propounded by the Sadducees is a striking illustration of this. They tell him of a woman who married seven brothers in succession, had no children, and outlived her seven husbands. They ask, "whose wife" of all the seven the woman would be "in the resurrection?" It may well be surmised that the case was a supposed and not a real one. On the face of it there is the strongest appearance of improbability. The chances against such a case occurring in reality, are almost infinite. But that was nothing to the Sadducees. All they cared for was to raise a difficulty, and if possible to put our Lord to silence. The doctrine of the resurrection they had not the face manfully to deny. The possible consequences of the doctrine were the ground which they chose to take up. There are three things which we shall do well to remember, if unhappily we have at any time to argue with infidels. For one thing, let us remember that an infidel will always try to press us with the difficulties and abstruse things of religion, and especially with those which are connected with the world to come. We must avoid this mode of argument as far as possible. It is leaving the open field to fight in a jungle. We must endeavor, as far as we can, to make our discussion turn on the great plain facts and evidences of Christianity.

The words behind it

16 Greek words

Every 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.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    1 John 3:2

    Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as…

    it leads to

    • Philippians 3:21

      who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.

    • Colossians 3:4

      When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

    • 1 Corinthians 13:12

      Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

    • 2 Corinthians 3:18

      And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

    • Psalms 17:15

      As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness; when I awake, I will be satisfied in Your presence.

  • Through

    Matthew 22:30

    In the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.

    it leads to

    • Luke 20:34–36

      Jesus answered, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.

    • Mark 12:24–25

      Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

    • 1 Corinthians 7:29–31

      What I am saying, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none;

Where this verse is studied

About Mark

Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Public domain.
Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt, 1633, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Public domain.
This page draws on 18 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Gospels; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Bede, On the Gospel of Mark; Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 3; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Damascene, ORTHODOX FAITH 4.27; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Justin Martyr, On the Resurrection - Fragments, Chapters II-III; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Pseudo-Jerome, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Tertullian, On Monogamy; Tertullian, ON MONOGAMY 10; Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women Book I; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Mark and Theophylact of Ohrid, Catena Aurea by Aquinas.