Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 1
Alright, so James is asking, was a Levirate marriage compulsory and first century Galilee and Israel to Pharisees too?
Speaker 2
Thanks. Hi James. That is a really great question and it’s something I do a little bit of research on. Not saying I got the greatest answer, but I did find something. So I hope this sort of kind of answers your question. So basically I had to look up love, right marriage. And basically what you’re referring to is the law that Jesus or Jesus had talked about a little bit with some of the Pharisees back during his time. But this is referring to the law in the book of Deutername, chapter 25, verses five and six. And so I’m just going to read that just for some context so people understand what you’re talking about. As far as Levi Wright levirite, I’m not sure how to pronounce that leverite marriage. Again, Deodorant Me, chapter 25, verses five and six, just for some context. And basically it says if brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside of the family. Her husband’s brother shall go into her, take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.
Speaker 2
And it shall be that the first born son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name not be blotted out of Israel. So basically we see that during Jesus in the Old Testament, basically what was supposed to happen is if a woman was married to an Israelite man, if he died, she wasn’t supposed to marry somebody else, she was supposed to marry his brother. And we kind of see something similar in the story about the Pharisees were kind of trying to tempt Jesus with this kind of a question. And we see this in the book of Matthew, chapter 22. And if you go down to verse 23, actually this was not the Pharisees, but the Sadducees, because the sages didn’t believe in the resurrection. And so in verse 23 we see Matthew 22, verse 23 will start there. It says the same day the Sadducees who came, who say that there is no resurrection, came to him, Jesus, and asked him. So this would have been first century Israel basically saying, teacher Moses said that if a man dies having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.
Speaker 2
Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married and having no offspring, let his wife to his brother. Likewise the second, third to the 7th, last of all, the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven shall she be? For they all had her. And so they’re trying to tempt Jesus and be like, okay, if you say, you know, people are going to resurrect and go to heaven, well, when they resurrect and go to heaven, whose spouses are there? But of course, Jesus understands all things. In verse 29, Jesus says jesus answered them and said, you are mistaken, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God for the resurrection. They neither marry or nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven. And of course Jesus talks about concerning the resurrection of the dead. Have you not read what was spoken to you by God saying I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. So basically Jesus talks about that even if people had to participate in that compulsory or the lovewright marriage, that it didn’t matter how many spouses you may have had on earth during your time, because when we go to heaven, we’re not really going to be married.
Speaker 2
It’s going to be a different thing. We don’t really know how heaven is going to be. It’s going to be wonderful, but it’s not going to be exactly how it was on Earth, because in Earth there was sin. And so when we go to heaven, it’ll be a totally different thing. And so I hope that answers your question. As far as did they practice it? I do believe that they did, because in the book of Mark, chapter ten, in verse two, we see the Pharisees asking Jesus a different question about marriage. They ask him, is it lawful to write what’s it called, a note of divorcement? And so Jesus says what did Moses say? And so basically Jesus says God never wanted there to be divorced. That was never God’s plan at all. However, because of the hardness of your heart, basically because you guys are going to divorce your wife anyways, god at least put something in place to protect these poor women who are being divorced by their husbands that just didn’t like them anymore. And so God did allow for divorce, but he at least put some boundaries with it, that at least the one could be taken care of in some sort of way.
Speaker 2
And he put some limitations on how you could be divorced in the Old Testament, in the book of the Law, which is we see in Deuteronomy. So do I believe that they were obligated to? Yeah, because they were men of the law and the Law said, like I said in Deuteronomy, that they would have had to do so I believe that, yeah, the Pharisees and those Israelites in the first century in Israel probably would have had to participate in this. And that’s also probably why the Sadducees brought up this idea of this type of marriage, because they talked about it. It was obviously something that was still going on. And I think that if anybody would have kept the law of Moses in that way, I think it would have been a Pharisee so my answer would be biblically, probably, yeah. I know that was kind of a lot to say. A little. But I hope that answers your question. Thank you.
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BibleAsk Team
