And the second took her to wife, and he died childless.
The verse records the next stage of an invented story put to Jesus, in which after the first brother died the second brother took the widow as wife and then himself died leaving no child. This second childless death was not reported as fact but as a link in a calculated challenge aimed against the resurrection of the dead. The challenge was constructed to make the resurrection look absurd by assuming that marriage and earthly family relationships as known here would simply resume afterward. The solemn warning joined to the answer that exposed this error reaches beyond those questioners to all who refuse Christ as Redeemer.
The verse records the next stage of an invented story put to Jesus, in which after the first brother died the second brother took the widow as wife and then himself died leaving no child. This second childless death was not reported as fact but as a link in a calculated challenge aimed against the resurrection of the dead. The challenge was constructed to make the resurrection look absurd by assuming that marriage and earthly family relationships as known here would simply resume afterward. The solemn warning joined to the answer that exposed this error reaches beyond those questioners to all who refuse Christ as Redeemer.