Mark 12:19
Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man’s brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man’s brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
Moses' law required that when a man died leaving a widow but no children, his surviving brother was to marry her and raise up offspring to preserve the dead brother's line. The Sadducees took up that requirement and built it into a hypothetical case in their attempt to entangle Christ. Their question was meant to make the bodily resurrection look absurd and to hold it up to ridicule, and at the same time to discredit the Mosaic institutions themselves.
Their reasoning assumed that marriage and earthly relationships as known here would continue unchanged after the resurrection. Their argument therefore rested on a false foundation, because they understood neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. Christ's answer to their questions cut through the trap and brought clear truth to the people who heard. This encounter stands among His illustrations and warnings about rejecting the Son of God, which apply to people in every age: unless sinners repent, the doom foreshadowed will be theirs.