Matthew 22:29

King James Version

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
Jesus answered, "You are so wrong! You don't know what the Scriptures say. And you don't know anything about God's power.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Iesus answered and sayde vnto the: ye are deceaved and vnderstonde not the scriptures nor yet the power of God.

International Standard Version
Jesus answered them, "You are mistaken because you don't know the Scriptures or God's power.John 20:9;">[xr]

New American Standard Bible
But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, since you do not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God.

New Century Version
Jesus answered, "You don't understand, because you don't know what the Scriptures say, and you don't know about the power of God.

Update Bible Version
But Jesus answered and said to them, You err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Webster's Bible Translation
Jesus answered and said to them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Amplified Bible
But Jesus replied to them, "You are all wrong because you know neither the Scriptures [which teach the resurrection] nor the power of God [for He is able to raise the dead].

English Standard Version
But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.

World English Bible
But Jesus answered them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
For in the resurrection,

Weymouth's New Testament
The reply of Jesus was, "You are in error, through ignorance of the Scriptures and of the power of God.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Jhesus answeride, and seide to hem, Ye erren, `and ye knowen not scripturis, ne the vertu of God.

English Revised Version
But Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Berean Standard Bible
Jesus answered, "You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

Contemporary English Version
Jesus answered: You are completely wrong! You don't know what the Scriptures teach. And you don't know anything about the power of God.

American Standard Version
But Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Bible in Basic English
But Jesus said to them in answer, You are in error, not having knowledge of the Writings, or of the power of God.

Complete Jewish Bible
Yeshua answered them, "The reason you go astray is that you are ignorant both of the Tanakh and of the power of God.

Darby Translation
And Jesus answering said to them, Ye err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God.

Etheridge Translation
Jeshu answered and said to them, You do err, because you understand not the scriptures nor the power of Aloha.

Murdock Translation
Jesus answered, and said to them: Ye do err, from not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

King James Version (1611)
Iesus answered, and said vnto them, Yee doe erre, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.

New Living Translation
Jesus replied, "Your mistake is that you don't know the Scriptures, and you don't know the power of God.

New Life Bible
Jesus said to them, "You are wrong because you do not know the Holy Writings or the power of God.

New Revised Standard
Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Then Iesus answered, and sayd vnto them, Ye are deceiued, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.

George Lamsa Translation
Jesus answered, and said to them, You err, because you do not understand the scriptures nor the power of God.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And Jesus answering, said - Ye are deceiving yourselves, knowing neither the Scriptures, nor yet the power of God.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Jesus answering, said to them: You err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Revised Standard Version
But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Iesus aunswered & sayde vnto them: ye do erre, not knowyng the Scriptures, nor the power of God.

Good News Translation
Jesus answered them, "How wrong you are! It is because you don't know the Scriptures or God's power.

Christian Standard Bible®
Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God.

Hebrew Names Version
But Yeshua answered them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.

Lexham English Bible
But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God!

Literal Translation
And answering, Jesus said to them, You err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Young's Literal Translation
And Jesus answering said to them, `Ye go astray, not knowing the Writings, nor the power of God;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Iesus answered, and sayde vnto them: Ye erre, and vnderstode not the scriptures, ner the power of God.

Mace New Testament (1729)
Jesus answered them, you are mistaken, for want of a true notion of the scriptures, and of the divine power.

THE MESSAGE
Jesus answered, "You're off base on two counts: You don't know your Bibles, and you don't know how God works. At the resurrection we're beyond marriage. As with the angels, all our ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God. And regarding your speculation on whether the dead are raised or not, don't you read your Bibles? The grammar is clear: God says, ‘I am—not was—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.' The living God defines himself not as the God of dead men, but of the living." Hearing this exchange the crowd was much impressed.

New English Translation
Jesus answered them, "You are deceived, because you don't know the scriptures or the power of God.

New King James Version
Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Jesus answered, "Y'all don't know scripture from scribblin'! And you don't know who God is.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Legacy Standard Bible
But Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Contextual Overview

²³ The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, ²⁴ Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. ²⁵ Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: ²⁶ Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. ²⁷ And last of all the woman died also. ²⁸ Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. ²⁹ Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. ³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. ³¹ But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, ³² I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

not: Job 19:25-27, Psalms 16:9-11, Psalms 17:15, Psalms 49:14, Psalms 49:15, Psalms 73:25, Psalms 73:26, Isaiah 25:8, Isaiah 26:19, Isaiah 57:1, Isaiah 57:2, Daniel 12:2, Daniel 12:3, Hosea 13:14, Luke 24:44-47, John 20:9, Romans 15:4

nor: Genesis 18:14, Jeremiah 32:17, Luke 1:37, Acts 26:8, Philippians 3:21

Reciprocal: Job 14:14 - shall he live Psalms 119:139 - because Isaiah 8:20 - it is Jeremiah 31:11 - stronger Zechariah 13:9 - It is my people Matthew 12:7 - if Mark 12:24 - Do Luke 20:35 - neither John 3:10 - Art John 5:39 - Search Acts 13:27 - nor 1 Corinthians 15:35 - with 1 Corinthians 15:43 - in power Galatians 4:21 - do 2 Timothy 2:18 - concerning 2 Timothy 3:15 - the holy James 1:16 - Do 2 Peter 3:16 - the other

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Jesus answered and said unto them,.... The Sadducees: as idle and impertinent as the case they put may seem to be and really was, our Lord thought fit to return an answer to them, thereby to expose their ignorance, and put them to silence and confusion: ye do err; not only in that they denied the immortality of the soul and the resurrection, but that supposing that there would be a resurrection, things in that state would be just they were in this; as particularly for instance, that there would be the same natural relation of husband and wife, which their question supposes. Mark reads these words by way of interrogation,

do ye not therefore err, because? c] And by Luke they are wholly omitted, as also what follows,

not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. These two things were the spring and source of their errors: they had not a true knowledge, and right understanding of the Scriptures which if they had had, it must have appeared to them, from many places in the Old Testament, that the soul remains after death, and that the body will be raised from the dead: they owned the authority of the Scriptures, and allowed of all the writings of the Old Testament; for it seems to be a mistake of some learned men, who think that they only received the five books of Moses, and that therefore Christ takes his proof of his doctrine from thence; but though they had the greater esteem for the law, and would admit of nothing that was not clearly proved from that; yet they did not reject the other writings, as what might serve to confirm and illustrate what was taught in the law; but then, though they approved of the Scriptures and read them, yet they did not understand them, and so fell into those gross errors and sad mistakes; nor did they attend to the power of God, which, as it was able to make men out of the dust of the earth, was able to raise them again, when crumbled into dust; but this was looked upon by them, as a thing impossible, and so incredible; see Acts 26:8.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Conversation of Jesus with the Sadducees respecting the resurrection - See also Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38.

Matthew 22:23

The same day came the Sadducees - For an account of the Sadducees, see the notes at Matthew 3:7.

No resurrection - The word “resurrection” usually means the raising up the “body” to life after it is dead, John 11:24; John 5:29; 1 Corinthians 15:22. But the Sadducees not only denied this, but also a future state, and the separate existence of the soul after death altogether, as well as the existence of angels and spirits, Acts 23:8. Both these doctrines have commonly stood or fallen together, and the answer of our Saviour respects both, though it more distinctly refers “to the separate existence of the soul, and to a future state of rewards and punishments,” than to the resurrection of the body.

Matthew 22:24

Saying, Master, Moses said ... - Deuteronomy 25:5-6. This law was given by Moses in order to keep the families and tribes of the Israelites distinct, and to perpetuate them.

Raise up seed unto his brother - That is, the children shall be reckoned in the genealogy of the deceased brother; or, to all civil purposes, shall be considered as his.

Matthew 22:25-28

There were with us seven brethren - It is probable that they stated a case as difficult as possible; and though no such case might have occurred, yet it was supposable, and in their view it presented a real difficulty.

The difficulty arose from the fact, that they supposed that, substantially, the same state of things must take place in the other world as here; that if there is such a world, husbands and wives must be there reunited; and they professed not to be able to see how one woman could be the wife of seven men.

Matthew 22:29

Ye do err, not knowing ... - They had taken a wrong view of the doctrine of the resurrection.

It was not taught that people would marry there. The “Scriptures,” here, mean the books of the Old Testament. By appealing to them, Jesus showed that the doctrine of the future state was there, and that the Sadducees should have believed it as it was, and not have added the absurd doctrine to it that people must live there as they do here. The way in which the enemies of the truth often attempt to make a doctrine of the Bible ridiculous is by adding to it, and then calling it absurd. The reason why the Saviour produced a passage from the books of Moses Matthew 22:32 was that they had also appealed to his writings, Matthew 22:24. Other places of the Old Testament, in fact, asserted the doctrine more clearly Daniel 12:2; Isaiah 26:19, but he wished to meet them on their own ground. None of those scriptures asserted that people would live there as they do here, and therefore their reasoning was false.

Nor the power of God - They probably denied, as many have done since, that God could gather the scattered dust of the dead and remould it into a body. On this ground they affirmed that the doctrine could not be true - opposing reason to revelation, and supposing that infinite power could not reorganize a body that it had at first organized, and raise a body from its own dust which it had at first raised from nothing.

Matthew 22:30

Neither marry ... - This was a full answer to the objections of the Sadducees.

But are as the angels of God - That is, in the manner of their conversation; in regard to marriage and the mode of their existence.

Luke adds that they shall be “equal with the angels.” That is, they shall be elevated above the circumstances of mortality, and live in a manner and in a kind of conversation similar to that of the angels. It does not imply that they shall be equal in intellect, but only “in the circumstances of their existence,” as that is distinguished from the way in which mortals live. He also adds, “Neither do they die any more, but are the children of God; being the children of the resurrection,” or being accounted worthy to be raised up to life, and therefore “sons of God raised up to him.”

Matthew 22:31, Matthew 22:32

As touching ... - That is, in proof that the dead are raised.

The passage which he quotes is recorded in Exodus 3:6, Exodus 3:15, This was at the burning bush (Mark and Luke). Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been dead for a long time when Moses spoke this - Abraham for 329 years, Isaac for 224 years, and Jacob for 198 years - yet God spake then as being still “their God.” They must, therefore, be still somewhere living, for God is not the God of the dead; that is, it is absurd to say that God rules over those who are “extinct or annihilated,” but he is the God only of those who have an existence. Luke adds, “all live unto him.” That is, all the righteous dead, all of whom he can be properly called their God, live unto his glory. This passage does not prove directly that the dead “body” would be raised, but only by consequence. It proves that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had an existence then, or that their souls were alive. This the Sadducees denied Acts 23:8, and this was the main point in dispute. If this was admitted - if there was a state of rewards and punishments - then it would easily follow that the bodies of the dead would be raised.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 29. Ye do err — Or, Ye are deceived - by your impure passions: not knowing the scriptures, which assert the resurrection: - nor the miraculous power of God (την δυναμιν του Θεου) by which it is to be effected. In Avoda Sara, fol. 18, Sanhedrin, fol. 90, it is said: "These are they which shall have no part in the world to come: Those who say, the Lord did not come from heaven; and those who say, the resurrection cannot be proved out of the law."

Their deception appeared in their supposing, that if there were a resurrection, men and women were to marry and be given in marriage as in this life; which our Lord shows is not the case: for men and women there shall be like the angels of God, immortal, and free from all human passions, and from those propensities which were to continue with them only during this present state of existence. There shall be no death; and consequently no need of marriage to maintain the population of the spiritual world.