And the second took her to wife, and he died childless.

LUKE 20:30KJV
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Luke 20:30 (KJV)

What does Luke 20:30 mean?

Luke 20:30 is part of a story that opponents put to Jesus as a question about life after death. In their story, a widow marries her deceased husband’s second brother, who also dies without children. This adds another husband to the problem they want Jesus to answer.

The speakers are Sadducees, a Jewish group who said there was no rising from the dead. They draw on a law under which a man was to marry his brother’s childless widow and provide a child for his brother’s family line (Deuteronomy 25:5–6).

Why Luke 20:30 matters

  • The marriage follows a family obligation in the story, rather than introducing an unrelated couple. The speakers have already described the first brother’s death in Luke 20:29, so “the second” means the next brother.
  • The detail “childless” keeps the family-line problem open. The story goes on to describe the same outcome for the other brothers, leaving the woman without a child from any of them (Luke 20:31).
  • The sequence sets up the speakers’ question about whose wife the woman would be when the dead rise (Luke 20:33). Jesus responds by challenging their assumption that marriage in that future life works as it does in the present one (Luke 20:34–36).

Where else these words appear

“childless” Greek G815 · used in 3 verses

  • Luke 20:28 Saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die, having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
  • Luke 20:29 There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children.

“second” Greek G1208 · used in 45 verses

  • Matthew 21:30 And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
  • Acts 10:15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
  • Hebrews 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

“died” Greek G599 · used in 99 verses

  • Matthew 8:32 And he said unto them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
  • John 11:16 Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellowdisciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.
  • Romans 14:9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.