Mark 12:20

20 There were seven brothers, and the first took a wife. And [when he] died, he did not leave descendants.

Mark 12:20 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 12:20

Now there were seven brethren
In a certain family, at a certain place; perhaps at Jerusalem, who were brethren by the father's side; for such only were reckoned so, and such only did this law oblige:

and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed:
no child: hence it is clear that the ancient Jews used the word seed, of a single person, as these Sadducees did; though modern ones deny such an use of it in our present controversies with them about the sense of ( Genesis 3:15 ) ( 22:18 ) ; (See Gill on Matthew 22:25).

Mark 12:20 In-Context

18 And Sadducees--who say there is no resurrection--came up to him and began to ask him, saying,

19 "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if someone's brother dies and he leaves behind a wife and does not leave a child, that his brother should take the wife and {father} descendants for his brother.

20 There were seven brothers, and the first took a wife. And [when he] died, he did not leave descendants.

21 And the second took her, and he died without leaving descendants. And the third likewise.

22 And the seven did not leave descendants. Last of all the woman also died.

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("died") which is understood as temporal