Mark 12:20

20 Now there were seven brothers: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.

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 Then come to him the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying,

19 Master, Moses wrote to us, If a man's brother shall die, and leave [his] wife, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise seed to his brother.

20 Now there were seven brothers: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.

21 And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise.

22 And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also.