Levirate Marriage

One of my friends used to pastor a church in New Delhi, India. He worked among the people from Punjab, a state in Northern India that has a Muslim majority. One young man accepted Jesus as his Lord. Fearing his family, he wanted to be baptized before dawn. My friend met him at the designated place. That new convert was there with his family—two wives and several children, who all wanted to be baptized. My friend was shocked. He didn’t know that the young convert had two wives. His theological training didn’t prepare him for such a situation. He sent them off without baptizing them. Later, he thought he would talk to the new convert and see why he had two wives. After speaking with him, he understood that gentleman followed the levirate marriage principle. (Islam and Judaism share this principle). You see, his older brother died, leaving a widow and three kids. So, he took his sister-in-law as his wife and adopted her children. They, however, didn’t have any sexual relationship. My friend then baptized them all.

The levirate marriage sounds weird for those of us in the modern era. But the Old Testament law demanded it, Deuteronomy 25:5–10. People being evil or conniving, often took advantage of this situation. A case in point is the story of Judah’s second son in Genesis 38. Judah’s oldest son, Er, married Tamar. Since he was wicked, the Lord took his life. By law, Judah’s second son, Onan, married her and had sex with her. But instead of giving her a child, he “spilled his semen on the ground to prevent giving her an offspring” (v. 9). He had free sex without caring, loving, and providing for her sister-in-law. The Lord saw that and killed him for his wickedness of not giving an offspring to carry out the name of his brother.

In another levirate story, the rightful kinsman redeemer refused to provide for Naomi’s daughter-in-law, Ruth. Another kinsman redeemer, Boaz, a righteous man, graciously stepped in and married Ruth (the Book of Ruth).

Since the high priests, scribes, Herodians, and the Pharisees couldn’t trap Jesus in his words, the Sadducees decided to question him. The Sadducees were stricter than the Pharisees, believing only in the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch. They recited the levirate law (Deut 25:5–10) to trap Jesus. A lady became the wife of seven brothers as each died and passed her on to the next. Then she died. They wanted to know whose wife she would be at the resurrection (Luke 20:27–33).

This was a trick question on two levels. First, the Sadducees didn’t believe in resurrection like the Pharisees believed, a bodily resurrection. They were wondering if Jesus would side with them or the Pharisees. This was the first trap. Second, John the Baptizer lost his head by taking a stance on this very issue—Herodias was married to Herod Philip, and Herod Antipas stole her from his brother Philip while he was alive and had a child with Herodias. This violated the levirate marriage that permitted a remarriage only when the older brother was dead and had no children. John spoke against it. Again, the Sadducees were trying to see if Jesus would side with John the Baptizer and speak against Herodias (which would endanger him) or if he would side with Herodias against John the Baptizer (then they would declare Jesus as a lawbreaker!).

Jesus answered them in two stages. First, he compared life here on earth to life in the afterlife (Luke 20:34–36). Since death ruled in this world, levirate marriages existed, that is,

“The sons of this age married, and the daughters were given in marriage” (20:34).

Unlike that, after the resurrection of the dead, no one will be able to die (20:36); as such,

“They would not marry or given in marriage; it’s impossible; instead, they will be like angels and children of God, and abide as children of the resurrection” (20:35–36).

Jesus taught that death prevented people from staying married forever. If death hadn’t occurred, people wouldn’t have to practice the levirate marriage. His first answer was they could not apply earthly principles to the resurrected life. After the resurrection, they would be angelic, divine, and children of the resurrection (i.e., without unending life).

Second, he talked about the present reality of the resurrection: God wasn’t Abraham’s God; God is Abraham’s God because Abraham is still living. God wasn’t Isaac’s God; God is Isaac’s God because Isaac is still living. God wasn’t Jacob’s God; God is Jacob’s God because Jacob is still living. In fact,

“God is not the God of the dead but of the living. Everyone is living before him” (20:38).

This is an awestruck statement: people who die don’t escape God’s presence. Everyone is living before him. The literal Greek phrase is, “Everyone is living to him,” which we understand as “living before him.” We tend to think that the dead people, especially the unbelievers, are far away from him. But the Lord Jesus taught that they were before God. Such is the power of the resurrection.