What Does Matthew 22:24 Mean?
Saying, Teacher, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed to his brother.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.THE KEY
“Raise up seed” uses the same Greek word-family as “resurrection” in the question surrounding it.
THE MEANING
This verse describes a brother’s death as a break in the family line, then names a way that line continues: the surviving brother marries the widow and raises offspring “unto his brother.” The child is attributed to the dead brother even though the surviving brother carries out the command.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A brother’s death does not automatically erase his place in the family line; the verse assigns the living brother a way to carry that line forward.
THE ROOT
ἀναστήσει
anastēsei
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι
histēmi
To stand or set in place; with ἀνά (ana, up), to stand up, rise, or raise up.
The verb translated “raise up” belongs to the same word-family as ἀνάστασις (anastasis), “resurrection.” The verse’s language of raising offspring therefore echoes the nearby dispute about whether the dead are raised.
ALSO GROWS
anistēmi: To stand or raise up.
ἀνίστημι
This is the verb family behind the verse’s “raise up” and makes the continuation sound like a rising into place.
anastasis: A rising or standing up.
ἀνάστασις
The same word-family names the resurrection disputed in the preceding verse.
σπέρμα
sperma
GROWS FROM
σπείρω
speirō
To sow.
The Greek word for “seed” also means offspring, so the line holds together a planted seed and a family’s next generation. Here, that offspring is raised “unto” the dead brother, linking new life to the person whose line has been interrupted.
ALSO GROWS
speirō: To sow or plant seed.
σπείρω
It shows the action beneath the image: the seed is what is sown, and here it is also offspring.
spora: Sowing or seed.
σπορά
This related word keeps the image connected to planting and the growth that follows.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures a family line continuing through seed carried forward after its bearer dies.
And Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to your brother.Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead not be cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses this day.Mindless one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.THE THREAD
That same day the Sadducees came to him, the ones who say there is no rising, and asked him,The Greek word for “resurrection” here, ἀνάστασις (anastasis), shares its word-family with “raise up” in the next verse. The Sadducees deny a rising of the dead, then cite a command whose own wording speaks of raising seed.
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