MARK 12:20 Parallel Verse View

Note: This view shows ‘verses’ which are not natural language units and hence sometimes only part of a sentence will be visible—click on any Bible version abbreviation down the left-hand side to see the verse in more of its context. Normally the OET discourages the reading of individual ‘verses’, but this view is only designed as a tool for doing comparisons of different translations—the older translations are further down the page (so you can read up from the bottom to trace the English translation history). The OET segments on this page are still very early looks into the unfinished texts of the Open English Translation of the Bible—please double-check these texts in advance before using in public.

Text critical issues=small word differences Clarity of original=clear Importance to us=normal (All still tentative.)

Key: khaki:verbs, light-green:nominative/subject, orange:accusative/object, red:negative.
Note: Automatic aligning of the OET-RV to the LV is done by some temporary software, hence the RV alignments are incomplete (and may occasionally be wrong).

ULT There were seven brothers, and the first took a wife and dying, did not leave seed,

UST So, consider this situation: there were seven brothers. One brother married a woman, but then he died before he had children.

BSB [Now] there were seven brothers. The first [one] married and died, leaving no children.

BLB There were seven brothers; and the first took a wife, and dying, left no seed.

AICNT There were seven brothers; and the first took a wife, and dying left no offspring;

OEB There were once seven brothers. The eldest married, but died and left no family;

WEBBE There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and dying left no offspring.

WMBB (Same as above)

NET There were seven brothers. The first one married, and when he died he had no children.

LSV There were then seven brothers, and the first took a wife, and dying, he left no seed;

FBV Once there were seven brothers. The first one got married, and then died without having children.

TCNT Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no offspring.

T4T So here is an example. There were seven boys in one family. The oldest one married a woman, but he and his wife did not bear any children. Then he later died.

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

12:20 *Here “when” is supplied as a component of the participle (“died”) which is understood as temporal

BBE There were seven brothers: and the first took a wife, and at his death there were no offspring;

Moff Now there were seven brothers. The first married a wife and died leaving no offspring:

Wymth There were once seven brothers, the eldest of whom married a wife, but at his death left no family.

ASV There were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed;

DRA Now there were seven brethren; and the first took a wife, and died leaving no issue.

YLT 'There were then seven brothers, and the first took a wife, and dying, he left no seed;

Drby There were seven brethren; and the first took a wife, and dying did not leave seed;

RV There were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed;
(There were seven brethren/brothers: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed; )

SLT There were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.

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

KJB-1769 Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.
(Now there were seven brethren/brothers: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. )

KJB-1611 Now there were seuen brethren: and the first tooke a wife, and dying left no seede.
(Modernised spelling is same as from KJB-1769 above)

Bshps There were seuen brethren: and the first toke a wyfe, and when he dyed, left no seede behynde hym.
(There were seven brethren/brothers: and the first took a wife, and when he died, left no seed behind him.)

Gnva There were seuen brethren, and the first tooke a wife, and when he died, left no issue.
(There were seven brethren/brothers, and the first took a wife, and when he died, left no issue. )

Cvdl Now were there seuen brethren: the first toke a wife, and dyed, and left no sede:
(Now were there seven brethren/brothers: the first took a wife, and died, and left no seed:)

TNT Ther were seven brethren: and the fyrst toke a wyfe and when he dyed leeft no seed behynde him.
(There were seven brethren/brothers: and the first took a wife and when he died left no seed behind him. )

Wycl Thanne seuene britheren ther weren; and the firste took a wijf, and diede, and lefte no seed.
(Then seven brethren/brothers there weren; and the first took a wife, and died, and left no seed.)

Luth Nun sind sieben Brüder gewesen. Der erste nahm ein Weib; der starb und ließ keinen Samen.
(Now are seven brothers been. The first took a woman; the/of_the died and left/let none seed(s).)

ClVg Septem ergo fratres erant: et primus accepit uxorem, et mortuus est non relicto semine.[fn]
(Septem therefore brothers they_were: and primus he_received wife, and dead it_is not/no leaving with_seed. )

12.20 Septem ergo, etc. ID. Turpitudinem fabulæ opponunt, ut resurrectionem negent. Sed mystice, septem fratres sine filiis defuncti, omnibus reprobis congruunt: qui per totam vitam (quæ septem diebus volvitur) a bono opere steriles sunt, quibus viritim morientibus ad ultimum et ipsa mundana conversatio moritur, id est, transit, quasi uxor infecunda, quam illi sine fructu boni operis exegerunt. HIER. Mulier sterilis, nec relinquens semen ex septem fratribus, etc., usque ad quia initium sapientiæ timor Domini.

12.20 Septem therefore, etc. ID. Turpitudinem fabulæ opponunt, as resurrection negent. But mystically, seven brothers without to_the_children defuncti, to_all reprobates congruunt: who/which through the_whole life (which seven days volvitur) from good by_work steriles are, to_whom mentim to_dieentibus to last and herself cleanna conversation he_dies, that it_is, passes, as_if wife infecunda, how them without fruit good work exegerunt. HIER. Woman barren, but_not leaving seed from seven brothers, etc., until to because the_beginning of_wisdom fear Master.

UGNT ἑπτὰ ἀδελφοὶ ἦσαν; καὶ ὁ πρῶτος ἔλαβεν γυναῖκα, καὶ ἀποθνῄσκων, οὐκ ἀφῆκεν σπέρμα;
(hepta adelfoi aʸsan; kai ho prōtos elaben gunaika, kai apothnaʸskōn, ouk afaʸken sperma;)

SBL-GNT ἑπτὰ ἀδελφοὶ ἦσαν· καὶ ὁ πρῶτος ἔλαβεν γυναῖκα, καὶ ἀποθνῄσκων οὐκ ἀφῆκεν σπέρμα·
(hepta adelfoi aʸsan; kai ho prōtos elaben gunaika, kai apothnaʸskōn ouk afaʸken sperma;)

RP-GNT Ἑπτὰ ἀδελφοὶ ἦσαν· καὶ ὁ πρῶτος ἔλαβεν γυναῖκα, καὶ ἀποθνῄσκων οὐκ ἀφῆκεν σπέρμα·
(Hepta adelfoi aʸsan; kai ho prōtos elaben gunaika, kai apothnaʸskōn ouk afaʸken sperma;)

TC-GNT [fn]Ἑπτὰ ἀδελφοὶ ἦσαν· καὶ ὁ πρῶτος ἔλαβε γυναῖκα, καὶ ἀποθνῄσκων οὐκ ἀφῆκε σπέρμα·
(Hepta adelfoi aʸsan; kai ho prōtos elabe gunaika, kai apothnaʸskōn ouk afaʸke sperma; )

12:20 επτα ¦ επτα ουν ANT SCR

Key for above GNTs: yellow:punctuation differs, red:words differ (from our SR-GNT base).

SOTN SIL Open Translator’s Notes:

Section 12:18–27: Other leaders asked Jesus about people living again after they die

The Jewish leaders continued to challenge Jesus. In this section some Sadducees asked Jesus a question to try to show that the things he taught were wrong. Like the Pharisees, the Sadducees were a group of Jewish leaders with certain religious beliefs. Many of the Sadducees were priests. They did not believe that God would cause anyone who had died to live again.

Jesus believed and taught that God does cause people who have died to live again. The Sadducees tried to use this belief to trick Jesus in 12:18–27. They told a story to ridicule these beliefs that Jesus taught. The story was not true, but they used it to ask a question. They thought that if a person believed that people who died could live again, there was no sensible answer to the question.

The Sadducees based their story on the Jewish custom that is described in Deuteronomy 25:5–6. This Scripture teaches that if a woman did not have any children by her husband before he died, his brother was required to marry her. Their first child would have the name of his dead brother and would be his heir.This custom was called the levirate. Jewish people considered the first son that the widow bore after marrying the brother of her dead husband to be the son of her dead husband, not the son of the man who was now her husband. This meant that this son and his descendants would carry on the dead man’s family and family name through future generations. Any sons born after this to the woman and her living husband would carry on the name of the living husband for future generations. In that way, the dead man’s family and family name could continue through future generations. Since the Scripture taught this custom, the Sadducees believed that they could prove from Scripture that Jesus was wrong.

It is good to translate this section before you decide on a heading for it.

Here are some other possible headings for this section:

The question about the resurrection

The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection (ESV)

Do people rise from the dead?

There are parallel passages for this section in Matthew 22:23–33 and Luke 20:27–40.

Paragraph 12:18–23

In this paragraph the Sadducees explained a Jewish custom. Then they told a story and used it to ask Jesus a question about life after death. They hoped that the question would be too difficult for Jesus to answer. They planned to ridicule the idea of life after death.

12:20a

Now there were seven brothers.

Well, let’s^(incl) suppose there were seven men who were brothers.
Once there lived seven male siblings.

Now there were seven brothers: In this verse the Sadducees began to tell Jesus a story that described a situation that might have happened. It was not a true story about actual people. The Greek word that the BSB translates as Now introduces their story. It is not a time word here. Use a natural way in your language to begin a story that did not actually happen and to introduce the participants. For example:

Once there were seven brothers (GNT)

Well, suppose there were seven brothers (NLT)

seven brothers: The number seven was a favorite number with the Jews. The Sadducees probably used this number of brothers to make the story more interesting and to emphasize their point. They thought that if God caused all people to live again, the woman could not be married to all seven husbands at the same time. Therefore, they implied that God’s law which said that a man should marry his brother’s widow showed that people would not live again after they died.

12:20b

The first one married and died, leaving no children.

The first brother got married but died without having any children.
The oldest sibling married a woman and had no children when he died.

The first one married: The first one in this context implies the oldest brother, who would normally be the first one to marry.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

The first brother married/took a wife/woman

the oldest got married (GNT)

died, leaving no children: The husband died and his wife had no children by him.Again here, and in 12:21b and 12:22a, the Greek term that the BSB translates as children is literally “seed.” He died without fathering a child. There is nothing in the story that suggests why the man died. So your translation should not imply that the woman caused the husband to die.

UTN uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / hypo

ἑπτὰ ἀδελφοὶ ἦσαν; καὶ ὁ πρῶτος

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: ἑπτά ἀδελφοί Ἦσαν καί ὁ πρῶτος ἔλαβεν γυναῖκα καί ἀποθνῄσκων οὐκ ἀφῆκεν σπέρμα)

Here the Sadducees use an imaginary situation to set up a question they want to ask Jesus. Use a natural method in your language for introducing an imaginary situation. Alternate translation: [Now imagine a family with seven brothers. The first]

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / nominaladj

ὁ πρῶτος

the first

The Sadducees are using the number first as a noun to mean the first brother. Your language may use numbers in the same way. If not, you could translate this word with an equivalent phrase. Alternate translation: [the first brother] or [the oldest brother]

Note 3 topic: translate-ordinal

ὁ πρῶτος

the first

If your language does not use ordinal numbers, you can use a cardinal number here. Alternate translation: [brother number one]

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / idiom

ἔλαβεν γυναῖκα

took ˓a˒_wife

Here, the phrase took a wife indicates that the man got married. If it would be helpful in your language, you could use a comparable phrase or state the meaning plainly. Alternate translation: [got married] or [married someone]

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

σπέρμα

seed

Here, the Sadducees are speaking of offspring as if they were seed. See how you translated the similar use of this word in [12:19](../12/19.md). Alternate translation: [offspring]

Parallel MARK 12:20

Section 12:18–27: Other leaders asked Jesus about people living again after they die

Paragraph 12:18–23

12:20a

12:20b