When Widows Are “Ordered” to Have Intercourse
Rev. Dr. Mel White claims that Mark 12:18-27 teaches that,
“When a man died childless, his widow is ordered by Biblical law to have intercourse with each of his brothers in turn until she bears her deceased husband a male heir.”
This statement is indicative of the way in which Rev. Dr. Mel White deals with the Bible-he attempts to read his preconceived notions into it and attempts to make it sound as preposterous as possible. In this case he commits many errors and presents a gross (figuratively and literally) retelling of what the Bible actually states. There are a few points to make: if you did not check what he said against what the Bible says you would think that the Bible actually orders poor grieving widows to go from one brother’s home to the next having sex with each one until she conceives by who knows which one of them.
In any case, let us see what the text actually states:
“Then the Sadducees came to Him, who say there is no resurrection. And they asked Him, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote to us, If a man’s brother die and leaves his wife, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up seed to his brother. And there were seven brothers. And the first took a wife, and dying left no seed. And the second took her, and died; neither did he leave any seed. And the third likewise. And the seven had her, and left no seed. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as a wife. And answering Jesus said to them, Do you not err because of this, not knowing Scriptures, nor the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are as the angels in Heaven. And as regards the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses how God spoke to him in the Bush, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?’ He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. Therefore you greatly err” (Mark 12:18-27).
Two of the main Jewish sects in Jesus’ day were the Pharisees, who believed in the supernatural and the Old Testament as we know it and the Sadducees, who did not believe in the supernatural and considered only the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah or Five books of Moses, to be inspired. The context of the text has nothing to do with marriage but has to do with the resurrection.
.jpg)
The Sadducees state a hypothetical scenario through which they seek to make Jesus look foolish for believing in the resurrection. They invent this story about a man who died with no children but did have seven brothers. The widow married the first brother but when he died she still had no children and so on, through all seven.
Next, the reason for their question comes out-since she was married to them all on Earth whose wife will she be in the resurrection? Jesus’ response is applicable to the Sadducees and to Rev. Dr. Mel White, “Do you not err because of this, not knowing Scriptures, nor the power of God?” He then formulates his answer by citing texts that they did consider to be scripture and He concludes by making another point to the Sadducees and to Rev. Dr. Mel White, “Therefore you greatly err.”