View source for Question: Does Jesus Christ's statement "they neither marry, nor are given in marriage" contradict the Latter-day Saint doctrine of eternal marriage?

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==Question: Does Jesus Christ's statement "they neither marry, nor are given in marriage" contradict the Latter-day Saint doctrine of eternal marriage?==
===Jesus Christ was responding to the Sadducees, who didn't believe in the resurrection===

{{s||Matthew|22|23-30}} (or its counterparts, {{s||Mark|12|18-25}} and {{s||Luke|20|27-36}}) is often used by critics to argue against the LDS doctrine of eternal marriage. 

The Sadducees, who didn't believe in the resurrection, asked the Savior about a case where one woman successively married seven brothers, each of which died leaving her to the next. They then tried to trip up Jesus by asking him whose wife she will be in the resurrection. Jesus' answer is almost identical in all three scriptural versions. 

:Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. ({{s||Matthew|22|29-30}})

===The Greek Contradicts Critics' Interpretation of the Verse===
The underlying Greek of the passage contradicts our critics' interpretation of this passage. Latter-day Saint apologist Kevin L. Barney observed:

<blockquote>At this point Jesus corrects the mistaken understanding of the Sadducees to the effect that the resurrection is simply a continuation of mortal life as we know it. The time for entering into marriages is mortality; the nature of life in the hereafter will change from that which we are accustomed to here and now. The expressions “marry” [gamousin] and “given in marriage” [gamizontai] translate forms of the related Greek verbs gameō and gamizō, which have to do with the act of becoming married. The first verb is used here to refer to men and the second to women. If Matthew had wanted to report that Christ had said in effect “Neither are they now in a married state (because of previously performed weddings),” the Greek in which he wrote would have let him say so unambiguously. He would have used a perfect tense [gegamēkasin] or a participial form [gamēsas] of the verb. He did not, so that cannot be what he meant. Jesus said nothing about the married state of those who are in heaven. By using the present indicative form of the verb, Matthew reports Jesus as saying in effect “In the resurrection, there are no marriages performed.” Jesus goes on to compare those in the resurrection to the angels of God, for unlike mortals they will never die and, according to Jewish tradition, they do not need to eat. The key point is that, contrary to the misconceptions of the Sadducees, life in the resurrection will be different in many ways from life in mortality. (Jesus then goes on to make an additional argument in favor of the resurrection in the following verses.)</blockquote>

The main point of the passage is not to refute the Saducee's faulty beliefs about marriage in the resurrection, but moreso to demonstrate that their non-belief in a resurrection was faulty. Jesus quickly dismissed their question about marriage by saying that marriages are not performed in the resurrection and then launches into a masterful Old Testament case for belief in the resurrection. 

Non-Latter-day Saint scholar Ben Witherington offers exegesis which agrees with Latter-day Saint understandings of this verse.<ref>Ben Witherington, ''The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary'' (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2001), 328&ndash;29</ref>

Latter-day Saint apologist and theologian Robert Boylan has great thoughts on this verse in a blogpost responding to Christadelphian critics.<ref>Robert Boylan, "Response to a Christadelphian Critique of Mormon Theology," ''Scriptural Mormonism'', March 16, 2017, https://scripturalmormonism.blogspot.com/2017/03/response-to-christadelphian-critique-of.html.</ref>

===Early Latter-day Saints did not see any difficulty in reconciling it to their views on eternal marriage: Jesus was talking about marriage for time, not eternity===

Latter-day Saint scripture discussed it specifically:

:15 Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her not by me nor by my word, and he covenant with her so long as he is in the world and she with him, their covenant and marriage are not of force when they are dead, and when they are out of the world; therefore, they are not bound by any law when they are out of the world.
:16 Therefore, '''when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given in marriage'''; but are appointed angels in heaven, which angels are ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory.
:17 For these angels did not abide my law; therefore, they cannot be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition, to all eternity; and from henceforth are not gods, but are angels of God forever and ever ({{s||D&C|132|15-17}}) {{ea}}

===Joseph did not need to go back and correct the Bible each time he received a new revelation===

So if the Doctrine and Covenants clarifies or corrects a teaching the Bible, then why didn't Joseph go back and correct the Bible as well? Because it simply wasn't necessary for him to continuously revise the Bible based upon new revelation. The Doctrine and Covenants, like the Book of Mormon, is considered to be scripture and an equal ''companion'' to the Bible. That is, after all, the ''purpose'' of receiving new scripture..

When Joseph Smith performed his inspired "translation" of the Bible, he clarified and revised a number of items. This was a continuous process that involved various portions of the Bible - it was not performed from "start to finish." He did not consider it necessary to revise the Bible every single time he received a new revelation.


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{{To learn more box:Jesus' teachings on marriage}}
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[[es:Pregunta: ¿La declaración de Jesucristo "ni se casan ni se dan en casamiento" contradice la doctrina de los Santos de los Últimos Días sobre el matrimonio eterno?]]
[[de:Frage: Ist die Erklärung Jesu Christi, dass in der Auferstehung sie weder heiraten werden noch sich heiraten lassen, nicht ein Widerspruch zur HLT-Lehre?]]



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