By Clement Harrold
May 22, 2025
All three synoptic Gospels record an exchange between Jesus and the Sadducees about the resurrection:
The same day Sad′ducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother must marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her.”
But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (Matt 22:23-30; cf. Mark 12:18-25; Luke 20:27-36)
There are several things we need to understand about this passage. First, the Sadducees were a first century Jewish sect who were famous for only accepting the first five books of the Old Testament, and for denying the reality of the resurrection.
Second, the resurrection being discussed in this passage is the general resurrection which most Jews (and all Catholics) understood would take place at the end of the world, when those who have died will receive their bodies back.
Third, the question which the Sadducees put to Jesus is not a sincere one. As far as they’re concerned, the resurrection of the dead is a load of nonsense—and the rather far-fetched thought experiment they present to Jesus is aimed at proving just that.
No Marriage in Heaven
So how does Jesus respond? The first move he makes is to clarify that there won’t be marriage in heaven. Since the marriage bond ends at death, the woman in the Sadducees’ hypothetical scenario won’t be in the awkward position of finding herself married to seven different brothers when she arrives at the pearly gates! Instead, she and her former husbands will be “like angels in heaven.”
But does this mean that the relationships between earthly spouses will mean nothing at all in the resurrection? Not so fast. While Jesus doesn’t address this question directly, He does leave plenty of room for us to reflect on what kind of special relationship spouses might continue to enjoy in the world to come. Consider what the Catechism says in its section on marital fidelity:
St. John Chrysostom suggests that young husbands should say to their wives: “I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us. ... I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.” (Homilies on Ephesians 20.8, quoted in Catechism §2365)
Chrysostom’s words remind us that there is something eternal about marriage in one very important respect: the single most important obligation of earthly spouses is to ensure that they (and any children their union produces) will spend eternity together in heaven. Above all else, spouses are to live out their marriage in faithfulness to God’s law, so as to be able to enjoy everlasting happiness with Him.
This doesn’t mean that spouses will still be married in heaven—they won’t. But it does suggest that they will still enjoy a unique kind of bond in heaven. Sometimes we’re guilty of reducing heaven in our minds to some kind of communist utopia where souls float around with no recollection of their earthly relationships. Perhaps we subconsciously imagine that heaven will be a bit like the early French Republic where everyone addressed each other as “citizen,” regardless of status or relationship.
But surely nothing could be further from the truth! Just as heaven will fulfill, rather than abolish, all our desires, so too heaven will enrich and perfect our earthly relationships, not forget them. In heaven, we will still remember the friends, children, parents, and other family members we loved here on earth. But whereas in this life all these relationships are marred by sin, in heaven we will love one another with the perfect love of God.
Nothing Good Will Be Lost
It stands to reason, then, that we will continue to relate in a special way to the person (or people) whom we were married to in this life. While we won’t be married to them in heaven, we will still be friends with them. And given the unique friendship we enjoyed with them here on earth, it makes sense that this friendship will remain distinctive in the eschaton.
The love which spouses have for one another, the happy memories they have together, and the many graces they have received through their marriage: none of these end with death. For the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure trove containing “what is new and what is old” (Mt 13:52), and nothing good is lost there.
At the conclusion of his Letter to a Young Widow, St. John Chrysostom offers the following exhortation:
Wherefore desisting from mourning and lamentation do thou hold on to the same way of life as his, yea even let it be more exact, that having speedily attained an equal standard of virtue with him, you may inhabit the same abode and be united to him again through the everlasting ages, not in this union of marriage but another far better. For this is only a bodily kind of intercourse, but then there will be a union of soul with soul more perfect, and of a far more delightful and far nobler kind.
Catholic Christians therefore have a straightforward answer to the Sadducees’ challenge. It’s true that the woman who married seven brothers will not be married to any of them in heaven. At the same time, the reality of Christ’s own Resurrection gives us the assurance of a joy which is stronger than grief, and a love which is stronger than death.
As such, it is reasonable to believe that in heaven the woman will continue to enjoy a unique friendship with each of the men whom she was married to here on earth. And together with her former husbands, she will spend eternity glorifying God and sharing in the joy of the Blessed Trinity.
Further Reading
John Bergsma, The Bible and Marriage: The Two Shall Become One Flesh (Baker Academic, 2024)
https://www.ncregister.com/blog/is-there-marriage-in-heaven
About Clement Harrold
Clement Harrold earned his master’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2024, and his bachelor’s from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2021. His writings have appeared in First Things, Church Life Journal, Crisis Magazine, and the Washington Examiner.
