What Does Luke 20:29 Mean?

There were therefore seven brethren—The Sadducees construct a hypothetical scenario, though seven is likely hyperbolic for effect. The first took a wife, and died without children (ἀπέθανεν ἄτεκνος, apethanen ateknos)—literally 'died childless.' The adjective ἄτεκνος (ateknos) compounds ἀ- (without) and τέκνον (child).

This sets up their reductio ad absurdum argument: if levirate marriage continues through multiple brothers, resurrection creates an impossible marital situation. Their unstated premise: resurrection bodies must replicate earthly social structures exactly. They assume resurrection simply extends temporal existence rather than transforming it—a failure of theological imagination.