Misinterpretations often treat this verse as a literal historical event rather than a fabricated example by the Sadducees to challenge Jesus, leading some to erroneously argue it proves the impossibility of resurrection or perpetuation of earthly marriages in heaven, ignoring the broader context of Jesus' teaching that there is no marriage in the resurrection as people are like angels, and the scenario draws from Deuteronomy 25 without endorsing polygamy or multiple husbands.
Mark 12:20
King James Version (1769)
20 Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.
Mark 12:20 introduces the Sadducees' hypothetical scenario under Levirate marriage law, where the first of seven brothers marries a woman but dies childless, setting the stage for their question to Jesus about whose wife she would be in the resurrection; this underscores their denial of resurrection and attempt to discredit the doctrine by highlighting an apparent contradiction in the afterlife.