---
title: Matthew 22:30
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-22-30/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-22-30.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 22:30
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 22:30

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> In the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "for in the resurrection neither do men marry nor are women given in marriage, but they are as angels in heaven."

## JW Usage

Matthew 22:30 is sometimes invoked by JW publications to support the doctrine that the resurrected anointed (the 144,000) become spirit creatures like the angels — sexless, marriageless, heavenly. The verse is read as evidence that the heavenly resurrection is a transformation into a different kind of being, not a continuation of physical, gendered human life.

## Protestant Usage

Jesus says there is no marriage in the resurrection — he does not say there is no gender or no body. The relational institution of marriage passes away (matched by the angels' state); the creational categories of male and female persist. Pair Matthew 22:30 with Acts 1:11 (Jesus raised in his identifiably male body), Luke 24:39 ("a spirit has no flesh and bones, as you see I have"), Philippians 3:21 (the resurrection body is "like his glorious body"), and John 20:16 (Mary recognising the risen Christ as "Rabboni"). The resurrection transforms our bodies; it does not erase what they fundamentally are. Galatians 3:28 also does not erase gender — Paul preserves Jew/Gentile, slave/free, male/female as real categories that have equal access to the Abrahamic inheritance. The Watchtower's "spirit creatures, no body, no gender" picture imports a Platonic anthropology Scripture itself does not teach.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Galatians 3:28 Is About Who Can Be Saved, Not What You Become in Heaven](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/galatians3-28-jew-gentile-unity.md) — Galatians 3:26–29 — Equal Access, Not Cosmic Dissolution of Gender [Salvation]