---
title: Matthew 22:31
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-22-31/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-22-31.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 22:31
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 22:31

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said to you:

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, who said:"

## JW Usage

Matthew 22:31 is read by JW publications as the introduction to Jesus's argument for resurrection from Exodus 3:6 — the patriarchs will live again because Jehovah will resurrect them. The present-tense "I AM the God of Abraham" is treated as a covenant promise of future resurrection rather than as a claim that the patriarchs are currently alive. Soul-sleep doctrine requires this reading.

## Protestant Usage

Matthew 22:31 sets up the Synoptic argument against the Sadducees that hinges on the present tense of "I AM." Companions to Mark 12:26-27 and Luke 20:38, this verse opens Jesus's appeal to Exodus 3:6 — spoken to Moses centuries after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, with God still calling himself their God in the present tense. Jesus's argument only works if the patriarchs are currently alive in some sense — otherwise God IS currently the God of dead men, which is exactly what the next verse denies. Pair Matthew 22:31 with Luke 20:38 ("for to him all are alive") and the Synoptic parallels to see Jesus making the same case in all three Synoptics. Soul-sleep doctrine cannot accommodate the present tense.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [He Is Not the God of the Dead but of the Living](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/god-of-the-living.md) — Matthew 22:31–32, Mark 12:26–27 [Soul & Hell]