In the same way also the second brother, and the third, up to the seventh.
In these verses the Sadducees continue their story, based on the Law of Moses, according to which a brother is obligated to marry the widow of his deceased brother if she has no child. They mention the case of seven brothers dying one after another without children, showing the consistent application of the law, but not the essence of faith. Their speech is framed as if in the form of a factual account, yet in reality it is a rhetorical example for argument. With this story the Sadducees try to create a situation that seems unsolvable by human reasoning, so that by it they may later deny the possibility of the resurrection.