Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no {m} children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.

(m) Daughters are also included by this word children, but even though they were part of his family and bore his name, the man who had only daughters was in the same position as the man who had no children at all; this is because daughters were not at this time able to carry on the family name. Therefore, by children here, we should understand it to be referring to sons.

Matthew 22:24 Parallel Commentaries

On the Same Words of the Gospel, Matt. xxii. 42
1. The question which was proposed to the Jews, Christians ought to solve. For the Lord Jesus Christ, who proposed it to the Jews, did not solve it Himself, to the Jews, I mean, He did not, but to us He hath solved it. I will put you in remembrance, Beloved, and ye will find that He hath solved it. But first consider the knot of the question. He asked the Jews what they "thought of Christ, whose Son He was to be;" for they too look for the Christ. They read of Him in the Prophets, they expected Him …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

On the Words of the Gospel, Matt. xxii. 2, Etc. , About the Marriage of the King's Son; against the Donatists, on Charity. Delivered at Carthage In
1. All the faithful [2986] know the marriage of the king's son, and his feast, and the spreading [2987] of the Lord's Table is open to them all [2988] who will. But it is of importance to each one to see how he approaches, even when he is not forbidden to approach It. For the Holy Scriptures teach us that there are two feasts of the Lord; one to which the good and evil come, the other to which the evil come not. So then the feast, of which we have just now heard when the Gospel was being read, has …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

The Beatific vision
MATTHEW xxii. 27. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. These words often puzzle and pain really good people, because they seem to put the hardest duty first. It seems, at times, so much more easy to love one's neighbour than to love God. And strange as it may seem, that is partly true. St. John tells us so--'He that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?' Therefore many good people, who …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

The Eternal Goodness
MATTHEW xxii. 39. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Why are wrong things wrong? Why, for instance, is it wrong to steal? Because God has forbidden it, you may answer. But is it so? Whatsoever God forbids must be wrong. But, is it wrong because God forbids it, or does God forbid it because it is wrong? For instance, suppose that God had not forbidden us to steal, would it be right then to steal, or at least, not wrong? We must really think of this. It is no mere question of words, it is …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

The Heavenly Banquet.
20th Sunday after Trinity. S. Matt. xxii. 4. "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come unto the marriage." INTRODUCTION.--The Kingdom of Heaven has two meanings in this parable. It means in the first place the Catholic Church. Into that the apostles and pastors of Christ invite men to enter, and many refuse. In the second place it means the Church Triumphant,--eternal blessedness, and into that the pastors of Christ's Church invite you …
S. Baring-Gould—The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent

Profession and Practice.
18th Sunday after Trinity. S. Matt. xxii. 42. "What think ye of Christ?" INTRODUCTION.--Many men are Christians neither in understanding nor in heart. Some are Christians in heart, and not in understanding. Some in understanding, and not in heart, and some are Christians in both. If I were to go into a Temple of the Hindoos, or into a Synagogue of the Jews, and were to ask, "What think ye of Christ?" the people there would shake their heads and deny that He is God, and reject His teaching. The …
S. Baring-Gould—The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent

The Image of Self.
23rd Sunday after Trinity. S. Matthew xxii., 20. "Whose is this image?" INTRODUCTION.--Some people are very fond of contemplating their own excellencies, of admiring their good qualities, or their success in life; they will talk to you of what they have done, how they made this lucky hit, how they outwitted so-and-so, how they escaped such a danger by their foresight. But they are not fond of considering their imperfections, of lamenting their faults, of confessing their failures, their lost opportunities, …
S. Baring-Gould—The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent

Thankfulness to God.
Harvest S. Matthew xxii., 21. "Render--unto God, the things that are God's." INTRODUCTION.--David says in the 8th Psalm, "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him: and the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou makest him to have dominion of the works of Thy hands; and Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet, all sheep and oxen; yea, and the beast of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea." I. The mastery of man is even more extensive than this; he controls …
S. Baring-Gould—The Village Pulpit, Volume II. Trinity to Advent

Love Thy Neighbour
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.--ST MATTHEW xxii. 39. The original here quoted by our Lord is to be found in the words of God to Moses, (Leviticus xix. 18:) "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord" Our Lord never thought of being original. The older the saying the better, if it utters the truth he wants to utter. In him it becomes fact: The Word was made flesh. And so, in the wondrous …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons