74 John Makujina above— perhaps because the latter lacks both the alliteration and seman- tic precision of the version in the Gospels46. 4 . Conclusion This essay has attempted to rejoin the minimalist reading of Matt 22,30; Mark 12,25; and Luke 20,34-36, and to validate, on philological grounds alone, the traditional understanding of this pericope, as teach- ing the discontinuation of marriage in the afterlife. In the process it has been argued that the literal meanings of γαμέω and γαμίζω should not be pressed, nor should the two be fragmented and read atomistically. This is because they can be traced ultimately to an OT formula describing the extension of the family (jql-/tn), with the nuance in Jer 29,6 (family building) as the closest paradigm. It was also demonstrated that the idiomatic and institutional impulse of γαμέω-γαμίζω is verified by its duplicate in Luke 17,27-28 (par. Matt 24,38), where the expression is surrounded by idioms that themselves represent institutions of ancient civilization. Moreover, one of those idi- oms, “planting and building”, reinforces the relationship between Luke 17,27-28 and Jer 29,4-7, by occurring in both passages. It was further discovered that support for the idiom “making mar- riage alliances”— earlier assigned to most occasions of jql-/tn—can be garnered from Greek literature, where γαμέω and ἐκδίδωμι (and their variations) can combine to assume that meaning, i.e., family expansion. The Greek constructions, moreover, testify to the inherent idiomatic potential of this evidently cross-cultural collocation and so indirectly support the non-literal and idiomatic sense proposed for γαμέω-γαμίζω in the Gospels—family building. The author, therefore, recommends that the traditional, maximal interpretation of Matt 22,30, Mark 12,25, and Luke 20,34, where οὔτε γαμοῦσιν οὔτε γαμίζονται signal the extinction of all marriage relation- ships in the eschaton, be retained. John MAKUJINA Erskine College P.O. Box 338 Belk Hall Due West, SC 29639 U.S.A. Otherwise, the sense “marry” is also within the semantic range of verbs like 46 συνέρχομαι, συζεύγνυμι (Mark 10,9; par. Matt 19,6), circumlocutions with σύμβιος, “spouse”, etc.