Text -- Mark 10:20 (NET)

10:20 The man said to him, “Teacher, I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws since my youth.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Mar 10:20

¹ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the man who asked the question in v. 17) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Grk “kept.” The implication of this verb is that the man has obeyed the commandments without fail throughout his life, so the adverb “wholeheartedly” has been added to the translation to bring out this nuance.

³ tn Grk “these things.” The referent of the pronoun (the laws mentioned by Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

sn While the rich man was probably being sincere when he insisted I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws, he had confined his righteousness to external obedience. The rich man’s response to Jesus’ command to give away all he had revealed that internally he loved money more than God.

⁴ sn Since my youth. Judaism regarded the age of thirteen as the age when a man would have become responsible to live by God’s commands.