Text -- Matthew 22:34-40 (NET)

The Greatest Commandment

22:34 Now when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they assembled together. 22:35 And one of them, an expert in religious law, asked him a question to test him: 22:36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 22:37 Jesus said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 22:38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 22:39 The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 22:40 All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Mat 22:34

¹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

² sn See the note on Sadducees in 3:7.

³ tn Grk “for the same.” That is, for the same purpose that the Sadducees had of testing Jesus.

NET Notes: Mat 22:35

¹ tn Traditionally, “a lawyer.” This was an expert in the interpretation of the Mosaic law.

² tn Grk “testing.” The participle, however, is telic in force.

NET Notes: Mat 22:36

¹ tn Or possibly “What sort of commandment in the law is great?”

NET Notes: Mat 22:37

¹ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

² tn Grk “You will love.” The future indicative is used here with imperatival force (see ExSyn 452 and 569).

³ sn A quotation from Deut 6:5. The threefold reference to different parts of the person says, in effect, that one should love God with all one’s being.

NET Notes: Mat 22:38

¹ tn Grk “the great and first.”

NET Notes: Mat 22:39

¹ sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.

NET Notes: Mat 22:40

¹ tn Grk “hang.” The verb κρεμάννυμι (kremannumi) is used here with a figurative meaning (cf. BDAG 566 s.v. 2.b).