The incident that Mark recorded in Mark 12:28-34 is quite similar to this one, but the differences in the accounts point to two separate situations. In view of the question at stake it is easy to see how people might have asked it of Jesus many different times. Furthermore this particular question was of great concern to the scribes who studied the law professionally. The fact that the Holy Spirit recorded the same lesson twice in Scripture is a testimony to His greatness as a teacher since great teachers consistently repeat themselves.
". . . in the first century A.D. in Palestine the only way of publishing great thoughts was to go on repeating them in talk or sermons."273
10:25 Lawyers (scribes) were experts in the Mosaic Law. The Greek word translated "test"(ekpeirazon) does not necessarily imply hostility (cf. 4:12). The man could have simply been wanting Jesus' opinion. He addressed Jesus as a teacher or rabbi. This title tells us nothing about his motivation, only that He viewed Jesus as less than a prophet, the Messiah, or God. He assumed that people had to do something to obtain eternal life (cf. 18:18). The term "inherit"had a particular significance for Jewish readers distinguishing a special way of receiving eternal life (cf. Matt. 5:5; 19:29; 25:34). However, Gentiles readers for whom Luke wrote would have regarded it as synonymous with obtaining eternal life (cf. Mark 10:17). Eternal life is the equivalent of spiritual salvation and included entrance into the messianic kingdom.
10:26 Rather than answering the lawyer's question outright Jesus directed him to the authority they both accepted, the Old Testament. He asked for the lawyer's interpretation of its teaching. Thus Jesus avoided the situation of two teachers of the law giving conflicting opinions about the law. He turned the discussion into a more fundamental issue of correct interpretation of the law. Moreover by asking this counter-question Jesus put Himself in the position of evaluating the lawyer's answer rather than having the lawyer evaluate His answer.
10:27-28 This lawyer gave virtually the same answer that Jesus Himself gave to the same question on another occasion (Matt. 22:37-40; Mark 12:29-31). Jesus affirmed that the lawyer had answered correctly (Gr. orthos, from which we get the word "orthodox"). However, He proceeded to assure the lawyer that orthodox thinking would not gain him eternal life by itself. He needed orthodox practice too; he needed to practice what the law required. Jesus quoted the law to drive this point home (Lev. 18:5).
10:29 The lawyer realized that the only way he could possibly fulfill the law's demand was to limit its demand. He should have acknowledged his inability to keep these commands and asked Jesus what He should do. Instead he tried to "justify"himself (i.e., to declare himself righteous) by limiting the demand of the law and then showing that he had fulfilled that limited demand.
His question set up a distinction between neighbors and non-neighbors. The word "neighbor"(Gr. plesion) means one who is near (cf. Acts 7:27). The Hebrew word that it translates, rea, means a person with whom one has something to do. The Jews interpreted the word in a limited sense to mean a fellow Jew or someone in the same religious community. They specifically excluded Samaritans and foreigners from this category.274
