When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Gospel Trivia:
Similar to last Sunday's gospel, the Pharisees are here to test Jesus. During Jesus' time, Jewish law contained 613 commandments, a formidable number from which to choose which one could be regarded as the greatest. For more trivia on Jewish laws, click here.
We all know Jesus reply -- love God and love your neighbor -- but this can be better appreciated because of the following:
- the "first" commandment does not mean that it is the first among many, but the first in significance. (Note: God is not to be obeyed as a subject obeys a king, but to be loved as a child loves a parent).
- the "second" does not mean second in rank but "another," just as important and equally significant as the first.
- "heart, soul and mind" means the "total person"; in fact, in Jewish anthropology, mentioning "heart" would have been sufficient in referring to the whole person.
Finally, the significance of the these two commandments is NOT that they are new commandments of Jesus; for indeed these two are written in different parts of Jewish law. But for the first time, Jesus coupled them together and synthesized all the laws of Moses into just two. Further, this combination is not only a summary of all the laws, but its grounding and basis.
No need therefore to worry about all 613 laws. Just the two.
Reference:
- Nil Guillemette, SJ, A Kingdom for All (Makati: St. Paul's Publications), pp. 240-242.
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