Matthew 22:34–40

The Greatest Commandment

22:34 Now when the Pharisees38 heard that he had silenced the Sadducees,39 they assembled together.40 22:35 And one of them, an expert in religious law,41 asked him a question to test42 him: 22:36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”43 22:37 Jesus44 said to him, “ ‘Love45 the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’46 22:38 This is the first and greatest47 commandment. 22:39 The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’48 22:40 All the law and the prophets depend49 on these two commandments.”

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38	sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.
39	sn See the note on Sadducees in 3:7.
40	tn Grk “for the same.” That is, for the same purpose that the Sadducees had of testing Jesus.
41	tn Traditionally, “a lawyer.” This was an expert in the interpretation of the Mosaic law.
42	tn Grk “testing.” The participle, however, is telic in force.
43	tn Or possibly “What sort of commandment in the law is great?”
44	tn Grk “And he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
45	tn Grk “You will love.” The future indicative is used here with imperatival force (see ExSyn 452 and 569).
46	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.
47	tn Grk “the great and first.”
48	sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.
49	tn Grk “hang.” The verb κρεμάννυμι (kremannumi) is used here with a figurative meaning (cf. BDAG 566 s.v. 2.b).