Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 22:36
Master, which [is] the great commandment in the law?
Verse 36. Which is the great commandment] We see here three kinds of enemies and false accusers of Christ and his disciples; and three sorts of accusations brought against them.
1. The Herodians, or politicians and courtiers, who form their questions and accusations on the rights of the prince, and matters of state, Mt 22:16.
2. The Sadducees, or libertines, who found theirs upon matters of religion, and articles of faith, which they did not credit, Mt 22:23.
3. The Pharisees, lawyers, scribes, or Karaites, hypocritical pretenders to devotion, who found theirs on that vital and practical godliness (the love of God and man) of which they wished themselves to be thought the sole proprietors, Mt 22:36.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?] He calls him “master, Rabbi, or doctor”, as the Sadducees had in Mt 22:24 either because he was usually so called by his disciples, and by the generality of the people; or merely in complaisance to engage his attention to him, and his question: and might hereby suggest, that should he return a proper and satisfactory answer to it he should be his master. The question is not which of the laws was the greatest, the oral, or the written law: the Jews give the preference to the law delivered by word of mouth; they prefer the traditions of the elders before the written law of Moses; [See comments on Mt 15:2]; but the question was about the written law of Moses; and not merely about the decalogue, or whether the commands of the first table were greater than those of the second, as was generally thought; or whether the affirmative precepts were not more to be regarded than negative ones, which was their commonly received opinion; but about the whole body of the law, moral and ceremonial, delivered by Moses: and not whether the ceremonial law was to be preferred to the moral, which they usually did; but what particular command there was in the whole law, which was greater than the rest: for as there were some commands that were light, and others that were weighty, a distinction often used by them m, and to which Christ alludes in Mt 23:23. It was moved that it might be said which was the greatest and weightiest of them all. Some thought the commandment of the sabbath was the greatest: hence they say n, that he that keeps the sabbath is as if he kept the whole law: yea, they make the observance of the three meals, or feasts, which, according to the traditions of the elders, they were obliged to eat on the sabbath, to be at least one of the greatest of them.
“These three meals (says one of their writers o) are a great matter, for it is one , “of the great commandments in the law”.”
Which is the very phraseology used in this question. Others give the preference to circumcision, on which they bestow the greatest encomiums, and, among the rest p, say, it drives away the sabbath, or that is obliged to give place unto it. Others q say of the “phylacteries”, that the holiness of them is the greatest of all, and the command to be arrayed with them all the day, is more excellent than all others; and even of the fringe upon the borders of their garments, others observe r, that a man that is guilty of that command, is guilty of all others, and that single precept is equal to all the rest. In this multiplicity of opinions, Christ’s is desired on this subject, though with no good intention.
m Pirke Abot, c. 2. sect. 1. & c. 4. sect. 2. n Zohar in Exod. fol. 37. 1. o Tzeror Hammor, fol. 3. 3. p Misn. Nedarim, c. 3. sect. 11. q Maimon. Hilch. Tephillin, c. 4. sect. 25, 26. r T. Bab. Menachot, fol. 43. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The great commandment in the law ( ). The positive adjective is sometimes as high in rank as the superlative. See in Mt 5:19 in contrast with . The superlative occurs in the N.T. only in 2Pe 1:4. Possibly this scribe wishes to know which commandment stood first (Mr 12:28) with Jesus. “The scribes declared that there were 248 affirmative precepts, as many as the members of the human body; and 365 negative precepts, as many as the days in the year, the total being 613, the number of letters in the Decalogue” (Vincent). But Jesus cuts through such pettifogging hair-splitting to the heart of the problem.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Which is the great commandment [ ] . The A. V. and Rev. alike miss the point of this question, which is : which kind of command is great in the law ? That is, what kind of a commandment must it be to constitute it a great one? Not, which commandment is greatest as compared with the others? The scribes declared that there were 248 affirmative precepts, as many as the members of the human body; and 365 negative precepts, as many as the days in the year; the total being 613, the number of letters in the Decalogue. Of these they called some light and some heavy. Some thought that the law about the fringes on the garments was the greatest; some that the omission of washings was as bad as homicide; some that the third commandment was the greatest. It was in view of this kind of distinction that the scribe asked the question; not as desiring a declaration as to which commandment was greatest, but as wanting to know the principle upon which a commandment was to be regarded as a great commandment.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
(36) Which is the great commandment . . .?Literally, of what kind. The questioner asked as if it belonged to a class. Our Lords answer is definite, This is the first and great commandment.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
36. Great commandment The Jewish Talmud reckons the positive laws of Moses at 248, and the negative at 365, the sum being 613. To keep so many laws, said the Jews, is an angel’s work, and so they had much question which was the great commandment, so that they might keep that in lieu of keeping the whole.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
His question was simply as to which was the greatest and most important commandment in the whole of the Law. Some of the Scribes and Pharisees did in fact class certain laws as being of greater and higher importance than other laws, and there was much debate about them about the importance of each and especially about which was the most important of all. Thus they attempted to differentiate the importance of different commandments, separating them into ‘great’ or ‘heavy’ and ‘little’ or ‘light’, and would often seek to trace them back to a general principle. Thus Hillel is said to have summed up the Law as ‘what you hate for yourself do not do to your neighbour. This is the whole Law. The remainder is commentary. Go and learn.’ We can compare here Jesus’ own words on the matter in Mat 5:18-19; Mat 23:23, where in general He at least partly agreed with them, and His own summary of the Law in Mat 7:12.
But others frowned at seeking to select out one Law in this way, and considered that all were equally important. They felt that there was none that could be omitted. And so important was this principle considered to be that the Laws from the book of Moses were listed so that they produced 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands. But we must not overemphasise the difference. All believed that every law had to be treasured and obeyed (as did Jesus in Mat 5:18-19), it was just that some felt that they could be graded in order of importance, while others gave them equal importance. Thus some thought that the greatest commandment must be the one (whichever it was) which would count the most when God weighed men up, for their continual concern was how to be approved before God. For they found it difficult to appreciate the Scriptural emphasis on the fact that approval before God came though faith in Him (Gen 15:6), and response to Him (Hab 2:4), and they therefore sought rather to build up merit before Him.
That these attitudes could lead on to a cold, stern obedience lacking in love is obvious, and the danger was that it had tended to take their eyes off God, and focus them on themselves (compare Luk 18:11-12). Keeping the Law had in fact become the be all and end all of many of their lives. This was, however, the very opposite of what Jesus felt that their attitudes should be.
Mat 22:36 f. What kind of a commandment (qualitative, comp. Mat 19:18 ) is great in the law ; what must be the nature of a commandment in order to constitute it great ? The commandment, then, which Jesus singles out as the great one , and which, as corresponding to the subsequent , He places at the head of the whole series ( . , see the critical notes) in that of Deu 6:5 , quoted somewhat freely after the Sept.
] , in which regular designation is in apposition, consequently not to be rendered: “utpote Dominum tuum,” Fritzsche.
Love to God must fill the whole heart, the entire inner sphere in which all the workings of the personal consciousness originate (Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 248 ff.; Krumm, de notionib. psych. Paul. 12), the whole soul, the whole faculty of feeling and desire, and the whole understanding, all the powers of thought and will, and must determine their operation. We have thus an enumeration of the different elements that go to make up to (Theophylact), the complete harmonious self-dedication of the entire inner man to God, as to its highest good. Comp. Weiss, Bibl. Theol. p. 81, Exo 2 .
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Ver. 36. Which is the great commandment ] the Rabbis reckoned up 613 commandments of the law; and distinguished them into the greater and the lesser. These later they thought might be neglected or violated with little or no guilt. The Romish Pharisee have also their venial sins, their peccadillos, as we know, but the Scripture makes all sin mortal and destructory. A little strange fire might seem a small matter, yet it was such a sin as made all Israel guilty, as appears by the sacrifices offered for that sin, Lev 10:1-2 ; Lev 16:1-3 .
36. . . ] Not, ‘ which is the great commandment ,’ but which ( what kind of a ) commandment is great in the law? In Mark, otherwise.
Mat 22:36 . : what sort of a commandment? it is a question not about an individual commandment, but about the qualities that determine greatness in the legal region. This was a question of the schools. The distinction between little and great was recognised ( vide chap. Mat 5:19 ), and the grounds of the distinction debated ( vide Schttgen, ad loc. , who goes into the matter at length). Jesus had already made a contribution to the discussion by setting the ethical above the ritual (Mat 15:1-20 , cf. Mat 19:18-22 ).
which, &c. = what kind of commandment?
is the great = is great. The Scribes divided them all up: 248 affirmative ones (the number of the members of the body): 365 negative (the number of days in the year): 248 + 365 = 613 = the number of letters in the Decalogue. Some were great and some were small (or heavy and light). The question was as to great and small (as in Mat 22:38); not the greatest and least.
36. . .] Not, which is the great commandment,-but which (what kind of a) commandment is great in the law? In Mark, otherwise.
Mat 5:19, Mat 5:20, Mat 15:6, Mat 23:23, Mat 23:24, Hos 8:12, Mar 12:28-33, Luk 11:42
Reciprocal: 1Ki 18:21 – answered 2Ki 23:3 – with all their heart Mal 4:4 – the law Mat 22:24 – Master Rom 5:5 – because
2:36
The question would seem to be prompted by a good motive since it pertained to the law. But it was unfair because the Lord never put any more of His authority behind one commandment than another. (See Jas 2:10-11.) Had Jesus specified one command as being greater than another, the lawyer would have accused him of showing discrimination between things that were equal as to their divine origin.
Mat 22:36. What commandment is great in the law? i.e., the Mosaic law. Not merely greater than the rest, but great, as including the rest. Comp. Mat 22:38; Mat 22:40. If there was a reference to the disputes of the Rabbins about great and small commandments, the meaning would be: What kind of a commandment is great in the law? but this sense, though literally correct, does not suit the answer so well.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament