Matthew 22:36
in Matthew 22“Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
KJV
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
⋯
This verse in Matthew 22
Commentary
10 notes on this verseHe said Master tempting Him, for none but a disciple would thus address Christ. Whoever then does not learn of the Word, nor yields himself wholly up to it, yet calls it Master, he is brother to this Pharisee thus tempting Christ. Perhaps while they read the Law before the Saviour's coming, it was a question among them which was the great commandment in it; nor would the Pharisee have asked this, if it had not been long time enquired among themselves, but never found till Jesus came and declared it.
This site's exposition
put the Sadducees to silence
on Matthew 22:34-36
When the Pharisees heard he had put the Sadducees to silence they gathered together, and a lawyer among them asks which is the great commandment in the law, tempting him with a question rabbinic schools argued endlessly, since the six hundred and thirteen commandments were commonly sorted into weightier and lighter without full agreement on which was greatest. The bench reads the question as genuinely contested ground in that generation's teaching, not an invented trap like the tribute question, though the evangelist still calls it a temptation. Jesus answers it directly rather than turning it back on the asker, unlike the earlier two exchanges.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
Or he enquires not for the sake of the commands, but which is the first and great commandment, that seeing all that God commands is great, he may have occasion to cavil whatever the answer be.
He who now enquires for the greatest commandment had not observed the least. He only ought to seek for a higher righteousness who has fulfilled the lower.
A commentator
John ChrysostomHomily on the Gospel of Matthew 71 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
Again doth the evangelist express the cause, for which they ought to have held their peace, and marks their boldness by this also. How and in what way? Because when those others were put to silence, these again assail Him. For when they ought even for this to hold their peace, they strive to urge further their former endeavors, and put forward the lawyer, not desiring to learn, but making a trial of Him, and ask, "What is the first commandment?" For since the first commandment was this, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," thinking that He would afford them some handle, as though He would amend it, for the sake of showing that Himself too was God, they propose the question.
(Verse 34 and following) But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him: "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" What we read about Herod and Pontius Pilate, that they conspired in the death of the Lord, we also see now concerning the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who are opposed to each other, but agree with the same mind in testing Jesus. Therefore, those who had already been confuted in the display of the coin and had seen the faction of the opposing party undermined, should have been warned by example not to plot further snares: but malice and envy nourish audacity. One of the legal experts, not desiring to not know but attempting, asks whether the one being questioned knew what was being asked, what the greater commandment is: not asking about the commandments, but what the first and great commandment is; so that when all that God has commanded is great: whatever he may answer, he may have an opportunity to slander, asserting that something else is great among many. Therefore, whoever knows and asks not by desire to learn, but by the desire to know, whether the one who is going to respond knows, approaches in the likeness of the Pharisees, not as a disciple, but as a tempter.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Hence he says, master, which is the great commandment in the law? Yet this question seemed calumnious and presumptuous: calumnious, because all the commandments of God are great; Proverbs 6:23: the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light. Likewise, he asked in an …
3 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church1 voice
Out of immeasurable spite this man comes forward to put the Lord to the test. For when they saw the Sadducees put to shame and the Lord praised for His wisdom, they came forward to test Him to see if He would add something to …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? He calls him "master, Rabbi, or doctor", as the Sadducees had in Mat 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 Nineteenth Century1 voice
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, Mat 22:16. 2. The Sadducees, or libertines, who found theirs upon matters of religion, and articles of faith, which they did not credit, Mat 22:23.
How the passage was read
On Matthew 22:23-46On Matthew 22:23-46
The Sadducees' riddle, the greatest commandment, and David's son
The Sadducees, the priestly party that denied the resurrection of the dead (Acts 23:8), build their riddle on levirate marriage: the Torah's command that a man marry his brother's childless widow (Deuteronomy 25:5-10, the law behind Ruth; the Mishnah's tractate Yevamot regulates its cases). Seven brothers, one widow: “in the resurrection whose wife shall she be?” Jesus answers them from the Torah alone, the canon they granted: “I AM the God of Abraham” (Exodus 3:6), the living God of living men. Note where the parties stand: the Pharisees affirmed the resurrection so strongly that the Mishnah excludes from the world to come anyone who says the resurrection is not from the Torah (Sanhedrin 10:1). On this doctrine the Pharisaic tradition and Christian confession stand together against the Sadducees.
The lawyer's question that follows, “which is the great commandment?”, belongs to a genuine rabbinic genre: the search for a kelal gadol, a great governing principle. Hillel, asked to teach the whole Torah while a challenger stood on one foot, answered “what is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow; that is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary; go and learn” (Shabbat 31a); Rabbi Akiva later called “love your neighbor as yourself” the all-embracing principle of the Torah (Sifra on Leviticus 19:18). Jesus' first answer IS the Shema, the confession every observant Jew prays morning and evening (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), joined to Leviticus 19:18. The materials are the tradition's own; what is His alone is the authority with which He joins and ranks them, and the counter-question He then asks from Psalm 110: whose son is the Messiah?
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1 (the resurrection as core doctrine) · Shabbat 31a (Babylonian Talmud, Hillel on one foot) · Sifra, Kedoshim 4:12 (Akiva's great principle) · Mishnah Yevamot 1:1 (the levirate tractate)
The words behind it
7 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| διδάσκαλε, | didaskale | Teacher, | G1320 → | 58 times |
| ποία | poia | which | G4169 → | 33 times |
| ἐντολὴ | entole | commandment | G1785 → | 67 times |
| μεγάλη | megale | [is the] greatest | G3173 → | 243 times |
| ἐν | en | in | G1722 → | 2738 times |
| τῷ | to | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| νόμῳ; | nomo | law? | G3551 → | 192 times |
διδάσκαλε,Teacher,
didaskaleG1320 →58 times
ποίαwhich
poiaG4169 →33 times
ἐντολὴcommandment
entoleG1785 →67 times
μεγάλη[is the] greatest
megaleG3173 →243 times
ἐνin
enG1722 →2738 times
τῷthe
toG3588 →19766 times
νόμῳ;law?
nomoG3551 →192 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Luke 11:42Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint, rue, and every herb, but you disregard justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.
it leads to
- Matthew 23:23
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced…
- Luke 18:12
I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire.’
- Proverbs 21:3
To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice.
- Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
- Malachi 3:8
Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you ask, ‘How do we rob You?’ In tithes and offerings.
- Matthew 23:23
Through
Hosea 8:12Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.
it leads to
- Romans 7:12
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
- Deuteronomy 4:6–8
Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and…
- Psalms 50:17
For you hate My instruction and cast My words behind you.
- Romans 7:12
Where this verse is studied
About Matthew
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jerome, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Jerome, Commentary on Matthew; John Chrysostom, Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 71; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae on Matthew; Origen of Alexandria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Pseudo-Chrysostom, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Matthew and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Matthew.