Matthew 22:38
in Matthew 22This is the first and greatest commandment.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
This is the great and first commandment.
KJV
This is the first and great commandment.
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This verse in Matthew 22
Commentary
9 notes on this verseIf the Lord had given no answer to the Pharisee who thus tempted Him, we should have judged that there was no commandment greater than the rest. But when the Lord adds, This is the first and great commandment, we learn how we ought to think of the commandments, that there is a great one, and that there are less down to the least. And the Lord says not only that it is a great, but that it is the first commandment, not in order of Scripture, but in supremacy of value.
This site's exposition
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart
on Matthew 22:37-40
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind quotes Deuteronomy 6:5, the Shema Israel recited daily by every observant Jew, and Jesus names it first and great without qualification. The second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, joins Leviticus 19:18 to the first as its inseparable partner rather than a lesser add-on, and on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets states plainly that every other command is an application of these two, not a third body of separate rules. The bench reads Jesus here summarizing rather than replacing the law, the same righteousness thread that runs from the Sermon's fulfil all righteousness through the whole book.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
(De Doctr. Christ. i. 30. et 26.) But since the Divine substance is more excellent and higher than our nature, the command to love God is distinct from that to love our neighbour. But if by yourself, you understand your whole self, that is both your soul and your body, and in like manner of your neighbour, there is no sort of things to be loved omitted in these commands. The love of God goes first, and the rule thereof is so set out to us as to make all other loves center in that, so that nothing seems said of loving yourself. But then follows, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself, so that love of yourself is not omitted.
This he adds since the Pharisees have asked truly "What is the greatest commandment in the law?" The Lord himself responds to them and teaches us. Not only is the greatest commandment to love the Lord, but as well it is the first commandment. It is first, however, not in the order of the Scriptures but in the order of virtue. And as this comes from such a source, it must be adhered to, since as with many established commands, Christ says that it is the first and greatest command that "you love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole mind and your whole soul," and the second, however, "is like unto" the first; and accordingly, this similitude is also great, "that you love your neighbor as you love yourself." This is how we understand the second one, while another may be third in magnitude and order, or a fourth, and so in order we number the commands of the law, accepting this as wisdom from God, who orders them even to the least. Such is the task of no one else but Christ alone, since he is "the power of God and the wisdom of God."
A commentator
John ChrysostomHomily on the Gospel of Matthew 71 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
What then saith Christ? Indicating from what they were led to this; from having no charity, from pining with envy, from being seized by jealousy, He saith, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." But wherefore "like unto this?" Because this makes the way for that, and by it is again established; "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light;" and again, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." And what in consequence of this? "They are corrupt, and become abominable in their ways." And again, "The love of money is the root of all evils; which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith;" and, "He that loveth me, will keep my commandment."
The Medieval Church2 voices
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 …
Having stated this, he adds, this is the greatest and the first commandment. Greatest in capacity: for this is the one in which all are contained, because in this the love of neighbor is contained, according to what is said in 1 John 4:21: he …
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
This is the first and great commandment.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
This is the first and great commandment - It is so, 1. In its antiquity, being as old as the world, and engraven originally on our very nature. 2. In dignity; as directly and immediately proceeding front and referring to God. 3. In excellence; being the commandment of the new covenant, and the very spirit of the Divine adoption. 4. In justice; because it alone renders to God his due, prefers him before all things, and secures to him his proper rank in relation to them.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| αὕτη | haute | This | G3778 → | 1381 times |
| ἐστὶν | estin | is | G1510 → | 2333 times |
| ἡ | he | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| μεγάλη | megale | great | G3173 → | 243 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| πρώτη | prote | first | G4413 → | 152 times |
| ἐντολή. | entole | commandment. | G1785 → | 67 times |
αὕτηThis
hauteG3778 →1381 times
ἐστὶνis
estinG1510 →2333 times
ἡthe
heG3588 →19766 times
μεγάληgreat
megaleG3173 →243 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
πρώτηfirst
proteG4413 →152 times
ἐντολή.commandment.
entoleG1785 →67 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
About Matthew
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Augustine of Hippo, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 71; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 2; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Matthew and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Matthew.