Matthew 22:40
in Matthew 22All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets.
KJV
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
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This verse in Matthew 22
Commentary
19 notes on this verseAfter this you ask how it is that "all the law and the prophets depend upon these two commands." For it seems that the texts show us that whatever was written in Exodus or Leviticus or Numbers or Deuteronomy depend "upon these two commands." But how is the law which regards lepers or the continual flow of blood or the menstruation of women dependent "upon these two commands"?
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 Fathers5 voices
(Quaest. Ev. i. 33.) Hang, that is, refer thither as their end.
(de Trin. viii. 7.) Since there are two commandments, the love of God and the love of our neighbour, on which hang the Law and the Prophets, not without reason does Scripture put one for both; sometimes the love of God; as in that, We know that all tilings work together for good to them that love God; (Rom. 8:28.) and sometimes the love of our neighbour; as in that, All the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself. (Gal. 5:14.) And that because if a man love his neighbour, it follows therefrom that he loves God also; for it is the selfsame affection by which we love God, and by which we love our neighbour, save that we love God for Himself, but ourselves and our neighbour for God's sake.
Or, because he that has fulfilled the things that are written concerning the love of God and our neighbour, is worthy to receive from God the great reward, that he should be enabled to understand the Law and the Prophets.
A commentator
John ChrysostomHomily on the Gospel of Matthew 71 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
But His commandments, and the sum of them, are, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and thy neighbor as thyself." If therefore to love God is to love one's neighbor, "For if thou lovest me," He saith, "O Peter, feed my sheep," but to love one's neighbor worketh a keeping of the commandments, with reason doth He say, "On these hang all the law and the prophets."
A commentator
John ChrysostomHomily on the Gospel of Matthew 71 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
But His commandments, and the sum of them, are, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and thy neighbor as thyself." If therefore to love God is to love one's neighbor, "For if thou lovest me," He saith, "O Peter, feed my sheep," but to love one's neighbor worketh a keeping of the commandments, with reason doth He say, "On these hang all the law and the prophets." So therefore what He did before, this He doth here also. I mean, that both there, when asked about the manner of the resurrection, He also taught a resurrection, instructing "For charity envieth not." By this He shows Himself to be submissive both to the law and to the prophets.
12 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers1 voice
Or otherwise; That the second command is like the first signifies that the obligation and merit of both are alike; for no love of God without Christ, or of Christ without God, can profit to salvation. It follows, On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
The Medieval Church8 voices
And because all precepts are referred either to God or to neighbor, as to the end and to that which is ordered to the end; hence it is that in these two commandments is enclosed the collection of the commandments and the comprehension of all …
A commentator
BonaventureCollationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 1 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
"Which is the first and great commandment in the Law?" The Lord responds: "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is …
A commentator
BonaventureCollations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 1 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
The Church is a union of rational men united in harmonious and uniform adherence to divine peace. And love is born of obedience to the Law. And the Law itself commands love. And this can be proved in the Saviour's own words: "On these two …
A commentator
BonaventureItinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 4 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
For sacred Scripture is principally concerned with the works of reparation. Whence it treats chiefly of faith, hope, and charity, through which virtues the soul must be reformed, and most especially of charity. Of which the Apostle says that it is the end of the …
Consequently, he assigns the reason why these two are the greatest commandments: on these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets. The whole teaching of the law and the prophets depends on these. For the end in things to be desired is related …
For to these two commandments belongs the whole decalogue; the commandments of the first table to the love of God, those of the second to the love of our neighbour.
Or, with all thy heart, i.e. understanding; with all thy soul, i.e. thy will; with all thy mind, i.e. memory; so you shall think, will, remember nothing contrary to Him.
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 Awakening2 voices
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
This will aggravate the misery of sinners, that they might have had happiness for the coming for, but it was their own act and deed to refuse it. I would, and ye would not.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
On these two - hang all the law and the prophets - They are like the first and last links of a chain, all the intermediate ones depend on them. True religion begins and ends in love to God and man. These are the two grand links that unite God to man, man to his fellows, and men again to God.
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
12 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ἐν | en | On | G1722 → | 2738 times |
| ταύταις | tautais | these | G3778 → | 1381 times |
| ταῖς | tais | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| δυσὶν | dusin | two | G1417 → | 133 times |
| ἐντολαῖς | entolais | commandments | G1785 → | 67 times |
| ὅλος | holos | all | G3650 → | 109 times |
| ὁ | ho | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| νόμος | nomos | law | G3551 → | 192 times |
| κρέμαται | krematai | hangs | G2910 → | |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| οἱ | hoi | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| προφῆται.¶ | prophetai | Prophets. | G4396 → | 144 times |
ἐνOn
enG1722 →2738 times
ταύταιςthese
tautaisG3778 →1381 times
ταῖς<the>
taisG3588 →19766 times
δυσὶνtwo
dusinG1417 →133 times
ἐντολαῖςcommandments
entolaisG1785 →67 times
ὅλοςall
holosG3650 →109 times
ὁthe
hoG3588 →19766 times
νόμοςlaw
nomosG3551 →192 times
κρέματαιhangs
kremataiG2910 →
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
οἱthe
hoiG3588 →19766 times
προφῆται.¶Prophets.
prophetaiG4396 →144 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
Romans 13:9The commandments “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
it leads to
- Matthew 22:39
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Exodus 20:12–17
Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
- Mark 12:31
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
- Luke 10:27
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
- Deuteronomy 5:16–21
Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the…
- Matthew 22:39
Through
Matthew 7:12In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.
it leads to
- Luke 6:31
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
- Leviticus 19:18
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Romans 13:8–10
Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
- Luke 6:31
Where this verse is studied
About Matthew
This page draws on 17 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Augustine of Hippo, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Bonaventure, Breviloquium, Part 5; Bonaventure, Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 1; Bonaventure, Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 1; Bonaventure, Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 4; Glossa Ordinaria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Hilary of Poitiers, 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, COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 4; Origen of Alexandria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Rabanus Maurus, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Matthew and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Matthew.