Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Matthew 22:36 - 22:36
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The great commandment in the law (entolē megalē en tōi nomōi). The positive adjective is sometimes as high in rank as the superlative. See megas in Mat 5:19 in contrast with elachistos. The superlative megistos occurs in the N.T. only in 2Pe 1:4. Possibly this scribe wishes to know which commandment stood first (Mar 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.