Lange Commentary - Mark 12:28 - 12:34

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Lange Commentary - Mark 12:28 - 12:34


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5. The Scribe, first tempting, then half won. Mar_12:28-34

(Parallels: Mat_22:34-40; Luk_20:39.)

28     And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments Isaiah , 14 Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. 31And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: there is none other commandment greater than these. 32And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: 33And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices. 34And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Comp. Matthew.—The peculiarities of Mark: Matthew causes the tempting Pharisees, who were for the moment influenced by friendly feelings towards the Lord because He had put the Sadducees to silence, to advance; while Mark brings forward into the light their representative, a well-meaning scribe, whom Matthew designates more specifically as a lawyer. Matthew emphasizes the temptation, Mark the questioning; and, in addition, the transaction is clothed in a much richer form than in the Gospel by Matthew. The statement of Jesus is first introduced, that the greatest commandment is to hear that God is one, as therefrom proceeds the unity of the commandment of love out of the unity or absolute simplicity of the entire inner life. To this succeeds the joyful assent of the scribe, and his well-nigh literal repetition of the Lord’s words. And, lastly, the recognition by Christ that he had answered discreetly; to which the declaration is appended, that he was not far from the kingdom of God. The observation that the Jews dared not question further, forms the conclusion of this section in Mark. Luke appends this remark to the question of the Sadducees, Matthew to the counter-question of Christ. Considering the meaning, these three narratives form but one whole. For, after the Sadducees had been defeated, the hope to overcome Him was already destroyed. The temptation here narrated was only an ambiguous after-game, probably half devoted to the attempt of inducing Christ to allow Himself, in spite of all, to be won over as a partisan to the party of the Pharisees. But when Jesus had put His counter-question, to which no reply could be given, the mouths of His opponents were finally closed. Upon the allegation of Meyer, that a difference exists between Mark and Matthew, comp. Note to Matthew’s account.

Mar_12:28. The first commandment of all.—The first, and that in the sense of the chief importance. See Note upon Matthew. “The Jews enumerated six hundred and thirteen ordinances; three hundred and sixty-five prohibitions, according to the days of the year; two hundred and twenty-eight commandments, according to the parts of the body. The Pharisees distinguished between lesser and greater commandments.” Braune.

Mar_12:29. Hear, O Israel; The Lord: Deu_6:4-5.—Jesus gives the introduction to the ten commandments as the first command itself, not in so far as it forms one of the commandments, but in so far as it is the principle of the commandments,—finding its full exposition in the words: And thou shalt love, etc. The inner idea of the introduction has been explained already in Deuteronomy, from which the citation is drawn. Directly in opposition to this qualitative conception, the modern Jews reckon, according to their division, the words: Hear, O Israel, etc., quantitatively, as the first commandment. Upon this division, as well as generally upon the various divisions of the decalogue, comp. Geffken, Ueber die verschiedene Eintheilung des Dekalogus, Hamburgh, 1838, p. 9 seq. “This principle of all duties was termed specially, ÷øéàä , or sometimes, after the initial word, ùׁîò ; and the words were usually recited daily, night and morning; see Vitringa, Synagoga Judaica, 2, 3, 15; Buxtorf, Syn. 9.” Meyer.

Mar_12:30. With all thy heart.—The Hebrew text has the three following specifications: with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength ( îְàֹã , a might which is at once the manifesting of strength, and employing of strength; Gesenius, robur, vehementia). Instead of the first word, heart, the Septuagint reads, äéÜíïéá ; the second is of the same tenor; and the third it properly renders äýíáìéò . Christ’s quotation, as given by Matthew, follows the original text in the first and second word, heart, soul; but substitutes, with a fulness of meaning, for the third, äéÜíïéá , the moral might of consciousness, of will. In Mark, the one word is expressed by two, äéÜíïéá and ἰó÷ýò (= îְàֹã ). On the contrary, in Mark, the scribe divides the first conception (heart) into two, êáñäßá and óýíåóéò ; while the lawyer, in the narrative in Luk_10:27, where we have a similar, though not identical, interview, speaks as Jesus here does. Only ἰó÷ýò precedes äéÜíïéá . From all this, it is evident that a freer mode of handling the Old Testament text prevailed in the apostolic circle; moreover, it is worthy of being noted that no Gospel contains the äýíáìéò of the Septuagint. Whether the differences are only “variations of the Greek tradition,” occasioned by the habit of quoting from memory, or different points of view, is doubtful. In any case, it is noteworthy that the philosophizing Septuagint has explained êáñäßá by äéÜíïéá ; while, according to Matthew, Christ, spiritualizing ἰó÷ýò , gives its force as äéÜíïéá , which is preceded by the heart and soul. Mark and Luke exegetically unite äéÜíïéá and ἰó÷ýò . The lawyer, to indicate his legal stand-point, adds to êáñäßá , which the Septuagint had converted into êáñäßá , the óýíåóéò . Upon biblical psychology (upon which Roos, Beck, and Delitzsch have written), comp. Note upon Matthew.

Mar_12:33. With all thy understanding.—Signification of the intelligence, as it develops into understanding.

Burnt offerings and sacrifices.—Psalms 51; 1Sa_15:22; Hos_6:6. This very comparison proved that the lawyer was overcome by an emotion of courageous faith, the giving utterance to which might have easily caused offence to his companions. It was in this situation a testimony.

Mar_12:34. Discreetly, íïõíå÷ῶò : with knowledge and understanding.—Attic, íïõíå÷üõôùò ; the opposite, ἀöñüíùò .

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See remarks upon Matthew.—From the unity and spiritual harmony of God proceeds the essential unity of His law in one principle—love. This principle has already been brought into view in Deuteronomy. The true covenant-God, as the one God and the one Lord over hearts and in them,—this makes one life-experience, one life-motive, love. So appears the royal law as given by James (Mar_2:8) and Paul (Rom_13:10). Upon the element of temptation in this question, comp. Note on Matthew. In the passage before us, religion is declared to be the central, concentrated direction of the whole man, especially of his soul’s powers, to the one God.

2. The man, in whose inward parts the law of God has been by love inscribed, loves at first from the heart, in the very core of his being; next, notwithstanding the varying frames of his soul, in his soul likewise, in the disposition of his soul-life; and then in his practical intelligence or mode of thought,—in the practical resolutions and purposes of his life, with which all the powers of his life (as members and instruments of righteousness) enter into, and are spent in, the service of love.

3. Braune:—These two commandments point to the two tables of the law. Upon the first are five laws, concerning God’s glory, God’s likeness, God’s name, God’s day, God’s representatives; upon the second, five concerning person and life, marriage and household peace, goods and chattels, honor and right, and the heart of man. The two tables are one; containing the commandments of one, inseparable, heavenly law of love.

4. To be rational (discreet), the Lord here calls, not to be far from the kingdom of God. The reason, ideally conceived, is the faculty of understanding or perceiving the divine in its ideas. This faculty perceives the idea of love in the law. Discretion and subtilty mark the contrast between the true and false use of reason.

5. Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.—He who recognizes the law in its spiritual meaning, and in opposition to external forms and ceremonies (more than burnt-offerings and sacrifices), is on the road of the Spirit (rational in a moral sense), and on the way of return from self-righteousness and of turning back to self-knowledge, which conditions the entrance into the kingdom founded by Christ. Not far from, that is, near. What was still wanting was, the full surrender to his conviction, or the actual following of Jesus. This transaction is, accordingly, a sign and presage of Christ’s victory in the centre of His enemy’s camp.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See Matthew.—The three unities in religion, a type of the Trinity of the one God: 1. The one God; 2. the one faith (giving heed to Christ’s word); 3. the one commandment.—The unity of God is not mere individuality, nor singleness, but chiefly, His being alone and His being one, to which the unity of man in the simplicity of the faith must correspond.—Man is really a unity in obedience, when his inner life, in the trinity of heart (feeling), of soul (the will), and of reason or intelligence, is at one with itself and with God’s word.—Unity and trinity, the secret of all spiritual life: 1. Of the highest life above us; 2. of the deepest life within us; 3. of the richest life around us.—In the true love of God and his neighbor, man would re-obtain his true self-love, and recover from his diseased self-love.—Thou art not far from the kingdom of God; or, the tempter transformed into the disciple. Or a meaning-fraught word,—1. of recognition, 2. of warning, 3. of encouragement.—Christ explained in the temple-court, in the circle of those who hated Him, the great law of love, as He upon the night of betrayal instituted the meal of love, and upon Golgotha overcame the curse of the entire world-hate, by His act, by His suffering, and by His sacrifice of love.

Canstein:—Good men may be often so misled as to permit themselves to be employed against Christ: for such we must have compassion, pray for them, and endeavor to deliver them.—Quesnel:—True religion consists in hearing, believing, and loving.—As thou lovest thyself, so act with thy neighbor.—Hedinger:—Who can withstand the truth? Where but a little good-will is found, it pierces through. But ah! how hard the hearts that strive against her!—Osiander:—External ceremonies are no doubt good; but where they are found without love, they are only a mantle covering secret sin, and will be rejected by God.—Bibl. Wirt.:—Courage, ye teachers and preachers! God moves the heart of many a one, who has not known the fact, in a sermon, so that he goes forth better than he came in.—He who recognizes the worth of love, and what it is, is near the kingdom of God; but he who has experienced love, is in it.—Hedinger:-—Whosoever is, in the beginning, obedient and true to the divine leadings of grace, of him is there hope that he is won.—He who is near, is not therefore within the kingdom, Mat_7:13.—Canstein:—Truth conquers.—Quesnel:—A silence of contentedness and obedience is a wholesome silence; but that of rude ignorance and obstinacy is a damning silence.

Rieger:—Upon the commandment of love to God and to our neighbor is all dependent; and yet God, on account of man’s lost state, could not leave all to be dependent on this alone, but had to reveal many other, special, explicit commandments, and make us conscious of our captivity to sin by them. Not till that institution (these laws) has fulfilled its part, can we be brought by the grace of Christ under the law of the Spirit.

Lisco:—All external sacrifices are only weak types of the one perfect sacrifice, the perfect surrender of the heart to God.—With thy earnest moral striving, thou art upon the way by which the kingdom of God may be reached; for thou recognizest the existence of true piety, and deceivest thyself not with an external righteousness by works. The entrance is by faith alone in the Saviour, who is the Way, Joh_14:6.—Gerlach:—Through a living acquaintance with God’s law, through heartfelt affection for its chief commandment, love, man comes near to the kingdom; but to come into the kingdom, he needs the knowledge of God, by which alone the conflict between pleasure in the law, and its constant transgression, can be stopped.—Braune:—God is one, says Paul, Gal_3:20, to prove that law and promise are eternally one. So, too, says the Lord here, in that He calls to His support the fundamental doctrine of the law: Hear, Israel, etc. It is always the heart upon which God first looks.—The second command is the proof of the first. “If a man say, I love God,” etc., 1Jn_4:20.—God says, No God beside Me; but man must say, Other men beside me.—On God’s account we are bound to love our neighbor as ourselves.—Thou shalt: it is accordingly no merit if thou do so; but it is sin if thou neglect. Thou shalt perfectly: It is not a portion which suffices. This must drive us to Him who fulfilled this law, and helps us to fulfil.—The Master gives measured praise: of beautiful views and fine declarations He never makes too much, but recognizes these in all relations in such a way as to encourage to progress.—Let each take heed, that in his case the separation between knowing and doing, between the acknowledgment of the faith and the work of faith, become not fixed, and ever grow more terrible.

Schleiermacher:—See his Sermons, vol. iii. p. 765 ff.—Brieger:—To love God, who is the Love and the Life, is to live godly. But he who lives in and with God, or godly, loves also what God loves.—Love is the only self-sacrifice, and it is the only sacrifice that God wishes.—Gossner:—One God, one heart, one love.

Footnotes:

[Mar_12:28.—Lachmann reads ἰäþí for åἰäὼò , after C., D., L.]

Mar_12:29.—Many variations. Tischendorf, adopting B., L., Ä ., reads on ὄôé ðñþôç ἐóôßí ; Griesbach, ὅôé ðñþôç ðÜíôùí ἐíôïëÞ , after A. and Minusculi.

Mar_12:30.—Tischendorf, following D. and some Minusculi and Versions, omits êáὶ ἐî ὅëçò ôῆò äéáíïßáò .]

Mar_12:30.— Áὕôç ðñþôç ἐíôïëÞ omitted by Tischendorf, following B., E., L., Ä .; retained by A., D., &c.

Mar_12:31.—Tischendorf reads simply äåõôÝñá áὕôç , and so B., L., Ä .; this means, “this is the second in importance.” Lachmann, and the majority of the MSS., retain ὁìïßá áὐôῇ .

[Mar_12:32.—The best MSS. omit Èåüò after ἐóôé .]

[Mar_12:33.—Tischendorf, following B., L., Ä ., omits êáὶ ἐî ὅëçò ôῆò øõ÷ῆò . Meyer defends the reading.]