Matthew 22:34

Matthew THE TABLES TURNED: THE QUESTIONERS QUESTIONEDMatthew 22:34 . Herodians, Sadducees, Pharisees, who were at daggers drawn with each other, patched up an alliance against Jesus, whom they all hated. Their questions were cunningly contrived to entangle Him in the cobwebs of casuistry and theological hair-splitting, but He walked through the fine-spun snares as a lion might stalk away with the nooses set for him dangling behind him. The last of the three questions put to Jesus, and the one question with which He turned the tables and silenced His questioners, are our subject. In the former, Jesus declares the essence of the law or of religion; in the latter, He brings to light the essential loftiness of the Messiah. I. The two preceding questions are represented to have been asked by deputations; this is specially noted as emanating from an individual. The ‘lawyer’ seems to have anticipated his colleagues, and possibly his question was not that which they had meant to put. His motive in asking it was that of ‘tempting’ Jesus, but we must not give that word too hostile a sense, for it may mean no more than ‘testing’ or trying. The legal expert wished to find out the attainments and standpoint of this would-be teacher, and so he proposed a question which would bring out the whereabouts of Jesus, and give opportunity for a theological wrangle. He did not ask the question for guidance, but as an inquisitor cross-examining a suspected heretic.

Probably the question was a stereotyped one, and there are traces in the Gospels that the answer recognised as orthodox was that which Jesus gave { Luke 10:27 }. The two commandments are quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 respectively. The lawyer probably only desired to raise a discussion as to the relative worth of isolated precepts. Jesus goes deep down below isolated precepts, and unifies, as well as transforms, the law. Supreme and undivided love to God is not only the great, but also the first, commandment. In more modern phrase, it is the sum of man’s duty and the germ of all goodness. Note that Jesus shifts the centre from conduct to character, from deeds to affections. ‘As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,’ said the sage of old; Christ says, ‘As a man loves, so is he.’ Two loves we have,-either the dark love of self and sense, or the white love of God, and all character and conduct are determined by which of these sways us. Note, further, that love to God must needs be undivided. God is one and all; man is one and finite. To love such an object with half a heart is not to love. True, our weakness leads astray, but the only real love corresponding to the natures of the lover and the loved is whole-hearted, whole-souled, whole-minded. It must be ‘all in all, or not at all.’ ‘A second is like unto it,’-love to man is the under side, as it were, of love to God.

34 . had put … to silence ] Literally, gagged ; hence silenced completely, not only for the moment. The same Greek work is used ( Matthew 22:12 ) of the guest; Mark 1:25 and Luke 4:35 , of silencing a demon; Mark 4:39 , of silencing a storm; 1 Corinthians 9:9 and 1 Timothy 5:18 , of muzzling an ox. 34–40 . The Greatest Commandment Mark 12:28-34 ; Luke 10:25-28 In St Luke the question is asked at an earlier period of the ministry, after the return of the Seventy; and the meaning of “neighbour” is illustrated by the parable of the “Good Samaritan.”

Matthew 22:34-36 . When the Pharisees heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence — Gr. οτι εφιμοσε , that he had stopped their mouths, or so confuted that he had confounded them, and rendered them unable to make any reply; they were gathered together — It is not said with what design: but it is probable from Matthew 22:15-16 , with a malicious one, namely, to try, though the Sadducees had been baffled in their attempt upon him, as they themselves had also been, when they united with the Herodians, if they could yet any way expose him to the people. Then one of them, a lawyer — Or teacher of the law, (namely, of Moses,) as the word νομικος always means in the New Testament, that is, a scribe, asked him a question, tempting, or trying him — Not, it seems, with any ill design, but barely to make further trial of that wisdom which he had shown in silencing the Sadducees. For, according to Mark, it was in consequence of his perceiving that our Lord had answered the Sadducees well, that this person asked the question here mentioned. Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

— This was a famous question among the Jews. “Some of their doctors declared that the law of sacrifices was the great commandment, because sacrifices were both the expiations of sin and thanksgivings for mercies; others bestowed this honour on the law of circumcision, because it was the sign of the covenant established between God and the nation; a third sort yielded to the law of the sabbath, because, by that appointment, both the knowledge and practice of the institutions of Moses were preserved; and to name no more, there were some who affirmed the law of meats and washings to be of the greatest importance, because thereby the people of God were effectually separated from the company and conversations of the heathen.” But Jesus, with much better reason, decided in favour of a command inclusive of the whole of piety, and leading to every holy temper, word, and work.

Matthew 22:34-40 . The great commandment ( Mark 12:28-34 ).—In a still more marked degree than in the case of the man in quest of eternal life, Mk.’s account presents the subject of this incident in a more favourable light than that of Mt. The difference must be allowed to stand. Mk.’s version is welcome as showing a good side even in the scribe or Pharisee world.