The three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) record Jesus' answer to a scribe who asks him about the first commandment. Jesus responds quoting two texts of the Scriptures; on the one hand Dt 6:5: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."Secondly, he cites Lev 19:18: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.".
Matthew and Mark present the story in the context of various questions posed to the Master: the payment of tribute to Caesar, the resurrection of the dead; thirdly, the scribe's question: which is the first commandment? In Luke the question is isolated and serves as an introduction to the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Listen to
In Mark, the scribe, moved by amazement at Jesus' previous response, "asked him, Which is the first of all the commandments?". Unlike the other questions, in this one there is no provocative intention, but astonishment and righteousness. In Matthew, the astonishment is collective, and the questioner asks the question "to tempt him" (Mt 22:35). These are differences of nuance, which may reflect different traditions, or different emphases of each narrator.
Furthermore, in the second gospel, the quotation from Deuteronomy also includes v. 6, 4: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. Thou shalt love...". Specifically, the text of Mark reads as follows: "Jesus answered, 'The first is, 'Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'. There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mk 12:29-31). On the one hand, in the commandment Jesus includes "listening", and prior to the content of the commandment, he reminds us that the Lord, that is, the God of Israel, is the only God.
The first word of Mk's quotation ("listen") gives its name to the famous prayer that the Israelites used to pray: the shema. Also in the Catholic Church it is prayed weekly in the Divine Office. The meaning of the verb is quite broad: "to hear", "to listen", "to pay attention"; "to resonate"; in a subjective sense: "to become aware", "to become aware", "to be informed", "to know"; moreover, it is the term most often used to express the idea of "obedience". "To hear" and "to obey" are intimately linked in the biblical vocabulary. For example, it is illustrative the case of Dt 21, where it speaks of the "rebellious son": the same verb (shamá) is used both to listen and to obey: "If a man had a rebellious and incorrigible son, who would not listen and his mother's voice and, although they correct him, they are not heeds [...]. Then they shall declare [...]: 'This rebellious and incorrigible son of ours will not listen our voice...'" (Dt 21:18-20).
A double commandment
With the words of Dt 6, the Lord is inviting his people to remember all the good things they have received from him, particularly the possession of a land: "Hear therefore, O Israel, and be diligent to do that which will make you happy and very numerous in the land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you." (Dt 6:3). Listening to and remembering the history of salvation makes it possible to send a love of correspondence. Moreover, the confession of the One God is linked to the memory of his loving care. Then comes the concrete commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God...". St. John will express it in explicit words: "We love, because He first loved us." (1 Jn 4:19).
The listening-remembering of the history of salvation allows then to send a love of correspondence.
Josep Boira
Let us return to the scribe's question, clear and forceful: "Which is the first of all the commandments?". But Jesus says there are two. In the Old Testament these two commandments do not appear together. The second appears in the Decalogue broken down into other commandments; more than 100 times the "neighbor" is mentioned, almost always to command that he be respected, he and all that is his. Only once, however, in Lev 19:18, is it explicitly commanded "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" as the culmination of a group of precepts related to this respect.
At Jesus' wise and novel reply, the scribe's astonishment seemed to increase: "Good, Master!" (Mk 12:32). But this amazement later turned into silence: "And no one dared to ask him questions anymore." (Mk 12:34). It was impossible to imprison Jesus with false words. His wisdom amazes and shuts him up. But Jesus' disciples, simple as they were, were not afraid to ask Jesus all their questions. And in the end, they were able to "hear" these two commandments fused into one: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. As I have loved you, so also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." (Jn 13:34-35). The disciples listened and obeyed, they were not "rebellious children". The disciples of Jesus in the 21st century must also be known for "listening to and obeying" this commandment.
Professor of Sacred Scripture
