Matthew 22:34-40
I’ve had several people over the years try to tell me that Yeshua taught there are only two commandments. They’ve said there’s no need to worry about the hundreds of other commands in the Bible. Just love God and your neighbor.
I agree that in one sense there are only two commandments. I disagree with the understanding many people have about these two commandments.
What Yeshua is doing here is answering a question by an expert in the law (vs. 35). Yeshua would have never gotten away with telling a Torah-expert that there were only two commandments total.
This expert asked which commandment in the law was the greatest (vs. 36)? Yeshua responded by summarizing the law under two headings or categories. The first category is a person’s love for Yahweh, and the second is a person’s love for their neighbor. Yeshua ended by saying that all the law and the prophets depend upon these two commandments.
The word depend carries the meaning of hang, as a door hangs upon hinges. The hinges are there, but something else is hanging on the hinges. The two commandments are there, but something else hangs on these commandments.*
Picture these two commandments in your mind. Now picture chains hanging off the first commandment. At the end of those chains hang other commandments like, “Do not have other gods before me,” or “Do not make an idol for yourself.” Each of these commandments hang upon the greatest or first commandment of loving Yahweh with all your heart and soul. The same applies for the second greatest commandment.
Yeshua wasn’t doing away with the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20; Deut. 5), nor the many other laws found in Torah. He was just explaining that every law in Torah depends upon love for Yahweh or love for our neighbor.
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*Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984) states on page 523 the following definition for the Greek word kremannumi, translated as "hang" or "depend" in our English Bibles: "...in Matt. 22:40, of the dependance of 'the Law and the prophets' (i.e., that which they enjoin) upon the one great principle of love to God and one's neighbor (as a door hangs on a hinge, or as articles hang on a nail)..."
I agree that in one sense there are only two commandments. I disagree with the understanding many people have about these two commandments.
What Yeshua is doing here is answering a question by an expert in the law (vs. 35). Yeshua would have never gotten away with telling a Torah-expert that there were only two commandments total.
This expert asked which commandment in the law was the greatest (vs. 36)? Yeshua responded by summarizing the law under two headings or categories. The first category is a person’s love for Yahweh, and the second is a person’s love for their neighbor. Yeshua ended by saying that all the law and the prophets depend upon these two commandments.
The word depend carries the meaning of hang, as a door hangs upon hinges. The hinges are there, but something else is hanging on the hinges. The two commandments are there, but something else hangs on these commandments.*
Picture these two commandments in your mind. Now picture chains hanging off the first commandment. At the end of those chains hang other commandments like, “Do not have other gods before me,” or “Do not make an idol for yourself.” Each of these commandments hang upon the greatest or first commandment of loving Yahweh with all your heart and soul. The same applies for the second greatest commandment.
Yeshua wasn’t doing away with the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20; Deut. 5), nor the many other laws found in Torah. He was just explaining that every law in Torah depends upon love for Yahweh or love for our neighbor.
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*Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984) states on page 523 the following definition for the Greek word kremannumi, translated as "hang" or "depend" in our English Bibles: "...in Matt. 22:40, of the dependance of 'the Law and the prophets' (i.e., that which they enjoin) upon the one great principle of love to God and one's neighbor (as a door hangs on a hinge, or as articles hang on a nail)..."