Discovery BoxMatthew 22:34-40 
Context22:34 Now when the Pharisees 1 heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, 2 they assembled together. 3 22:35 And one of them, an expert in religious law, 4 asked him a question to test 5 him: 22:36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 6 22:37 Jesus 7 said to him, “‘Love 8 the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 9 22:38 This is the first and greatest 10 commandment. 22:39 The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 11 22:40 All the law and the prophets depend 12 on these two commandments.”
1 sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.
2 sn See the note on Sadducees in 3:7.
3 tn Grk “for the same.” That is, for the same purpose that the Sadducees had of testing Jesus.
4 tn Traditionally, “a lawyer.” This was an expert in the interpretation of the Mosaic law.
5 tn Grk “testing.” The participle, however, is telic in force.
6 tn Or possibly “What sort of commandment in the law is great?”
7 tn Grk “And he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
8 tn Grk “You will love.” The future indicative is used here with imperatival force (see ExSyn 452 and 569).
9 sn A quotation from Deut 6:5. The threefold reference to different parts of the person says, in effect, that one should love God with all one’s being.
10 tn Grk “the great and first.”
11 sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.
12 tn Grk “hang.” The verb κρεμάννυμι (kremannumi) is used here with a figurative meaning (cf. BDAG 566 s.v. 2.b).
