Jesus' interlocutors never tire of testing His knowledge of all kinds of theological and rabbinic wisdom. The question about the chief commandment in the Torah was precisely one of these tests. Teachers of the Torah debated at length about its central meaning and which commandments in it should be considered fundamental. Jewish tradition has preserved the story of a man who...
Jesus' interlocutors never tire of testing His knowledge of all kinds of theological and rabbinic wisdom. The question about the chief commandment in the Torah was precisely one of these tests. Teachers of the Torah debated at length about its central meaning and which commandments in it should be considered fundamental. Jewish tradition has preserved the story of a man who came to Hillel, one of the best-known teachers of the Hellenistic period, saying that he would become his disciple if Hillel could explain the essence of the Torah to him in the time he could stand on one leg. Hillel replied: “Love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Everything else is only commentary. Go and learn.” Evidently, by Gospel times this teaching was already common knowledge, and the Pharisees decided to test Jesus' knowledge of the relevant tradition. In response, He puts to them a question that can be answered only by reading Holy Scripture closely and pondering its meaning, rather than merely repeating someone else's words, however full of wisdom.
He draws His interlocutors' attention to the fact that the Messiah, who according both to the sacred texts and to common belief must be a son of David, proves to be the One whom the psalmist addresses as his “lord.” The corresponding Hebrew word, like its Greek equivalent, can be translated either “Lord” or “lord,” and the Hebrew text of the psalm suggests the latter meaning more strongly. Jesus is evidently alluding here to the prophetic tradition, especially to the Book of Isaiah, where the Messiah is spoken of as One whose origin is “from the days of eternity.” Yet in the Jewish tradition of Gospel times this connection had not been traced. Such connotations of meaning were utterly unexpected by Jesus' interlocutors, and not knowing what to think or answer, they fall silent. Although the Lord does not deny the importance and, in some cases, the usefulness of tradition, He nevertheless gives first place to the ability to read a familiar text anew, with fresh eyes, and see it from a new and unexpected angle.
This is of course not merely a matter of learning to play with the meanings contained in a text. It is a matter of learning to see in the familiar what had previously gone unnoticed. The Kingdom, too, enters the world as something new, sometimes hidden behind the familiar. The ability to discern this newness in the familiar therefore also means the ability to see the Kingdom entering the world, concealed for a time behind the realities of a world not yet transfigured.
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22:34 Mar 12:28; Luk 10:25.
22:35 A scribe asking him a question, trying him - Not, as it seems, with any ill design: but barely to make a farther trial of that wisdom, which he had shown in silencing the Sadducees.
22:37 Deu 6:5.
22:39 Lev 19:18.