NOTES for Mat 22:15-40

If only we knew how to read Scripture and perceive its essence as the Lord does. In His answers about the resurrection of the dead and about the greatest commandment, He proceeds from the Pentateuch, which His opponents knew almost by heart. He not only answers the scribes' provocative questions but also shows us how deep the meaning of familiar words from the Bible can be. In the mysterious divine name “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” revealed in the account of Moses' calling in the Book of Exodus, we suddenly discover the message of the resurrection of the dead—something that would be revealed directly only by the later prophets and accomplished in Christ's Resurrection. And the two greatest commandments from Deuteronomy truly prove to be a condensed form of the Decalogue (Exod 20), in which the first four commandments speak of love for God and the remaining six of love for one's neighbor.