Mark 12:28-34

The Greatest Commandment. This further question does not seem to be put in a spirit of hostility. The scribe may have been a Pharisee who admired the answer Jesus had given to the Sadducees. There was no real doubt as to the greater commandment. The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4 f.) was repeated daily by the Jews. It was the foundation-text of their monotheism, which was not a speculative theory but a practical conviction (pp. 618f.). Jesus adds to it Leviticus 19:18. Love to God finds its only adequate fulfilment in love to one's neighbour. God's worship lies in social duty. Love to one's neighbour must be rooted in love of God. Wellhausen says, the combination was first effected in this way by Jesus; this is not certain, and, at any rate, in this Jesus stood in complete and conscious agreement with Pharisaism (Schlatter, Das Wort Jesu, p. 221). The commendation which Jesus gives to the scribe implies a kingdom already present. Loisy regards this story as an explanation of Luke 10:25. He considers the repetition of the answer to the question clumsy. But surely it is effective and original story-telling. Loisy also suggests with more justification that the fear to ask Jesus further questions would come more appropriately after the preceding story. There was nothing to frighten men in the scribe's experience.