The Great Commandment of the Law

In the 22nd chapter of Matthew, after Christ had silenced the Sadducees, a lawyer who was apparently a Pharisee asked Him a question---apparently in an attempt to trap Him.

"Which is the great commandment of the law?" he asked. The issue in the lawyer's question was the Law of Moses (or the five books written by Moses---the Pentateuch).

The Savior of course knew the Law of Moses and He knew the right answer. He responded by quoting the passage we now know as Deuteronomy 6:5: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This," He said, "is the first and great commandment."

Then Jesus continued: "And the second [great commandment] is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"---this time quoting part of the scriptural passage we now find in Leviticus 19:18.

But Jesus did not stop there. He not only cited these two commandments and the greatest and second greatest commandments in the Law (i.e., the Law of Moses), but also the most significant message in the writings of the prophets. Said He: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

When the people at the time of Jesus spoke of "the law and the prophets," they were speaking of the scriptures---the writings of Moses and the prophets that they had available to them.

The scriptures in common use by them were in the Greek Septuagint Old Testament---the scriptural writings that had been translated from Hebrew to Greek in the third century B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt, for use by the Greek-speaking Jews living there during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (284-246 B.C.). The title Septuagint comes from the tradition that it was translated in 70 days by 70 (actually 72) elders sent from Jerusalem. In Old Testament commentaries, the Septuagint is often referred to by the designation LXX.

In addition to the law and the prophets, the scriptures also included what they called the writings. These writings included those parts of the Old Testament that we usually think of as being more literary. These included such works as the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Job, Esther, etc.