Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Mark 12:29
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is, etc..] Christ replied at once, without taking any time to consider of it, that the chief and principal of all the commands of the law, and what is of the greatest importance is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. The Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions read, “one God”; but the Syriac, and Ethiopic render it, “one Lord”; and that rightly, agreeably to the Greek text, and to (<050604>Deuteronomy 6:4), from whence this is taken. This passage of Scripture, to the end of the ninth verse, is the first of the sections which were put into their phylacteries; (see Gill on “<402305>Matthew 23:5”); and was repeated twice every day, morning and evening; which is by the Jews called from the first word m tayrq, “the reading of the Shema”: concerning the exact time of the reciting of this, morning and evening, and of the posture in which they do it, reclining in the evening, and standing in the morning, and of the prayers before and after it, various rules are given in their Misna f209 , or oral law; it is a precept of great esteem and veneration with them, and attended to with much solemnity. The account Maimonides f210 gives of it is this: [ ç “twice every day they read Keriath Shema; (i.e. “hear, O Israel”, etc..) in the evening and in morning, as it is said, (<050607>Deuteronomy 6:7). “When thou liest down, and when thou risest up”; in the hour it is the custom of men to lie down, and this is night; and in the hour it is the custom of men to stand, and this is day: and what does he read? three sections; and they are these, “hear”, etc.. (<050604>Deuteronomy 6:4), and it shall come to pass, “if ye shall hearken”, etc.. (<051113>Deuteronomy 11:13), “and Moses said”, etc.. (<021303>Exodus 13:3), and they read the section, “hear, O Israel”, first, because there is in it the unity of God, and the love of him and his doctrine; for it is, lwdgh rqh, “the great root”, or “foundation”, on which all hangs or depends.” [ And it is observable, that the last letter of the word “hear”, and the last of the word “one”, are both written in very large characters in the Hebrew Bible, to denote the greatness of the command, and to cause attention to it. The Jews seek for mysteries in these letters, and think the unusual size of them, points at some very great things: they observe, that the first of these letters is numerically “seventy”, and directs to the seventy names of the law, and the seventy ways in which it may be interpreted, and the seventy nations of the world, from whom the Israelites are distinguished, by their belief of the one God f211; and that the latter stands for the number “four”, and shows that the Lord is the one God, in heaven and in earth, in all the world, and in the four parts of it; and that both these letters put together, make a word, which signifies “a witness”; showing that this passage is a glorious testimony of the unity of God, and that the Israelites are witnesses of it, by believing and professing it; and that should they depart from the faith of it, God would be a witness against them: and now, though there is no solid foundation for such interpretations, yet this shows what an opinion they had of the greatness of this command; to which, may be added, they ask f212, “why does, “hear, O Israel”, etc.. go before that passage in (<051113>Deuteronomy 11:13). “And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments”, etc.. but because a man mus…
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