Chapter LXXIII.—Of the Person to Whom the Two Precepts Concerning the Love of
God and the Love of Our Neighbour Were Commended; And of the Question as to the
Order of Narration Which is Observed by Matthew and Mark, and the Absence of Any
Discrepancy Between Them and Luke.
141. Matthew then proceeds with his narrative in the following terms: “But when the
Pharisees had heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
And one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying,
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the
first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”1168 This is re-
corded also by Mark, and that too in the same order. Neither should there be any difficulty
in the statement made by Matthew, to the effect that the person by whom the question was
put to the Lord tempted Him; whereas Mark1169 says nothing about that, but tells us at the
end of the paragraph how the Lord said to the man, as to one who answered discreetly,
“Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” For it is quite possible that, although the man
approached Him with the view of tempting Him, he may have been set right by the Lord’s
response. Or we need not at any rate take the tempting referred to in a bad sense, as if it
were the device of one who sought to deceive an adversary; but we may rather suppose it to
have been the result of caution, as if it were the act of one who wished to have further trial
of a person who was unknown to him. For it is not without a good purpose that this sentence
has been written, “He that is hasty to give credit is light-minded, and shall be impaired.”1170
142. Luke, on the other hand, not indeed in this order, but in a widely different connec-
tion, introduces something which resembles this.1171 But whether in that passage he is ac-
tually recording this same incident, or whether the person with whom the Lord [is repres-
ented to have] dealt in a similar manner there on the subject of those two commandments
is quite another individual, is altogether uncertain. At the same time, it may appear right
to regard the person who is introduced by Luke as a different individual from the one before
us here, not only on the ground of the remarkable divergence in the order of narration, but
also because he is there reported to have replied to a question which was addressed to him
by the Lord, and in that reply to have himself mentioned those two precepts. The same
opinion is further confirmed by the fact that, after telling us how the Lord said to him, “This
1168 Matt. xxii. 34–40.
1169 Another but evidently faulty reading is sometimes found here,—namely, Lucas autem hoc tacet et in
fine Marcus, etc. = whereas Luke says nothing about that, and Mark tells us, etc.
1170 Minorabitur. Ecclus. xix. 4.
1171 Luke x. 25–37.
Of the Person to Whom the Two Precepts Concerning the Love of God and the Love of Our Neighbour Were Commended; And of the Question as to the Order of Narration Which is Observed by Matthew and Mark, and the Absence of Any Discrepancy Between Them and Luke.
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Of the Person to Whom the Two Precepts Concerning the Love of God and the…