Mark 12:29

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is. The readings here vary considerably. Tischendorf and Tregelles read simply [ Prootee (G4413) estin (G2076)] 'the first is;' and they are followed by Meyer and Alford. But though the authority for the precise form of the received text is slender, a form almost identical with it seems to have most weight of authority. Our Lord here gives His explicit sanction to the distinction between commandments of a more fundamental and primary character, and commandments of a more dependent and subordinate nature; a distinction of which it is confidently asserted by a certain class of critics that the Jews knew nothing, that our Lord and his apostles nowhere lay down, and which has been invented by Christian divines. (Compare Matthew 23:23.)

Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord. This every devout Jew recited twice every day, and the Jews do it to this day; thus keeping up the great ancient national protest against the polytheisms and pantheisms of the pagan-world: it is the great utterance of the national faith in One Living and Personal God - "ONE JEHOVAH!"