Mark 12:28

Mark 12:28. Knowing that he had answered them well. This scribe no doubt rejoiced in the defeat of the Sadducees, but was also really pleased with our Lord's answers. They accorded with his intellectual convictions, perhaps with his moral tendencies, and he probably desired further instruction.

What commandment it first of all? On this question as a temptation, see notes on Matthew. The fearfully belittling tendencies of Pharisaical legalism may be inferred from the following statement: ‘The Jews enumerated six hundred and thirteen ordinances; three hundred and sixty-five prohibitions, according to the days of the year; two hundred and twenty-eight commandments, according to the parts of the body. The Pharisees distinguished between lesser and greater commandments'(Braune). The phrase may mean: ‘first of all things,' however.