Matthew 22:36

Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. For the exposition, see the notes at Mark 12:13....

34-40 An interpreter of the law asked our Lord a question, to try, not so much his knowledge, as his judgment. The love of God is the first and great commandment, and the sum of all the commands of the first table. Our love of God must be sincere, not in word and tongue only. All our love is too little to bestow upon him, therefore all the powers of the soul must be engaged for him, and carried out toward him. To love our neighbour as ourselves, is the second great commandment. There is a self-love which is corrupt, and the root of the greatest sins, and it must be put off and mortified; but there is a self-love which is the rule of the greatest duty: we must have a due concern for the welfare of our own souls and bodies. And we must love our neighbour as truly and sincerely as we love ourselves; in many cases we must deny ourselves for the good of others. By these two commandments let o...

Verse 36. _WHICH_ IS _THE GREAT COMMANDMENT_] We see here _three_ kinds of _enemies_ and false accusers of Christ and his disciples; and _three_ sorts of _accusations_ brought against them. 1. The _Herodians_, or politicians and courtiers, who form their questions and accusations on the _rights_ of the _prince_, and matters of _state,_ Matthew 22:16. 2. The _Sadducees_, or _libertines_, who found theirs upon matters of _religion_, and _articles_ of _faith_, which they did not credit, Matthew 22:23. 3. The _Pharisees, lawyers, scribes_, or _Karaites_, hypocritical pretenders to devotion, who found theirs on that _vital_ and practical godliness

JESUS CONVERSES WITH A PHARISEE RESPECTING THE LAW - See also Mark 12:28. Matthew 22:34 THE PHARISEES ... WERE GATHERED TOGETHER - That is, either to rejoice that their great rivals, the Sadducees, had been so completely silenced, or to lay a new plan for ensnaring him, or perhaps both. They would rejoice that the Sadducees had been confounded, but they would not be the less desirous to involve Jesus in difficulty. They therefore endeavored, probably, to find the most difficult question in dispute among themselves, and proposed it to him to perplex him. Matthew 22:35 A LAWYER - This does no

EXPOSITION MATTHEW 22:1 _Parable of the marriage of the king_'_s son. _(Peculiar to St. Matthew.) MATTHEW 22:1 JESUS ANSWERED AND SPAKE UNTO THEM. After they had heard our Lord's words at the end of the last chapter, the Pharisees, according to St. Mark, "left him, and went their way," so that this parable was spoken in the audience of the disciples and the attendant multitude alone, without the former disturbing element. This fact may account for its exhibiting certain merciful and gracious features, setting forth the privilege rather than the duty of obeying the gospel call. The term "answered" often does not signify a reply given to some distinct question, but is equivalent to "took occas

MASTER, WHICH IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENT IN THE LAW?] He calls him "master, Rabbi, or doctor", as the Sadducees had in Matthew 22:24 either because he was usually so called by his disciples, and by the generality of the people; or merely in complaisance to engage his attention to him, and his question: and might hereby suggest, that should he return a proper and satisfactory answer to it he should be his master. The question is not which of the laws was the greatest, the oral, or the written law: the Jews give the preference to the law delivered by word of mouth; they prefer the traditions of the elders before the written law of Moses; Matthew 15:2; but the question was about the written law of Moses; and not merely about the decalogue, or whether the commands of the first table were greater than those of th

10. THE PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. The King's Answers and His Question. CHAPTER 22 _ 1. The Parable of the Marriage Feast. (Matthew 22:1 .) 2. The Herodians Answered. (Matthew 22:15 .) 3. The Sadducees Answered.(Matthew 22:23 .) 4. The Pharisees Answered.(Matthew 22:34 .) 5. The Unanswered Question.(Matthew 22:41 .)_ A third parable follows immediately. They would have laid their hands upon Him, after that searching second parable had been uttered by the Lord, but His hour was not yet. Once more He f

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT (Mark 12:28 *, Luke 10:25). Mt. puts the questioner, whom he calls a Pharisee, in much less favourable light than Mk. He tempts Jesus to what is not clear (Lk.'s _ekpeirazô n,_ testing, is better) and he omits the pleasing outcome of Jesus-' answer recorded in Mark 12:32 f. Mt. is leading up to the attack on the Pharisees in ch. 23. The lawyer's question is really, What kind of commandment is great in the law? He is seeking a principle of distinction, and Jesus gives him two by which to test particular precepts. In Matthew 22:37 Mt., like the original precept ...

JOY AND JUDGMENT (Matthew 22:1-10)...

WHICH, &C.. what kind of commandment? IS THE GREAT. is great. The Scribes divided them all up: 248 affirmative ones (the number of the members of the body): 365 negative (the number of days in the year): 248. 365. 613. the number of letters in the Decalogue. Some were great and some were small (or heavy and light). The question was as to great and small (as in Matthew 22:38); not the greatest and least....