Matthew 22:40

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

World English Bible
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Other translations

WEBBE

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

BSB

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

KJV

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

ASV

On these two commandments the whole law hangeth, and the prophets.

BBE

On these two rules all the law and the prophets are based.

Original Greek

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The early church

All 7
Or, because he that has fulfilled the things that are written concerning the love of God and our neighbour, is worthy to receive from God the great reward, that he should be enabled to understand the Law and the Prophets.
Origen of Alexandria · d. 253Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)
But His commandments, and the sum of them, are, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and thy neighbor as thyself." If therefore to love God is to love one's neighbor, "For if thou lovest me," He saith, "O Peter, feed my sheep," but to love one's neighbor worketh a keeping of the commandments, with reason doth He say, "On these hang all the law and the prophets." So therefore what He did before, this He doth here also. I mean, that both there, when asked about the manner of the resurrection, He also taught a resurrection, instructing "For charity envieth not." By this He shows Himself to be submissive both to the law and to the prophets.
John Chrysostom · d. 407Homilies on Matthew
(Quaest. Ev. i. 33.) Hang, that is, refer thither as their end.
Augustine of Hippo · d. 430Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)
(de Trin. viii. 7.) Since there are two commandments, the love of God and the love of our neighbour, on which hang the Law and the Prophets, not without reason does Scripture put one for both; sometimes the love of God; as in that, We know that all tilings work together for good to them that love God; (Rom. 8:28.) and sometimes the love of our neighbour; as in that, All the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself. (Gal. 5:14.) And that because if a man love his neighbour, it follows therefrom that he loves God also; for it is the selfsame affection by which we love God, and by which we love our neighbour, save that we love God for Himself, but ourselves and our neighbour for God's sake.
Augustine of Hippo · d. 430Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)
For to these two commandments belongs the whole decalogue; the commandments of the first table to the love of God, those of the second to the love of our neighbour.
Rabanus Maurus · d. 856Catena Aurea (Aquinas, 1274)

Commentary

Matthew Henry · Verses 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 our hearts be formed as by a mould.

Read Matthew Henry on Matthew 22 →

Cross-references

8

Topics

Cross-references: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Hebrew and Greek data from STEPBible.org (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0. Library: sources.