The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible Mark 12:29
Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is,
&c.] Christ replied at once, without taking any time to consider of
it, that the chief and principal of all the commands of the law, and
what is of the greatest importance is,
hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.
The Vulgate Latin, and
Arabic versions read, "one God"; but the Syriac, and Ethiopic render
it, "one Lord"; and that rightly, agreeably to the Greek text, and
to (Deuteronomy 6:4) , from whence this is taken. This passage of Scripture, to
the end of the ninth verse, is the first of the sections which were
put into their phylacteries; (See Gill on 23:5); and was repeated
twice every day, morning and evening; which is by the Jews called
from the first word (emv tayrq) , "the reading of the Shema":
concerning the exact time of the reciting of this, morning and
evening, and of the posture in which they do it, reclining in the
evening, and standing in the morning, and of the prayers before and
after it, various rules are given in their Misna F16, or oral law;
it is a precept of great esteem and veneration with them, and
attended to with much solemnity. The account Maimonides F17 gives of
it is this:
``twice every day they read Keriath Shema; (i.e. "hear, O
Israel"…) in the evening and in morning, as it is
said, (Deuteronomy 6:7) . "When thou liest down, and when thou risest
up"; in the hour it is the custom of men to lie down, and
this is night; and in the hour it is the custom of men to
stand, and this is day: and what does he read? three
sections; and they are these, "hear"… (Deuteronomy 6:4) , and it
shall come to pass, "if ye shall hearken"… (Deuteronomy 11:13) ,
"and Moses said"… (Exodus 13:3) , and they read the section,
"hear, O Israel", first, because there is in it the unity
of God, and the love of him and his doctrine; for it is,
(lwdgh rqeh) , "the great root", or "foundation", on which
all hangs or depends.''
And it is observable, that the last letter of the word "hear", and
the last of the word "one", are both written in very large
characters in the Hebrew Bible, to denote the greatness of the
command, and to cause attention to it. The Jews seek for mysteries
in these letters, and think the unusual size of them, points at some
very great things: they observe, that the first of these letters is
numerically "seventy", and directs to the seventy names of the law,
and the seventy ways in which it may be interpreted, and the seventy
nations of the world, from whom the Israelites are distinguished, by
their belief of the one God F18; and that the latter stands for the
number "four", and shows that the Lord is the one God, in heaven and
in earth, in all the world, and in the four parts of it; and that
both these letters put together, make a word, which signifies "a
witness"; showing that this passage is a glorious testimony of the
unity of God, and that the Israelites are witnesses of it, by
believing and professing it; and that should they depart from the
faith of it, God would be a witness against them: and now, though
there is no solid foundation for such interpretations, yet this
shows what an opinion they had of the greatness of this command; to
which, may be added, they ask F19,
``why does, "hear, O Israel"… go before that passage in
(Deuteronomy 11:13) . "And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken
diligently unto my commandments"… but because a man
must take upon him, first the yoke of the kingdom of
heaven, and after that he must take upon him the yoke of
the commandments.''
The sense is, that he must first make a confession of his faith in
God, which is contained in (Deuteronomy 6:4) and then he must obey his
commands; so that they plainly considered this, as the first and
greatest of all. These words are frequent in the mouths of the
modern Jews, in proof of the unity of God, and against a plurality
in the Deity; but the ancient ones, not only consider them as a good
and sufficient proof, that there is but one God, but as expressive
of a Trinity in the Godhead: with a view to this text they observe
{t}, that
``Jehovah, "our God, Jehovah"; these are, (Nygrd tlt) , "three
degrees" (or persons) with respect to this sublime
mystery, "in the beginning, God", or "Elohim, created",
&c.''
And again F21,
``there is an unity which is called Jehovah the first, our
God, Jehovah; behold! they are all one, and therefore
called one: lo! these three names are as one; and although
we call them one, and they are one; but by the revelation
of the Holy Ghost it is made known, and they are by the
sight of the eye to be known, that "these three are one",
(see (1 John 5:7) ,) and this is the mystery of the voice that
is heard; the voice is one; and there are three things,
fire, and wind, and water, and they are all one, in the
mystery of the voice, and they are not but one: so here,
Jehovah, our God, Jehovah, these, (Nynwwg atlt) , "three
modes, forms", or "things", are one.''
Once more they F23 say,
``there are two, and one is joined to them, and they are
three; and when they are three, they are one: these are
the two names of hear, O Israel, which are Jehovah,
Jehovah, and Elohenu, or our God, is joined unto them; and
it is the seal of the ring of truth.''
To which I shall subjoin one passage more, where R. Eliezer is
asking his father R. Simeon ben Jochai, why Jehovah is sometimes
called Elohim, he replies F24, among other things;
``come see, there are (Nygrdg) , "three degrees", (or persons,)
and every degree is by itself; although they are all one,
and bound together in one, and one is not separated from
another.''
To believe this, is the first and chief commandment in the law, and
is the principal article of the Christian faith; namely, to believe
that there is one God, and that there are three persons, Father,
Son, and Spirit, in the Godhead.
FOOTNOTES:
F16 Berncot, c. 1. sect. 1, 2, 3, 4.
F17 Hilch. Keriat Shema, c. 1. sect. 1, 2.
F18 Baal Hatturim, in Deut. vi. 4.
F19 Misn. Berncot, c. 2. sect. 2.
F20 Zohar in Gen. fol. 1. 3.
F21 Zohar in Exod. fol. 18. 3, 4.
F23 Ib. in Num. fol. 67. 3.
F24 Zohar in Lev. fol. 27. 2.
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Copyright Statement
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernised and adapted for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rightes Reserved, Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855
Bibliography Information
Gill, John. "Commentary on Mark 12:29". "The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible". <http://www.studylight.org/com/geb/view.cgi?book=mr&chapter=012&verse=029>. 1999.
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