Three Loves Become One: a Quaker exploration of the Greatest Commandment

By Colm McKeogh

Three times in the gospels the question is put as to the greatest commandment in Jewish law. The answer cites Deuteronomy and Leviticus and features three loves - for God, oneself and one's neighbor. What does it means to love God with all one's heart and all one's being and all one's might? What does it mean to love one's fellow human as oneself? To whom in their history and scripture would the Jews in the audience look for guidance on this? Do the followers of Jesus take a novel approach to love? This work addresses twenty-four figures from the Bible to find out, including, Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Mary of Nazareth, Martha, Mary of Bethany, Peter, Paul, and James. In the case of Jesus, who breaks down the boundaries between God, himself and his fellow humans, do these three loves become one?

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781667813776

Book preview

introduction

Which is the greatest of the commandments?

Only once in the four gospels is the voice of God heard to issue an instruction: This is my son, listen to him.¹ The gospels are four accounts of the life and teachings of a Jewish man, known today by the Greek version of his name, who lived two thousand years ago. However, that man, Jesus, wrote nothing and we have no record of anything he said in the language in which he said it as the four gospels are written in Greek and Jesus most likely spoke Aramaic. An exception perhaps occurs in the story of the greatest commandment. Three gospels record an incident in which the question is put as to which is the greatest commandment in Jewish law and the reply quotes the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, both written in Hebrew.

In the gospel of Matthew, the question is put to Jesus by an expert in the law who asks, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?² Jesus replies, quoting Deuteronomy and Leviticus, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment, says Jesus, and the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’³ Both commands focus on the human as a being that loves. One is to give love to God and one’s fellow humans and the love of others is to match the love one gives oneself. If one’s fellow humans obey the command too, then one will have their love.

In the gospel of Mark, it is again Jesus who answers the question. One of the teachers of the law hears the Sadducees debating with Jesus and notices how well Jesus can answer so he puts a question to him, Of all the commandments, which is the most important?⁴ In Mark as in Matthew, the reply seems to give two commandments rather than one. The most important one is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.⁵ The man commends Jesus on his answer to the question. Well said, teacher! You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.⁶ Jesus welcomes the man’s view. You are not far from the kingdom of God, he says to him.⁷

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus does not need to answer the question at all. An expert in Jewish law stands up to test Jesus with the question, What must I do to inherit eternal life?⁸ In Luke, as in Matthew and Mark, Jesus’ answer is that eternal life is indeed possible for a human being and that the way to have it is to love whole-heartedly, but Jesus gets the man to answer his own question by asking him what Jewish law says. ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’, replies the expert, and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.⁹ You have answered correctly, says Jesus. Do this and you will live.¹⁰ In Luke’s telling of the incident, the Jews do not need Jesus to draw the greatest commandment out of their scripture as their own expert already knows it. However, the matter is not settled simply by identifying the greatest commandment as the expert has one further question for Jesus. And who is my neighbor?¹¹

The expert asks for clarity about the one who is to be the object of his love. And who is my neighbor? To this question can be added two more. And who is God? And who am I? Who is the God one is to love? Who is the neighbor one is to love? If one is to love one’s neighbor as oneself then it must be that one is to love oneself. Love of one’s neighbor is nothing if one does not have self-love but who is the self one is to love? How is one to love oneself? Is it difficult? Is it natural and easy? Is everyone doing it already?

A further question concerns how one is to comply with the greatest commandment. How does one get to the point where one loves God in this way, and loves one’s neighbor as oneself? Does one simply decide? Is there tension between these loves or are they in harmony? Does one love come first and then the others follow? Does this love come all at once? Is it enough to learn the greatest of the commandments from Deuteronomy and Leviticus or Jesus or the expert in Jewish law? Once we know the greatest commandment, can we then abide by it, or is more needed to enable us to love as we should? Is something or someone else needed for us to love as we should?

The people present hear the question put and they hear the answer that is given. To which characters in their history and scripture would the Jews in the audience look to see what it means to love God with all one’s heart and all one’s being and all one’s might, and to love one’s fellow humans as oneself? Are there many who do this and then have eternal life, no longer far from the kingdom of God? Are there few? Are there any? This work looks at figures from the Bible to explore love for God, love for ourselves, and love for our neighbors. Most are characters from narratives in Jewish scripture with which Jesus would have been familiar and others are figures from the New Testament, including Jesus himself and people he met. Some are not real people, such as the Good Samaritan who is a character in a parable, and some date from before the writing of Leviticus and Deuteronomy and would never have heard these commands but their stories may still be instructive. Twenty-four figures from the Bible are addressed in this work, starting with the first human being,and then Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Michal, Abigail, Bathsheba, Solomon, Jonah, Ruth, Qohelet, John the Baptist, Mary of Nazareth, Martha, Mary of Bethany, the Samaritan, Jesus, Pontius Pilate, Peter, Paul, and James.

A final point concerns the text of the greatest commandment that will be used here. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are written in Greek, reporting both the words of Jesus, probably spoken in Aramaic, and the quotes from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, which were written in Hebrew. This work uses a translation of Deuteronomy from the Hebrew by Robert Alter: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your being and with all your might.¹² The heart is the seat of understanding in biblical physiology, he explains, as it is the place where plans are formed although there is some connection with feelings as desires are shaped there too. Nefesh he translates as ‘being’ (inwardness, essential self, life-breath), rather than ‘soul’ as is common in Christian Bibles, as later Jonah finds himself in the nefesh of the sea-creature. Elsewhere in the Bible, the Hebrew word me’od is an adverb (‘very’) and, in this one instance where it is used as a noun, Alter translates it as ‘might’. The LORD your God is Alter’s rendering of YHWH eloheka as he represents the tetragrammaton YHWH as LORD (with the last three letters in small uppercase, a convention that will not be followed here) and he translates ‘elohim as God, god or gods depending on the context. Elsewhere, ’adonai is also translated as LORD while he mostly leaves other names for the God of Israel, such as El, Elyon, and Shaddai, in their Hebrew form. Alter’s translation of Leviticus 19:18 reads: And you shall love your fellow man as yourself. That will be used here in a gender-neutral form.

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1 Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35. All New Testament quotes are from the New International Version, downloaded from www.biblegateway.com. All quotes from Jewish scripture are from Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: a Translation with Commentary, W. W. Norton, 2019.

2 Matthew 22:36.

3 Matthew 22:37-40.

4 Mark 12:28.

5 Mark 12:29-31.

6 Mark 12:32-33.

7 Mark 12:34.

8 Luke 10:25.

9 Luke 10:27.

10 Luke 10:28.

11 Luke 10:29.

12 Deuteronomy 6:5.

1. the human

The breath of Elohim hovers over the dark waste and deep waters until the voice of Elohim proclaims Let there be light and there is light, and Elohim sees the light and it is good. Elohim divides the light from the darkness and makes the first day and, on the second day, Elohim divides the sky from all below. On the third day, the waters are gathered into oceans so that dry land appears and Elohim says, Let the earth grow grass, plants yielding seed of each kind and trees bearing