The Scribes: Which Is the First Commandment of All?^(A)

^28 (B)Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, ^[a]perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the ^[b]first commandment of all?”

²⁹ Jesus answered him, “The ^[c]first of all the commandments is: ^(C)‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall ^(D)love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ^[d]This is the first commandment. ³¹ And the second, like it, is this: ^(E)‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than ^(F)these.”

³² So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, ^(G)and there is no other but He. ³³ And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, ^[e]with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, ^(H)is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴ Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

^(I)But after that no one dared question Him.

Addressing the Areopagus

²² Then Paul stood in the midst of the ^[a]Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; ²³ for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: ^24 (A)God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is ^(B)Lord of heaven and earth, ^(C)does not dwell in temples made with hands. ²⁵ Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He ^(D)gives to all life, breath, and all things. ²⁶ And He has made from one ^[b]blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and ^(E)the boundaries of their dwellings, ^27 (F)so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, ^(G)though He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸ for ^(H)in Him we live and move and have our being, ^(I)as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ ²⁹ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, ^(J)we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. ³⁰ Truly, ^(K)these times of ignorance God overlooked, but ^(L)now commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹ because He has appointed a day on which ^(M)He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by ^(N)raising Him from the dead.”