Matthew 22:34-46

J.B. Phillips New Testament

The greatest commandments in the Law

^34-36 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they came up to him in a body, and one of them, an expert in the Law, put this test-question: “Master, what are we to consider the Law’s greatest commandment?”

^37-40 Jesus answered him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind’. This is the first and great commandment. And there is a second like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’. The whole of the Law and the Prophets depends on these two commandments.”

Jesus puts an unanswerable question

^41-42 Then Jesus asked the assembled Pharisees this question: “What is your opinion about Christ? Whose son is he? “The Son of David,” they answered.

^43-44 “How then,” returned Jesus, “does David when inspired by the Spirit call him Lord? He says—‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool?’

⁴⁵ If David then calls him Lord, how can he be his son?”

⁴⁶ Nobody was able to answer this and from that day on no one dared to ask him any further questions.