22:38

This is the great and first commandment: As in 22:36, the phrase the great…commandment indicates the one which surpasses all the others in importance.

The phrase first commandment refers to both the first one in terms of greatness, and the first of two commandments. The lawyer only asked for the greatest commandment. But Jesus expanded his answer to include a second commandment (in 22:39). Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

This is the first and greatest commandment (NET Bible)
-or-
This first commandment surpasses all others in importance.

-or-

This is the greatest rule and the most important of all God’s Laws. (Easy English Bible)

© 2023 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.