What Does Mark 12:29 Mean?
And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commands is, Hear and respond, O Israel; the LORD our God is one LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:THE KEY
The Greek command to hear echoes the Shema’s call to hear and respond, so God’s oneness is received as more than a sound or slogan.
THE MEANING
The verse places one God at the center of your attention now. Hearing is an active receiving that opens toward response, gathering the whole person around the Lord who is one.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that hearing God means only noticing religious words; the command joins listening with an answering response.
THE ROOT
ἄκουε
akoue
GROWS FROM
ἀκου-
Hear, listen; the imperative asks for attentive reception.
Mark’s ἄκουε is an imperative of ἀκούω (akouō, hear or listen), rendering the opening command of the Hebrew Shema, שמע (šemaʿ, hear and respond). English “Hear” can sound like sound reaching the ear alone, while the Hebrew phrase joins attention with response.
ALSO GROWS
akoē: Hearing; also a report or message received by hearing.
ἀκοή
The same root can name both the act of hearing and what is heard, binding the listener to the message.
hypakouō: Listen to; obey.
ὑπακούω
This compound keeps ἀκούω (akouō, hear) within a word for responsive listening, illuminating the force of the command.
THE PATTERN
The one God gathers hearing into a single, responsive confession.
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.But to us there is one God, the Father, out of whom are all things, and we into him, and one Lord, Jesus the Anointed One, through whom are all things, and we through him.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.Mark repeats this confession in Greek, with ἄκουε (akoue, hear) carrying the opening imperative that Hebrew states as שמע (šemaʿ, hear and respond). The Greek wording preserves the same movement: hear the one Lord, with hearing opening toward response.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us