What Does Mark 12:31 Mean?
The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.
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 the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.THE KEY
The word translated “neighbour” means “the one near,” making everyday closeness the place where love takes shape.
THE MEANING
The person near you is held in the same field of regard as yourself. This command stands beside love of God as one of the two commands that gather all the rest.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The person near me is outside the care I naturally reserve for myself.
THE ROOT
ὁ πλησίον
ho plēsion
GROWS FROM
πλησί-
plēsi-
Near, close at hand.
In Greek, the “neighbor” is literally the person near at hand; nearness names the relation before status or kinship does. The command places that concrete closeness alongside the self’s own measure of care.
ALSO GROWS
plēsios: Near, nearby.
πλησίος
This related form makes the word’s sense of nearness audible inside “neighbor.”
plēsiazō: Draw near, approach.
πλησιάζω
The same nearness can become an approach toward another person.
THE PATTERN
Love becomes the measure of commandment when the neighbor is held in the same regard as the self.
You shall not avenge, nor hold a grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.But I say to you, love your enemies, speak well over those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who abuse you and pursue you.For this, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not shed blood," "You shall not steal," "You shall not crave," and if there is any other command, it is gathered beneath one head in this word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."THE THREAD
Which of these three seems to you to have become a neighbor to the one who fell among the robbers?It uses the same Greek word, πλησίον (plēsion, “neighbor,” the one near). There, the word describes the one who came near to a wounded stranger, opening this command as nearness taking form in care.
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