What Does Matthew 22:40 Mean?
On these two commandments hang all the instruction and the prophets.
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
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.THE KEY
The two loves are the point from which the whole scriptural witness is suspended.
THE MEANING
Your whole reading of Scripture hangs together through two relations: love toward God and love toward your neighbor. Its commands and prophetic witness are not separate weights; they depend on these loves for their coherence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that Scripture’s commands are a disconnected list: the verse says their coherence hangs on love of God and neighbor.
THE ROOT
κρέμαται
krematai
GROWS FROM
κρεμα- (krem(a)-), the lexical stem of κρεμάννυμι
The Greek verb κρεμάννυμι (kremannymi) means “to hang” or “to suspend”; here, κρέμαται means “hangs” or “is suspended.”
“Hang” carries the force of dependence: the law and the prophets are suspended from these two commandments. English can make the image sound decorative, but the Greek makes love the support on which the whole scriptural witness rests.
ALSO GROWS
kremannymi: To hang or suspend.
κρεμάννυμι
This is the verb behind the verse’s image: the larger body of instruction is held from the two commandments.
kremastos: Hanging or suspended.
κρεμαστός
This related form describes something held in suspension, reinforcing the verse’s sense of dependence.
THE PATTERN
Scriptural instruction holds together around love of God and neighbor.
And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your living soul, and with all your might.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.Love does not work evil on the neighbor. So love is the fullness of the instruction.THE THREAD
Love does not work evil on the neighbor. So love is the fullness of the instruction.Matthew says the law hangs from love; Romans uses the same Greek word, νόμος (nomos, law or instruction), and says love fulfills it. The shared word reveals the image’s force: love sustains the instruction and brings it to its intended expression.
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