Waldenstrom's Commentary

translated by Tommy Carlson

Dr. Paul Peter Waldenström based his comments on a Greek New Testament text that he translated into Swedish. Tommy Carlson has translated both the Biblical text and Waldenström’s comments from the Swedish text, 2nd Edition, 1892. This text and comments previously appeared in the Summer, 1987 issue of Pietisten.

Verse 34 — But,¹ when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the mouths² of the Sadducees, they gathered themselves³ together;

1. This incident is spoken of in Mark 12:28-34. The Pharisees knew about this defeat that their old adversaries, the Sadducees, had suffered by trying once more to antagonize the Lord. Their delight about their adversaries’ defeat did not allow them to realize that the same thing could happen to them.
2. Regarding the meaning of the Greek word in the original text, it really means to place a muzzle on someone.
3. To confer about the best way to assail the Lord.

Verse 35 — and one of them, well-versed in the Law, asked him, in order to disconcert¹ him:

1. He really intended, if the Lord quoted some special commandment, to embarrass him perchance with sophistry and subtlety. This is a process that the world even now uses against the believers. Thereby they seek to quiet their own consciences, which cannot escape being touched by that light that radiates from him.

Verse 36 — “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?”¹

1. Verbatim: What kind of commandment is great in the law? or what kind is a great commandment in the law? The meaning is: How is a commandment in the law constituted in order to be great?

Verse 37 — But he said to him: “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul and your whole mind;¹ (See Deuteronomy 6:5)

1. The Lord says: IN YOUR WHOLE HEART, that is to say, so that love fills your whole heart. The heart is a person’s whole inner spiritual being, her innermost I. The MIND is a person’s ability to think (reason). The whole being of a person in its higher and lower powers shall at all times be determined and governed by love for God without subsidiary motive, without deceit.

Verse 38 — this is the greatest¹ and the first² commandment.

1. This is not only a great commandment, but THE GREAT COMMANDMENT. It is written in Deuteronomy 6:5.
2. That is to say, the most important.

Verse 39 — Another is like this:¹ You shall love your neighbor as yourself.² (See Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14; I Timothy 1:5; James 2:8)

1. The same idea is written about in Leviticus 19:18.
2. You shall love your neighbor as you, according to God’s will, shall love yourself, so that your neighbor’s well-being in every respect is as important for you as your own, that his joy and happiness are your joy and happiness and his adversity and sorrow are yours. It is thus not only when it concerns your friend but also when it concerns your worst enemy. The Jews understood it generally to mean only Jews, which Deuteronomy 19:18 seems to imply; but the Lord includes all humankind. See Luke 10:30-37. And this is not only good advice, which it is if one keeps it; but it also a great divine commandment, which if transgressed, is followed by damnation.

Verse 40 — On these two commandments hang the whole Law¹ and the prophets.”² (See Matthew 7:12)

1. On these rest all special commandments in the Laws; they are the foundation of the law given by Moses. See Romans 13:9 and Galatians 5:14.
2. That is to say, all commandments that God gave through the prophets. See comments to Matthew 5:17.

Matthew 5:17: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Comments: That is, what God through Moses or the prophets has decreed. In the New Testament, the Old Testament scriptures are described as “The Law and the prophets (Luke 24:27; Acts 24:14; and others)” or “The law and the prophets and the psalms (Luke 24:44).” By THE LAW is meant the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy); by the Prophets and the Psalms are meant all the other books. In addition, it appears that, with the expression “the prophets,” the Lord did not mean the prophecies of the prophets (which nobody thought he would dissolve), but THEIR DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE MOSAIC LAW. Compare Matthew 7:12. Everything that you want that people should do to you, you shall do to them, BECAUSE THIS IS THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS. The same thing is said in Matthew 22:40. On these two commandments (i.e. you shall love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself) HANGS THE WHOLE LAW AND THE PROPHETS.