Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
The great commandment in the law (entolh megalh en tw nomw). The positive adjective is sometimes as high in rank as the superlative. See megav in Matthew 5:19 in contrast with elaxistov. The superlative megistov occurs in the N.T. only in II Peter 1:4. Possibly this scribe wishes to know which commandment stood first (Mark 12:28) with Jesus. "The scribes declared that there were 248 affirmative precepts, as many as the members of the human body; and 365 negative precepts, as many as the days in the year, the total being 613, the number of letters in the Decalogue" (Vincent). But Jesus cuts through such pettifogging hair-splitting to the heart of the problem.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Matthew 22:36:
Mark 12:28
Luke 10:27
1 John 3:23
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