hibits anger, .scorn, contention. ' Tliou sli.-ilt not commit adultery ' demands chastity of heart as well as of outward act. The law that forbids false swearing requires in the last resort abstinence from alloaths, and perfect simplicity and truthful- ness. The case is somewhat ditierent with the two remaining rules which are subje<'ted to iTiticism ('an eye for an eye,' ' tliou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy '). Here our Lord indeed appears to set new laws of His own over against the imperfect maxims of the ancient morality. But He is still emphasizing what He conceives to be the real drift of the Divine legislation, in con- trast to the false and limited constructions which men had placed ujion it.
The ethical teaching of Jesus is thus based on the
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COiMMAXDMENTS
Divinely - given commandments. It claims to be nothing more than a ' fulhlinent,' a reinterpreta- tion of them in tlie light of their inward spirit and purpose. At the same time, they are so trans- formed by this unfolding of their ultimate intention, as to result in a code of morality which is radically new. This is recognized in the Fourth Gospel, wliere the originality of the Christian law is brought into clear prominence (see art. New Com- MANDMEXT). It remains to consider how .lesus, while accepting the commandments, replaced them in effect by a new ethic, different in character hs well as wider in range. The process by which He thus transformed them can be traced, witlx sufficient distinctness, in the Synoptic teaching.
(1) The Moral Law is freed from its association with outward ritual. Jesus does not definitely abrogate the ritual ordinances ('ye ought not to leave the other undone,' Mt 23'^), but He makes the distinction plain between these and the higher obligations, justice, mercy, and faith. He sub- ordinates the law of the Sabbath to the require- ments of duty and humanity (Mk 2-', Lk 6' IS'^- '«) ; He confronts the formal piety of His time with the Divine demand as stated by Hosea : ' I will have mercy and not sacrifice ' (Mt 9'^ 12') ; He challenges the whole system of rules concerning meat and drink by His great principle, ' that which cometh out, not that which goeth in, defileth a man' (Mt 15", Mk 7'^). This principle, applied to its full extent, meant the abolition of the Levitical law.
(2) In a similar manner the ' traditions ' which had gathered around tlie Law and obscured its genuine meaning are swept away. The ethical teaching of Jesus is directed, in the first place, to restoring the commandments to their original simplicity and purity. In the glosses and corol- laries with which Pharisaic ingenuity had overlaid them. He sees an attempt to narrow the scope and weaken the full stringency of the Divine law. He instances the casuistry which made it possible to evade a strict obedience to the command, ' Honour thy father and mother' (Mt 15'- ^ ilk 7'""). As against such trifling with the law of God, He insists on an honest acceptance of it in its plain and literal meaning. The ten thousand command- ments into which the Decalogue had been divided and subdivided are to give place again to the simple ten.
(3) Not only is tlie Moral Law restored to its original purity, but it is simplified still further. While accepting the commandments as all given by God, Jesus recognizes that they are of different grades of importance. When the young ruler asked Him which of them were life-giving. He singles out the more distinctively ethical: ' Du not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honour thy father and mother' (Mk lO'*- «, Mt 19'»- '», Lk 18=^). So the question of the lawyer, ' Which is the great com- mandment?' is admitted by Jesus to lie a just one. It is significant that in His answer to it He does not quote from the Decalogue itself, but from Dt 6' and Lv 19". He thus indicates that it is not the formal enactments Avhich are sacred and binding, but the grand principles that lie behind tliem. Those sayings extraneous to tlie Decalogue, which yet lay bare its es.sential meaning, are ' greater ' than any of the set commandments.
(4) The two requirements thus singled out are declared to be not only the greatest, but the sum and substance of all the others. The Law in its multiplicity runs back to the two root-demands of love to God and love to men. Of these two, Jesus insists on the former as 'the first and great com- mandment.' The duty of love to God is at once the highest duty required of man, and that which determines the right performance of all the rest.
In this sense we must explain the words that fol- low ; ' Tlie second is like to it ' (Mt 2'2^'-=», Mk j.j^i-si) itg . likeness ' does not consist merely in its similar largeness of scope or in its similar emphasis on love, but in its essential identity with the other commandment. The love to man which it demands is the outward expression, the evidence and effect of love to God (cf. Gal 5" ' Faith that wiirketh by love' ; 1 Jn 4™ ' He that lovetli not his liinthii whom he liath seen, how can he love God whiim lie hath not seen?'). Thus in our Lord's -luminary of the Law we have more than a resolu- tion of the Ten Commandments into two, corre- sponding broadly to the two divisions of the Deca- logue. We have a clear indication that even those two are ultimately reducible to one.