94, Shall marry (érvyauBpedce:). From yauBpos, a word used in classical Greek to denote any one connected by marriage : a brother-in-law, father-in-law, even a bridegroom. The word is appropriate here because it refers to marriage between mar- riage-relatives.
122 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. XXIIL
34. Put to silence (éd/uwcev). There is a kind of grim humor in the use of this word: he had muzzled the Sadducees. Compare ver. 12.
36. Which is the great commandment (zroéa évToX1 pe- yarn). The A. V.and Rev. alike miss the point of this question, which is: which kind of command is great in the law? Thatis, what kind of acommandment must it be to constitute it a great one? Not, which commandment is greatest as compared with the others? The scribes declared that there were 248 affirma- tive 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. Of these they called some lzght and some heavy. Some thought that the law about the fringes on the garments was the greatest ; some that the omission of washings was as bad as homicide; some that the third commandment was the greatest. It was in view of this kind of distinction that the scribe asked the ques- tion ; not as desiring a declaration as to which commandment was greatest, but as wanting to know the principle upon which a commandment was to be regarded as a great commandment.
38. The great and first. With the definite article,
39. A second. The article omitted. So Rey.