The Greatest Commandment

Primary source

• The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, 1611, Mark 12:28-34Mark's Jesus quotes the Shema with four faculties, adds Leviticus 19:18 as the second, and no one dares ask further.

  and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

• The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, 1611, Deuteronomy 6:4-5The Shema source of the first commandment, with three faculties where Mark has four.

  with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

• The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, 1611, Leviticus 19:18Source of the second commandment, within the Holiness Code of Leviticus.

  thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

• The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, 1611, Luke 10:27In Luke the lawyer himself joins the two commandments, so the pairing is not presented as Jesus's own innovation.

  and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

• R. H. Charles (tr.), The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, 1908, Testament of Issachar 5:2A Jewish-Christian text of disputed date already pairs love of the Lord with love of neighbour.

  But love the Lord and your neighbour

The tradition itself

• Thomas Aquinas (compiler); John Henry Newman (ed.), Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers, vol. 2, St Mark, 1842, Mark 12:28-34, TheophylactTheophylact reads the four terms as every power of the soul and the second command as like the first because love of God includes love of His creature.

  See how He has enumerated all the powers of the soul