Mark 12:33 — Community Reflections

MARK 12:33 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices — the scribe's application — love is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices — draws on Hosea 6:6 (I desire mercy, not sacrifice) and the prophetic tradition's consistent emphasis that external religious performance without internal reality is worthless. The scribe is not dismissing the sacrificial system but correctly ranking it: love is the substance, sacrifice is the form.

Church Fathers on Mark 12:33

This question is only that which is a problem common to all skilled in the law, namely, that the commandments are differently set forth in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Wherefore He brought forward not one but two commandments, by which, as by two paps rising on the breast of the bride, our infancy is nourished.
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

See how He has enumerated all the powers of the soul; for there is a living power in the soul, which He explains, when He says, 'With all thy soul,' and to this belong anger and desire, all of which He will have us give to Divine love.
Theophylact · 11th century

He shews when he says, 'this is greater than all sacrifices,' that a grave question was often debated between the scribes and Pharisees, which was the first commandment, or the greatest of the Divine law; that is, some praised offerings and sacrifices, others preferred acts of faith and love, because many of the fathers before the law pleased God by that faith only, which works by love. This scribe shews that he was of the latter opinion.
Bede · 8th century

Read all 9 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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