That thou mayst fear the Lord thy God, and keep all his commandments and precepts, which I command thee, and thy sons, and thy grandsons, all the days of thy life, that thy days may be prolonged.3 Hear, O Israel, and observe to do the things which the Lord hath commanded thee, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayst be greatly multiplied, as the Lord the God of thy fathers hath promised thee a land flowing with milk and honey.4 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.5 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength.6 And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart:
Let us see whether the confession of the apostle Thomas agrees with this teaching of the Evangelist, when he says, "My Lord and my God." He is therefore his God whom he acknowledges as God. And certainly he was aware that the Lord had said, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one." And how did the faith of the apostle become unmindful of the principal commandment, so that he confessed Christ as God, since we are to live in the confession of the one God? The apostle, who perceived the faith of the entire mystery through the power of the resurrection, after he had often heard "I and the Father are one" and "All things that the Father has are mine" and "I in the Father and the Father in me," now confessed the name of the nature without endangering the faith.
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength:3 The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is my helper, and in him will I put my trust. My protector and the horn of my salvation, and my support.3 The Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. My God is my helper, and in him will I put my trust. My protector and the horn of my salvation, and my support.4 Praising I will call upon the Lord: and I shall be saved from my enemies.47 The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God, and let the God of my salvation be exalted:51 Giving great deliverance to his king, and shewing mercy to David his anointed: and to his seed for ever.
For [the word] "son," as one before me has observed, has a twofold meaning: one [is a son] in the order of nature, because he was born a son; the other, in that he was made so, is reputed a son, although there be a difference between being born so and being made so. For the first is indeed born from the person referred to; but the second is made so by him, whether as respects his creation or by the teaching of his doctrine. For when any person has been taught from the mouth of another, he is termed the son of him who instructs him, and the latter [is called] his father. According to nature, then -that is, according to creation, so to speak-we are all sons of God, because we have all been created by God. But with respect to obedience and doctrine we are not all the sons of God: those only are so who believe in Him and do His will. And those who do not believe, and do not obey His will, are sons and angels of the devil, because they do the works of the devil. And that such is the case He has declared in Isaiah: "I have begotten and brought up children, but they have rebelled against Me." And again, where He says that these children are aliens: "Strange children have lied unto Me." According to nature, then, they are [His] children, because they have been so created; but with regard to their works, they are not His children.
And the others indeed were made many priests, because by reason of death they were not suffered to continue:24 But this, for that he continueth for ever, hath an everlasting priesthood,25 Whereby he is able also to save for ever them that come to God by him; always living to make intercession for us.26 For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;27 Who needeth not daily (as the other priests) to offer sacrifices first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, in offering himself.28 For the law maketh men priests, who have infirmity: but the word of the oath, which was since the law, the Son who is perfected for evermore.
And there came one of the scribes that had heard them reasoning together, and seeing that he had answered them well, asked him which was the first commandment of all.29 And Jesus answered him: The first commandment of all is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one God.30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment.†31 And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.32 And the scribe said to him: Well, Master, thou hast said in truth, that there is one God, and there is no other besides him.33 And that he should be loved with the whole heart, and with the whole understanding, and with the whole soul, and with the whole strength; and to love one’s neighbour as one’s self, is a greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices.34 And Jesus seeing that he had answered wisely, said to him: Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.
(de Con. Evan. ii. 73) Nor let it trouble us that Matthew says, that he who addressed this question to the Lord tempted Him; for it may be that though he came as a tempter, yet he was corrected by the answer of the Lord. Or at all events, we must not look upon the temptation as evil, and done with the intention of deceiving an enemy, but rather as the caution of a man who wished to try a thing unknown to him.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)