the first of all the commandments

On the website of GoedBericht.nl, great emphasis is placed on the truth that there is one God. Is that correct? How important is this truth according to Scripture? In Mark 12, we read that Jesus in Jerusalem, during the week preceding his death, meets a scribe who asked him the following question:

What is the foremost precept of all? -Mark 12:28-

Jesus quotes directly from Deuteronomy 6, the so-called “shema Yisrael” and says:

The foremost precept of all is: Hear, Israel! the Lord our God is one Lord. -Mark 12:29-

God is one, i.e., undivided, trustworthy. A man can depend on Him. But the truth that God is one, means before all: there is only one God. This is also obvious from the reaction of the scribe.

And the scribe said to Him, “In truth, Teacher, Thou sayest ideally that He is One, and there is no other more than He.” -Mark 12:32-

The scribe can not but agree with what Jesus said. It is not only true, but also primary. The first of all. Obviously, the scribe had never heard of a ’trinity’, a doctrine that would not be invented until several centuries later, by non-Jewish theologians. Would the scribe have agreed with the concept “God the Son”, then he would have had to say: In truth, You have said that You are the only one and that here is no other than You. But no Jewish hair on his head would have come to such a thought. Assuming that Jesus would claim to be God, then here He would have had to correct this man. But we read none of this. On the contrary.

And Jesus, perceiving him, that he answered apprehendingly… -Mark 12:34-

That same week, in the night before His death, Jesus solemnly affirms this truth of pure monotheism, when speaking to His Heavenly Father and saying:

Now it is eonian life that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Him Whom Thou dost commission, Jesus Christ. -John 17:3-

If His Father is the only true God, then that is so, exclusively. No one else can claim this. Throughout the Scriptures, this truth had already been echoed, persistently:

…know that YAHWEH, He is the only Elohim. There is no one else aside from Him. -Deuteronomy 4:35-

for all the peoples of the earth knowing that YAHWEH, He is Elohim; there is none else; -1King 8:60-

I am YAHWEH Elohim, and there is none else. There is no Elohim except Me. -Isaiah 45:5-

And the apostles did not preach anything different:

Now to the King of the eons, the incorruptible, invisible, only, and wise God, be honor and glory for the eons of the eons! Amen! -1Timothy 1:17-

For there is one God, and one Mediator of God and mankind, a Man, Christ Jesus, -1 Timothy 2:5-

to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might and authority… -Jude 25-

Delen: