Sunday/2 Commandments

Today's gospel is the Two Great Commandments gospel. The Jews had 613 commandments they collected over the years based upon Old Testament readings. These two commandments Christ takes from Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

This is the quote from Deuteronomy, in the King James:
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

Current thinking is that Moses was talking figuratively, suspicious of the whimsy of the word. But Jews at the time did indeed write these words on their doorways--and orthodox Jews do that now--as well as wear "phylacteries," little boxes that contain the words written. This appeared like amulets and Christ often focused upon making the word physical as a bad substitute for internalizing them.