22:35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him,
and saying, 22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 22:37
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
-- from the book of Matthew
It took me decades to realize that Jesus was referring to the laws of Moses,
not stating something new. He was quoting the laws of Moses, and stating which
were the greatest among them.
The nature of a medicine is determined by the nature of the illness. The
nature of each Revelation is determined by the spiritual and social needs of
the world at that time. The Revelation of Moses was heavy on law. Jesus came
to restore a sense of where the important priorities were, and to elminate a
sense of religious legalism. Muhammad incorporated both. There is a reference
to this in the Master's explanation of the meaning of the 11th Chapter of the
Revelation of John:
It is said they "are clothed in sackcloth," meaning that they, apparently, were
to be clothed in old raiment, not in new raiment; in other words, in the
beginning they would possess no splendor in the eyes of the people, nor would
their Cause appear new; for Muhammad's spiritual Law corresponds to that of
Christ in the Gospel, and most of His laws relating to material things
correspond to those of the Pentateuch. This is the meaning of the old raiment.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 48)
Brent
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