Mark 12:29 (ASV)

Passage

Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one:

Nearby Context

Mark 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living: ye do greatly err.

Mark 12:28 And one of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together, and knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, What commandment is the first of all?

Mark 12:29 Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one:

Mark 12:30 and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.

Mark 12:31 The second is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "jesus", "answered", "first", "hear", "israel", and "lord". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "jesus" and "answered", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 28's "And one of the scribes came and..." into verse 30's "and thou shalt love the Lord thy...", so "jesus" and "answered" belong inside that flow. In Mark context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "jesus" and "answered" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.