Mark 12:29 (DBY)

Passage

And Jesus answered him, [The] first commandment of all [is], Hear, Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord;

Nearby Context

Mark 12:27 He is not the God of [the] dead, but of [the] living. *Ye* therefore greatly err.

Mark 12:28 And one of the scribes who had come up, and had heard them reasoning together, perceiving that he had answered them well, demanded of him, Which is [the] first commandment of all?

Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, [The] first commandment of all [is], Hear, Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord;

Mark 12:30 and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thine understanding, and with all thy strength. This is [the] first commandment.

Mark 12:31 And a second like it [is] this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is not another commandment greater than these.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "jesus", "answered", "first", "commandment", "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 who had..." 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.