Mar 12:29 The first of all the commandments [is], Hear, O Israel;
Mar 12:29 The first of all the commandments [is], Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
Alternative: The foremost of every command? Hear and understand, Israel; that the Master, our God, is the one who has power:
Wordplay: The modern emphasis is on the meaning here of the "oneness" of God, but in Greek, like English, the word "one" doesn't only mean only the number "one," but also a single individual, acting like a pronoun. Christ plays with this dual meaning here connecting it to the repeating the word for "lord" (kurios) to emphasize that its actual meaning is "having power." Its root word is kuria, meaning "power," "authority," "possession," and "control."
Hidden meaning: The only command here, that is, the only verb in the imperative form, is to "hear and understand." The first command is for us to listen and understand not to actually do or be anything. Our primary role is to learn.
The word "Lord" is one of the many words whose meaning has been changed by the Bible. We use "Lord" and "God" interchangeably, almost exclusively in a religious sense. It also applies to hereditary nobility, but that isn't a common topic of conversation. In Christ's time, "lords" were much more common. The idea was simply that a person had power over something, coming from his ownership of it. Each man was the lord of his house. Ownership was the source of power over something.
In an era when slavery was common practice and an accepted par of life (see this article), the lordship of one person over another was a basic idea. The focus here is on God's lordship over everything, not simply his oneness.
Thematically and Linguistically Related Verse(s): Mat 22:37-38 is the parallel verse in Matthew but it lacks this specific statement and is much more like the following verse than this one.
Vocabulary:
"First" is from prôtos (protos). In place, this means "the foremost." Of time, it means "the initial." In order, it means "the first." In math, it means the prime numbers. Of rank or degree, it means "the highest" or "the best."
"All" is from pas (pas), which means "all," "the whole," "every," "anyone," "all kinds," and "anything."
"Commandment" is from entolê (entole) which means "injunction," "order," and "command."
"Hear" is from akouô (akouo), which means "hear of," "hear tell of," "what one actually hears," "know by hearsay," "listen to," "give ear to," "hear and understand," and "understand."
"Lord" is from kurios (kyrios), which means "having power," "being in authority" and "being in possession of." It also means "lord," "master of the house," and "head of the family."
"God" is from theos (theos), which means "God," the Deity."
"Is" is from eimi (eimi), which means "to be," "to exist," "to be the case," and "is possible." (The future form is esomai. The 3rd person present indicative is "esti.")
"One" is from eis (heis), which means "one" (as opposed to other numbers), "single," and "one and the same." As in English, it can be used as a pronoun, meaning a single person.
