June 15 Evening Verse of the Day

12:29 / Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one is a quote of Deut. 6:4 and is the first part of what is known as the Shema among Jews (referring to the opening word of the sentence in Hebrew), made up from Deut. 6:4–9; 11:13–21; Num. 15:23–31. It has been the central feature of Jewish religious devotion for many centuries, and the fact that Jesus refers to it here shows that it must have been commonly recited in his own time. The second phrase is literally “The Lord our God is one,” and in reciting the Shema the emphasis is to fall upon the final word, “one,” which propounds the faith that there is no other god but the God of Israel. The Shema is the closest thing to a creed in ancient Judaism, giving a concise expression of the fundamental teaching of the ot.^[1]

12:29 Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. This is the first part of the Jewish Shema (from the first Hebrew word of the creed, meaning “hear”), consisting of Deuteronomy 6:4–9; 11:13–21; Numbers 15:37–41 and recited by pious Jews each morning and evening (Deut. 6:7). It formed the basic creedal affirmation of Judaism, and the essential part is here, the monotheistic confession that Yahweh (the Lord) is the one and only God. This was the core affirmation of Judaism and Christianity and was the core command that made idolatry (the worship of other gods) an ultimate sin against God.^[2]

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^[1] Hurtado, L. W. (2011). Mark (pp. 207–208). Baker Books.

^[2] Osborne, G. R. (2014). Mark (M. L. Strauss & J. H. Walton, Eds.; p. 219). Baker Books.