Why doesn't the greatest commandment include "spirit"?
Upvote:1
Jesus was asked what is the most important or "foremost" commandment. He answered by citing a commandment (or two depending on how you count) namely Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
Hear, Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
This answer was basic Jewish teaching. It starts with a verse every Jewish child learns, the Shema which commands that all Jews must hear (and obey) the Lord, followed the commandment to love God with all one's heart, soul and might. We need not wonder why he didn't include "spirit" as well as soul, because to do that would be to add something to the scripture he was citing.
Upvote:2
You said, "My focus is on trying to understand if there is reason “spirit” was not included in the original Shema." In that case, all the additional comments you made about the way the New Testament speaks of Christ's blood and the written code being cancelled, are not really applicable here. That's not to question the truth of those facts - it's just to suggest that you might get a clearer answer by sticking to the Old Testament, and how the Jews Jesus was speaking to would understand 'spirit'.
The Hebrew scriptures only use 'neshamah' twice, where it means 'breath' - Job 26:4 & Prov. 20:27. But the word 'ruach', meaning spirit or wind, is frequent. However, it has various meanings, ranging from a spirit of jealousy to a lying spirit amongst prophets. It also refers to something God-given to all people, which returns to him upon their physical death (Ecclesiastes 12:7). This means that the ancient Hebraic understanding of the word 'spirit' was not a simple, one-meaning-only thing.
Another point could be that Jesus was showing that total commitment to, and love of God involved the whole person. The greatest command, as expressed in the Shema, was utter devotion to God, based on love of God. Those who view the human being as a spirit inclusive of the soul, 'contained' as it were in a physical body, would clearly grasp the truth of Jesus' answer, and find no fault with it. The occasion of his answer did not call for an explanation of any doctrine about what 'spirit' meant. Neither did the Shema call for any mention of 'spirit' in it, because the wording shows that the entire being of the person needs to love God first, above all else. That would include the 'spirit' part of people.
I hope this is helpful to you.
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