Deuteronomy 6
ECFDeuteronomy 6:4
Ambrose of Milan: The law says, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God.” It did not say “speak” but “hear.” Eve fell because she said to the man what she had not heard from the Lord her God. The first word from God says to you, “hear.” — On the Duties of the Clergy 1.2.7
Ambrose of Milan: Such too was the teaching of the law: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord,” that is, unchangeable, always abiding in unity of power, always the same and not altered by any accession or diminution. Therefore Moses called him one. — On the Holy Spirit 3.14.105
Augustine of Hippo: That Trinity is one God. Not that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are identically the same. But the Father is Father, the Son is Son, and the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit, and this Trinity is one God, as it is written: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God.” — On Faith and the Creed 9.16
Augustine of Hippo: Consider now for a while the passages of Scripture which force us to confess that the Lord is one God, whether we are asked about the Father alone, or the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone, or about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit together. Certainly it is written, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord.” Of whom do you think that this is said? If it is said only of the Father, then our Lord Jesus Christ is not God. Why did those words come to Thomas when he touched Christ and cried out, “My Lord and my God,” which Christ did not reprove but approved, saying, “Because you have seen, you have believed”? — LETTER 238
Fulgentius of Ruspe: Therefore, in whatever place you may be, because you know that you have been baptized in the one name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, according to the rule promulgated by the command of our Savior, retain this rule with your whole heart, from the start and without hesitation: the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. This means the holy and ineffable Trinity is by nature one God, concerning whom it is said in Deuteronomy, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God,” and “You shall adore the Lord your God and him alone shall you serve.” Indeed, … we have said that this one God who alone is true God by nature, is not the Father only, nor the Son only, nor the Holy Spirit only but is at one and the same time Father, Son and Holy Spirit. [Thus] we must be wary that while we say in truth that as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God, insofar as this is a unity of nature, we dare not say or believe something altogether blasphemous. [Such a blasphemous saying would be] that he who is the person of the Father is the same as either the Son or the Holy Spirit, or that he who is the person of the Son is the Father or the Holy Spirit. Or [it might be] that we dare to say or to believe that the person who is properly called the Holy Spirit in the confession of this Trinity is either the Father or the Son, something that is altogether wicked. — TO PETER ON THE FAITH 1.3
Gregory of Nyssa: This is the cause why it says, “the Lord our God is one Lord,” and also proclaims the Only-begotten God by the name of Godhead, without dividing the Unity into a dual signification, so as to call the Father and the Son two Gods, although each is proclaimed by the holy writers as God. The Father is God: the Son is God: and yet by the same proclamation God is One, because no difference either of nature or of operation is contemplated in the Godhead. For if (according to the idea of those who have been led astray) the nature of the Holy Trinity were diverse, the number would by consequence be extended to a plurality of Gods, being divided according to the diversity of essence in the subjects. But since the Divine, single, and unchanging nature, that it may be one, rejects all diversity in essence, it does not admit in its own case the signification of multitude; but as it is called one nature, so it is called in the singular by all its other names, “God,” “Good,” “Holy,” “Saviour,” “Just,” “Judge,” and every other Divine name conceivable. — On “Not Three Gods”
Hilary of Poitiers: And now let us see whether the confession of Thomas the Apostle, when he cried, My Lord and My God, corresponds with this assertion of the Evangelist. We see that he speaks of Him, Whom he confesses to be God, as My God. Now Thomas was undoubtedly familiar with those words of the Lord, Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One. How then could the faith of an Apostle become so oblivious of that primary command as to confess Christ as God, when life is conditional upon the confession of the Divine unity? It was because, in the light of the Resurrection, the whole mystery of the faith had become visible to the Apostle. He had often heard such words as, I and the Father are One, and, All things that the Father hath are Mine, and, I in the Father and the Father in Me; and now he can confess that the name of God expresses the nature of Christ, without peril to the faith. Without breach of loyalty to the One God, the Father, his devotion could now regard the Son of God as God, since he believed that everything contained in the nature of the Son was truly of the same nature with the Father. No longer need he fear that such a confession as his was the proclamation of a second God, a treason against the unity of the Divine nature; for it was not a second God Whom that perfect birth of the Godhead had brought into being. Thus it was with full knowledge of the mystery of the Gospel that Thomas confessed his Lord and his God. It was not a title of honour; it was a confession of nature. He believed that Christ was God in substance and in power. — ON THE TRINITY 7:12
John Chrysostom: “What then?” one may say, “were they wronged, who lived before His coming?” By no means, for men might then be saved, even though they had not confessed Christ. For this was not required of them, but not to worship idols, and to know the true God. “For the Lord thy God,” it is said, “is one Lord.” Therefore the Maccabees were admired, because for the observance of the law they suffered what they did suffer; and the three children, and many others too amongst the Jews, having shown forth a very virtuous life, and having maintained the standard of this their knowledge, had nothing more required of them. For then it was sufficient for salvation, as I have said already, to know God only; but now it is so no more, but there is need also of the knowledge of Christ. Therefore He said, “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin.” — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF Matthew 36
Deuteronomy 6:5
Ambrose of Milan: He says, ‘Let the earth bring forth green herb,’ and immediately the whole earth, at the rising of the germ, is filled with all kinds of plants. And to man it is said: ‘Love the Lord your God’ (Deut., VI, 5), and the love of God is not infused into the hearts of all. The hearts of men are more deaf than the hardest rocks. The earth produces fruits for us undeservedly, while obeying its creator; we deny the debt of gratitude, while not honoring the creator. — The Six Days of Creation, Book 3, Chapter 17, Section 70
Ambrose of Milan: And therefore it is written, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. Now he who loves also believes, and in believing each man begins to love. Abraham believed, and so began to love, and he believed not in part, but entirely. For otherwise he would not have perfect charity, for it is written, Charity believeth all things. If it believe not all things, charity does not seem to be perfect. Perfect charity then has all faith. — Letter 76, Section 5
Ambrose of Milan: And the law says: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, thou shalt love thy neighbour.” It is a noble thing to do one’s kindnesses and duties towards the whole of the human race. But it is ever most seemly that thou shouldst give to God the most precious thing thou hast, that is, thy mind, for thou hast nothing better than that. When thou hast paid thy debt to thy Creator, then thou mayest labour for men, to show them kindness, and to give help; then thou mayest assist the needy with money, or by some duty, or some service that lies in the way of thy ministry; by money to support him; by paying a debt, so as to free him that is bound; by undertaking a duty, so as to take charge of a trust, which he fears to lose, who has put it by in trust. — On the Duties of the Clergy, Book 1, Section 262
Augustine of Hippo: Therefore the supreme and true wisdom is in that first commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul.” From this it follows that wisdom is love of God, which is “poured forth in our hearts,” not otherwise than “by the Holy Spirit who is given to us.” But “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
Augustine of Hippo: Now it is plain that the number four has relation to the body, from the four well known elements of which it consists, and the four qualities of dry, humid, warm, cold. Hence too it is administered by four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, winter. All this is very well known. For of the number four relating to the body we have treated elsewhere somewhat subtilly, but obscurely: which must be avoided in this discourse, which we would have accommodated to the unlearned. But that the number three has relation to the mind may be understood from this, that we are commanded to love God after a threefold manner, with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the whole mind: of each of which severally we must treat, not in the Psalms, but in the Gospels: for the present, for proof of the relation of the number three to the mind, I think what has been said enough. — Expositions on the Psalms, Psalms 6
Augustine of Hippo: Then in all this plenitude of charity will be fulfilled the commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” For while there remains any remnant of the lust of the flesh, to be kept in check by the rein of continence, God is by no means loved with all one’s soul. For the flesh does not lust without the soul; although it is the flesh which is said to lust, because the soul lusts carnally. In that perfect state the just man shall live absolutely without any sin, since there will be in his members no law warring against the law of his mind, but wholly will he love God, with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind which is the first and chief commandment. — Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness
Cassiodorus: As the law teaches, “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul.” But the person who puts his entire hope in the Lord also praises with his whole heart. He does not put his trust in the transient consolations of the world, once he has trained himself on the Lord with total purity of mind. — EXPOSITION OF THE Psalms 85:12
Desert Fathers: Somebody asked Antony, ‘What shall I do in order to please God?’ He replied, ‘Do what I tell you, which is this: wherever you go, keep God in mind; whatever you do, follow the example of holy Scripture; wherever you are, stay there and do not move away in a hurry. If you keep to these guide-lines, you will be saved.’ — The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
Desert Fathers: Gregory said, ‘God asks three things of anyone who is baptized: to keep the true faith with all his soul and all his might; to control his tongue; to be chaste in his body.’ — The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
Gregory of Nyssa: If one does not love God with all his heart and with all his soul, how can he care wholesomely and guilelessly for the love of his brothers, since he is not fulfilling the love of the One on whose account he has a care for the love of his brothers? The person in this condition, who has not given his whole soul to God and has not participated in his love, the craftsman of evil finds disarmed and easily overpowers. .
Origen of Alexandria: The great and first commandment in the law, therefore, is this: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind. But whoever subtracts anything from that whole commandment — that is, either from what it says with your whole heart or with your whole soul or with your whole mind — subtracts from its magnitude and from its primacy. And perhaps all who love their Lord God, unless they also fulfill the parts that follow and love him with their whole heart and with their whole soul and with their whole mind, keep the commandment only in part; but those alone take up its magnitude and primacy within themselves who not only love their Lord God but have also taken up those three — that is, so that with their whole heart they store up within themselves that whole one and his works and his thoughts, and with their whole soul, that is, so that they are ready to lay it down for the piety of God who created all things, when the usefulness of the word demands it, out of the fact that with the whole soul one loves God, in such a way that no part of the soul is torn away toward any thing that is foreign to the faith, and in our whole mind thinking or bringing forth nothing else but “the things that are of God”. And see whether you can take heart to mean the intellect, which gazes upon intelligible things and shows the source and beginning of them, which is God, and mind to mean the bringing forth of things (for it is with the mind that we bring forth individual things, and through each thing that is signified we walk about, as it were, with our mind and bring it forth). And if anyone should understand ingeniously the commandment which was laid down concerning love in all those three things that have been named, and should consider in each of the several faithful the love of God, he will perhaps find the whole commandment either in one, or perhaps the second or the third (and this if it should be granted), but in all of them the love of God having less — whether a little or more — either from what it says with your whole heart or from what it says with your whole soul or with your whole mind. — COMMENTARY ON Matthew 2
Origen of Alexandria: Something of this kind is shown also concerning the commandment of love toward God and toward the neighbor, when it says thus: “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength”. For without doubt, when anyone shall have loved God “with his whole heart” “and with his whole soul” “and with his whole strength”, he has such a reward of love as the one who had a greater heart, or who has a more eminent soul, or who received greater strength. For this alone is sought, that whatever a man may have from God, he should use the whole of it for the glory of God. — COMMENTARY ON Matthew 67
Philoxenus of Mabbug: That the people should love God was the greatest of the commandments, and therefore Moses urged them to fear Him. The commandment, “[Thou shalt] love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”, belonged to those who were righteous among them; but those who were like slaves, and who like slaves were committing offences at all times, he commanded to fear God, for fear repulseth vices, and love perfecteth virtues. Fear cutteth off the path of iniquitous men, and love urgeth on the way of the virtues. “Fear God”, and “Love the Lord thy God”; these two commands were ordained in the law which was given to the people, so that whosoever became exalted above the command of fear might find before him the command of love, which is perfected therefrom. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 7 – Second Discourse on the Fear of God
Deuteronomy 6:8
Origen of Alexandria: It must be understood in these matters that it is written in the law concerning the divine words, saying: “bind them upon your hand, and they shall be moving before your eyes”. Those, therefore, who do all things in order to be seen by men, the scribes and Pharisees, writing certain sayings of the law on two cut pieces of parchment, bind them, and one indeed they carry on their houses, as it were placing upon their heads as a crown that which is written according to the forehead. But the other upon the arm of their hand; and they call them “phylacteries”. Similarly, finding something also about the fringe in Deuteronomy, they suppose that they keep the law by making some fringe on some part of the garments which they wear.
But the disciples of Jesus do all their works in order to be seen by God alone; for they bind the law of God upon their hand, spiritually upon their good work, and by meditation on the divine teachings, ever moving them, they make the divine precepts moving before the eyes of their souls, and the fringe full of the virtue of Jesus — in this, that they imitate the Master. — COMMENTARY ON Matthew 11
Deuteronomy 6:12
Philoxenus of Mabbug: Observe then these defects, O thou that lovest spiritual excellence, and excuse thyself from this wickedness, that thou mayest not forget God and thine own self thereby, and thy discernment be darkened against all that is seemly; and with these remember also that which was spoken by the prophet Moses to the Jews, saying, “Take heed when thou eatest, and art satisfied, lest thou forget the Lord thy God who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt.” And behold the Spirit of God hath taught thee openly that error is born of fulness of food, and that, when a man hath forgotten God, he marcheth fearlessly into all wickedness, and associateth himself with all evils. For as the sight of a stern master is to riotous slaves, even so is the remembrance of God unto the soul; for it maketh the tumultuousness of the thoughts shamefaced, and immediately the thought of Him falleth into the mind all the perturbed thoughts hasten to put themselves in the order of fear, and the soul becometh suddenly a peaceful house, an ordered temple, a pure dwelling, and a holy mansion of the Trinity. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 10 – On Gluttony
Deuteronomy 6:13
Augustine of Hippo: What is to be said of justice in its relation to God? As the Lord says, “No man can serve two masters,” and the apostle rebukes those who serve the creature rather than the Creator, so had it not been said before in the Old Testament: “You shall adore the Lord your God and him only shall you serve”? But what need is there to say more about this here since the Scriptures are full of such texts? Justice then offers this rule of life to the lover we are describing: that he serve with gladness the Lord whom he loves, that is to say, the supreme good, the supreme wisdom, the supreme peace; and with respect to all other things, that he govern those which are subject to him and endeavor to subject all else to the same rule. This rule of life is confirmed, as we have shown, by the authority of both Testaments. — ON THE CATHOLIC AND THE MANICHAEAN WAYS OF LIFE 1.24.44
Augustine of Hippo: Whoever yields assent to the supreme authority of divine Scripture should first examine these words: “The Lord your God shall you adore, and him only shall you serve.” In Greek the expression used does not signify the service owed to human masters but that which is offered to God, called latreia. Thus idolatry is rightly condemned because the latreia which is due to the true God alone is offered to idols. It does not say, “You shall adore only the Lord your God,” but it says, “And him only shall you serve.” It used the word only with “you shall serve,” meaning, no doubt, that service which is called latreia. To this service belong temple, sacrifice, priest, and other like attributes. — LETTER 173A
Augustine of Hippo: What he says about the Lord: And in his name you will swear, it is not to be taken in the sense that he has commanded to swear, but what he has done is to forbid swearing in the name of another divinity. But, as the Gospel says, it is better not to swear; not because the true oath is bad, but so as not to fall into perjury because of the ease in swearing. For he who swears, can swear not only the true, but also the false. And the one who never swears, walks away from perjury. 13 (Deuteronomy 8.2). And you will remember all the way that the Lord your God walked you in the desert to afflict you and prove to you and make known what is in your heart, whether you are going to keep his commandments or not. Here it is more clearly said what in another place is dark, due to the kind of expression that is used: The Lord your God is testing you to know if you love him (Deuteronomy 13,3). It is already understood that the author puts “to know” as the equivalent of “to make it known.” And this very thing is said here with all clarity: To prove to you and make known what is in your heart. It does not say: «and know»; because, if I said it, you had to understand: “make known”. 14 (Deuteronomy 9.6). And you will know today that the Lord your God does not give you this splendid land as an inheritance because of your merits, because you are a stiff-necked people. Certainly, these are the ones who did not deserve to perish in the desert, because they did not know how to distinguish between the right and the left. But now it is said of them that they are stiff-necked. Therefore, we must see that these words contain a mystery, not that the merits of these men are extolled. And so, so that nobody thinks that these have become suddenly blameworthy, when shortly before they praised his merits, they are told a little later: Remember; do not forget how much you provoked the Lord your God in the wilderness: From the day you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you continued to be unbelieving about the Lord. If some of them were unbelievers, and others faithful and good, neither is the promised land granted to those who can not distinguish between the right and the left, so that we understand it in the sense that they have not offended God. Because their parents, who died, and who were not allowed to enter that land, it is seen that they were also like these, and so also among them there were some good ones. That is why the Apostle says that not all, but some of them, committed sins and mentions those sins (Cf 1Co 10,6-9). This text of Deuteronomy also teaches with total evidence that they were similar to their parents. Then add: And in the Horeb you provoked the Lord. From which it follows that he was certainly irritated by those who were not allowed to enter the promised land because of their own bad deeds. — QUESTIONS ON DEUTERONOMY, Q. 12 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)