The greatest command is to hear and believe that God is one Person. This produces “the absolute simplicity of the entire inner life” (Lange). The Jewish scribe, who was not a Trinitarian (!), gives his wholehearted assent, repeating in other words exactly what Jesus had declared. Jesus confirms the scribe’s correct understanding by commending him. The declaration of Jesus defining God roots Jesus in the Hebrew Bible and in the Jewish view of God. “Salvation,” he said, is “of the Jews” (Jn. 4:22). The replacement of Jesus’ central teaching by later “church fathers,” turning God into a mysterious “Triune Being,” represents a disastrous departure from the pristine faith of and in Jesus. It can be easily repaired as ordinary readers grasp the staggering yet simple implications of Mark 12:29 echoed in John 17:3, and 1300 NT references to God as the Father and not Jesus. Repentance and a return to the creed of Jesus is the greatest possible challenge to the uncritically accepted traditions of many churches, which nevertheless claim to be following the Bible! If Sola Scriptura (the Bible only) is to be more than a hollow boast, Christians need to be heeding the words of Jesus in Mark 12:28-34. By affirming and authorizing Deut. 6:4, “Jesus stood in complete and conscious agreement with Phariseeism” (Schlatter, Das Wort Jesu, p. 221).

Buzzard, Anthony. The One God, the Father, One Man Messiah Translation: New Testament with Commentary. – Purchase on Amazon