TO HANG, to be suspended from — an ordinary verb for something on a peg or a hook. ⚠ Matthew 22:40 makes it structural: 'on these two commandments the whole Law HANGS, and the Prophets.' The metaphor is not that the rest is unimportant but that it DEPENDS from these — remove the peg and everything on it comes down. Compare the Sermon's own summary of the same two-fold ethic, 'this is the Law and the Prophets' (7:12). The same verb is used of a millstone hung round a neck (18:6, and see skandalon) and, grimly, of a man hanging on a tree (Acts 5:30; Galatians 3:13, quoting Deuteronomy 21:23). KJV 'hang all the law and the prophets'; NWT keeps the Greek's slightly awkward order, 'the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets,' which is followed here. → first discussed at Matt 22:40