The Sermon on the Mount, overview, commentary, and
background
Into just one discourse, now know as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus
managed to pack the core of his ethical teaching. Recounted in Matthew’s
Gospel, his words challenged the world of first century Judaism,
provided a moral compass for early Christianity, and, over the past two
millennia, have left a legacy, in the form of ethical expectations
that guide a substantial proportion of the global population. The Sermon
on the Mount promotes a way of life that: embodies the love of God and
touches people with it; knows the peace of God and helps others to find
it; acknowledges the moral failings of humanity whilst offering
solutions to them. It is a speech that touches the soul and changes
lives in the process.
This site exists to help inquirers to climb the mount and sit with
Jesus as his disciples did, understanding, through their culture, just
how solidly the Sermon was founded on their Hebrew Bible, and hearing
not just the grand sweep of Jesus' words, but also the more revealing
nuances in his language. It also looks at some of the issues faced by
those who now seek to understand these words in their current context,
i.e. as part of Matthew's Gospel.
What's here
So what can you expect to find on this site? For the general reader
there is:
A simple introduction, for those just interested in a basic
understanding;
An outline
and a section-by-section commentary,
for those interested in specific sections;
For those who have a healthy curiosity and who want to go a bit deeper,
there are sections written in a more academic style, as follows:
Detailed background on selected sections, where
you will find more on topics such as the Sermon on the Mount's
scriptural parallels, the cultural and biblical context of Jesus'
words, and the precise meaning of some of the Greek and Hebrew;
A resources section which provides a bibliography (that attempts to identify the
background of the authors) and provides links to some additional online
resources;
A time line to help put into context some of the
events leading up to the Sermon, the subsequent evidence for its
impact, and the development of academic opinion;
The
Emmaus View, a web-based book examining the divine case-law
which lay behind the ministry of Jesus, provided the context for the
Sermon on the Mount, and is key to understanding the historical Jesus;
A consideration of the relationship between the
Sermon on the Mount and the Gospel of Thomas, which examines
whether, where parallels exist, it is Thomas or the Sermon that
appears to have the more authentic version;
The provision of suggested page citations (in the page footers) and
(in most cases) mouse-over lookup of biblical references, for which
you can specify
your preferred Bible version .