(a) The Sermon on the Mount, Mt 5-7.—Weiz- siicker subjects this sermon, ‘a kind of catechism’ set in the forefront of this Gospel, to an analysis which reveals its true nature as ‘a kind of code, such as originated in and was designed for the Church.’ This transformation of Christ’s teaching into forms adapted to the religious use of disciples was inevitable so long as the evangelic tradition was a matter of catechesis, with a view to edification. Indeed this fact witnesses to its vital hold on Christians at a time when the Spirit was every- thing and the letter little thought of, and so when fresh applications of a principle laid down by the Master could not in oral teaching be kept apart from the germinal saying which had given them birth in the Church’s mind. ‘The question, then, is here not so much one of the Lord’s ipsissima verba, lying behind the Logia used in our Gospel, as touch- ing the nucleus of a sermon formed out of such Logia which Mt expands.
Weizsicker makes it consist of three sections originally inde- pendent, as is seen from Lk: viz. the new Christian law in
MATTHEW, GOSPEL OF
* The diverse orders, ‘ Jesus Christ’ (NCEKL al. Pap. Oxyr. (sme. iii.) egypt. syr. “ arm, «eth. Or.) and * Christ Jesus’ (B), pone to the originality of ‘the Christ’ (Ὁ ΤΙ, it. vg. syr. 8 cur
ren.) ; ef, 17,
MATTHEW, GOSPEL OF
contrast to the existent legal usage of the scribes (521-48) 5 Christ's estimate of the pious usages then in honour (alms, prayers, fustings); and His reformation of them (61-18) and His exposition of the higher life in contrast to division of heart and care for the worldly life (6%). Secondary to these, even as combined, he regards not only ch. 7—an ce of seven short sections supplementing and partly repeating the foregoing (75, with its ‘false prophets which come to you in sheep's cloth- ing,’ being clearly a late touch)—but also the twofold introduction in D+12- 1-10, Now, that 516 is out of place one may justly infer from Lk 144f 816115, But Lk also makes the Sermon open with beatitudes, though less than half Mt’s number (which seems filled out with OT phrases), and otherwise contradicts Weizsicker’s analysis. For this among other reasons, the reconstruction of the Logian Sermon favoured by Weiss and Wendt (with some divergences) is to be preferred. yet even 80, one must not assume that the Sermon was known to Mt and Lk in the same recension. Thus, while it is probable that Lk’s four beatitudes (apart from the parallel woes, a secondary feature) best represent the original apostolic Logian tradition (not necessarily as Matthew taught it), it is clear that Luke knew the Lord’s Prayer in another form from Mt’s, and that not as part of the Sermon at all.
Allowing, then, for the different history of the Logian tradition before it reached our Mt or Luke, we may regard the following as ‘ Matthwan’ in substance :—Four beatitudes parallel to Lk (54-61) ; four revised readings of Mosaic mor- ality as understood by the scribes—about murder, adultery, retaliation, hatred of enemies (621. = (24). 27f. 88-40. 4248) ; three corrections of the Jewish ideal of piety—alms, prayer, fasting (6') ; * four dangers of the higher life—earthly-minded- ness, insincerity, a divided heart, carefulness for things bodily—the remedy being absorption in the Father’s kingdom (6!) ; | some more miscellane- ous counsels (7!7), These last, most of all, owe their combination to our evangelist, as they repeat a good deal ; and in one case (7), the Golden Rule of duty towards one’s neighbour, a verse comes more naturally in Lk (6%), earlier in the Sermon. Yet the words on criticism and self-criticism (71%, Lk 6%7f- If), on fruit as the test of goodness (71**1, Lk 64), and the similitude which clinches the whole Sermon (72427, Lk 64749), come in fitly.t Probably even this reconstruction leaves too much in the Sermon for it really to have been spoken at one time: it expects far more of men’s hearing capacity than Jesus ever demanded. But it may stand as representing the Matthwan didactic cate- chism for the citizen of the Father’s kingdom, and as suggesting the processes of further accretion in later use, and of final compilation, which lie between it and Mt 5-7.
(8) The Disciple Discourse, ch. 10.—The action of local Church usage upon the tradition is also implied in the specific disciple-discourse. This in practical use must early have lost much of its original restrictions, as intended for the guidance of the Twelve in their first preaching by the side of their Master’s own ministry (οἵ. Mk 311), Thus in Lk it refers to the conduct of a large circle of disciples who assisted Jesus in a similar way; and in either form it doubtless embodies rules taught in the churches for the guidance of all who acted as missionaries (‘apostles’ in the larger sense, for which ‘evangelists’ became a synonym). The words in Mt 1028 cannot have been used of the original temporary mission : ‘When they persecute you in the one city, flee to the other: for verily I say to you, ye shall not finish the cities of Israel before the Son of Man come.’ This must rather represent an early stage
* Each of these sections admits of further analysis: note particularly the change from ‘ye’ to ‘thou’ (? of catechesis) in each case. We cannot, of course, by such rough tests dis- tinguish the teaching as original and derivative. But certainly the Lord's Prayer did not come originally in the Sermon (see ΠΝ an"). The backbone of Mt’s form of this section consists of 6*- 9 *»,