* H. Holtzmann, Ibbeken, B. Weiss, Wendt.
SERMON ON THE MOUNT val
religious movement aimed to accomplish, for what it practically stood. (5) Finally, to take the theme from Mt 51-0 makes it impossible to find any place in the discourse for the greater part of the material contained in Mt 5-7, since the great sections 5°16 619-54 71-27 have no logical relation to a defence against the charge of destroying the OT Law, or a polemic against the Pharisaic interpreta- tion of it.
These considerations point strongly towards another theme for the Sermon. Where should one look for that theme but in the first section, in the Beatitudes themselves? They present the ideal life in character and conduct, the true righteousness over against current shallow and perverse conceptions of righteousness. This, then, is the true theme of the Sermon on the Mount, because: (1) It stands, where the theme should, at the head of the discourse. (2) It is the theme which both Matthew and Luke fix for the dis- course, and the only theme which is common to both accounts of the Sermon.* (3) This theme imeludes the section about the Law, Mt 5!7-2, with the Jewish allusions contained in its logical de- velopment in 5*!-48 61-18, as one of several elements in the discourse, which therefore Luke or his source can omit without radically changing the thought of the Sermon. In this feature of the section the ideal life of Jesus’ conception is painted against the background of the Pharisaic conception ; and not with an apologetical or polemical purpose, but as an effective mode of positive instruction. When the Gospel story was shorn of this local colouring to make it suitable for the Gentiles, the essential, universal elements of the teaching were extracted and used; compare Lk 627-56 with Mt 52-8. (4) This theme is appropriate to the occasion described by Luke. There is abundant probability that Jesus, at some middle point in the Galilean ministry, after careful preparation of the people, and to a general company of His followers, would under- take to set forth somewhat specifically and com- prehensively the kind of men and women for whom the kingdom of God called ; what it meant in actual life to become a member of that kingdom; the kind of righteousness which God required as con- trasted with the current scribal teaching. This would be a definite theme for a great discourse. It would logically involve a characterization of ideal character and conduct; a comparison of this ideal with the ideal commonly held among them ; some illustrations of how this ideal character and conduct would manifest themselves in one’s atti- tude towards God, self, and fellow-men ; and, lastly, earnest injunctions to the actual attainment of this ideal. This is what we have in the Sermon on the Mount. And there is in the public ministry of Jesus no occasion so suitable for just such a dis- course as that of the appointment of the apostles, with which event Luke associates the Sermon.
Certain scholars hold that this general theme of the ideal life, or the true righteousness, unifies the whole contents of Mt 5-7 so that every verse finds a place in its development. On this view the Sermon contains no extraneous material, is in no degree a compilation, but, on the contrary, came from Jesus exactly in its present contents and arrangement. It does not need to be said that we should all like to think of the Sermon in this way, if it were possible. But in the judgment of
* Luke’s form of the Beatitudes does not show this as clearly as Matthew’s, but the subsequent material of Luke’s discourse leaves no doubt that the original import of them was the same as of those of the First Gospel. On other grounds also it appears that the Lukan interpretation of the Beatitudes (placed upon them probably not by the Evangelist but by his source) is seriously misconceived. ‘ ; ;
+ So Stier, Morison, Keil, Kiibel, Steinmeyer, H. Weiss, Broadus, Grawert.
12 SERMON ON THE MOUNT
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
the great majority of NT scholars* two facts are decisive against this hypothesis. (1) Particular verses in the two accounts have no logical con- nexion with the theme of the discourse and its development, ¢.g. Mt 5% 26-81. 92 @7-15 76-11. 22.23 Tc 674-26. 36a. 39. 40. 45, Tt does not meet the point to reply that, since the Gospel reports contain only excerpts from the Sermon, abrupt transitions are to be expected. That is true, as we may see at Met 512: 16. 48 618.34, Lk 676-81-42, But in these cases it is possible to discover a thought relation in the contiguous sections, although the sections are not smoothly joined to one another. In the former class of passages, however, it is difficult to see any logical relation to the theme and discourse as a whole. If now it be said that thought connexion need not exist throughout the contents, this is to attribute to Jesus a mosaic of sayings instead of a discourse, which seems very unlikely. (2) The second fact to be mentioned is still more certain. Most of the material in Matthew which appears to be extrane- ous to the discourse has parallels in Luke’s Gospel outside of his Sermon (see table of parallel passages above). Now, if Matthew has right places for these verses, Luke has wrong ones. But can it be considered probable that the Sermon should have been preserved so complete as Matthew’s account in one line of transmission, and should have become so disintegrated as Luke’s account in another? Would not Luke, who had ‘traced the course of all things accurately from the first’ (Lk 18), have discovered and obtained for his book this far superior account of the Sermon? Again, the original historical setting of some of these ex- traneous passages in Mt 5-7 is fixed by Luke as not in the Sermon but elsewhere. The Lord’s Prayer is shown by Lk 11'4 to have been given by Jesus on another occasion in response to a specific request from His disciples. The true place of the divorce teaching (Mt 5%: %?) is established by Matthew’s own Gospel, in Mt 19°9=Mk 107”, where it is germane to the occasion, while in the Sermon it interrupts the movement of the dis- course.| Similarly, the parable of the blind guid- ing the blind, Lk 6%, belongs more likely to the position assigned it in Mt 15.