2. Integrity. — The question of the integrity of the Sermon must be considered quite apart from that of its genuineness. We may be convinced that the three chapters of Mt. contain only true Logia of Jesus, and yet see reason to think that these Logia were not all spoken on one and the same occasion, in fact, that they do not actually constitute a sermon, {a) The first difficulty arises from the wealth and multiplicity of the utter- ances. We have here a concise concentration of many most pregnant sayings of Jesus. It is not to be supposed that a popular audience could take in so much at one hearing. But Jesus was wel- comed everywhere by simple peasants and the people generally much more than by trained thinkers and the educated classes. Since ' the common people heard him gladly,' His style must have been adjusted to slow-moving minds ; but no popular i^reacher would pack so much into one sermon as we have in Mt.'s three chapters.
(b) The variety of topics treated in the three chapters is inconsistent with the unity of a single discourse. Thus the encouragements to prayer and the warnings against anxiety are alien to the
main topic in which the principles of the new order are contrasted with the old laws and cus- toms.
(c) A more important consideration arises from a comparison of the portions of these chapters which reappear in Lk. with the circumstances in connexion with which they are there introduced. A priori it is improbable that any Evangelist would break up a discourse of Christ and scatter its sentences among his narratives, fitting them into the incidents gratuitously. But a study of the circumstances under which these sentences are met with in Lk. inclines us to think that they are in their right place. It will be observed that the Gospel's most full and consecutive rendering of sayings found in St. Matthew 5-7 is in St. Luke 6. Provisionally we may regard this chapter as giving St. Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount. Let us turn to those sayings of the Mt. chapters that are in other parts of Lk. First Ave have Mt 5^^ reappearing in Lk 14^*- ^^. This is a warning against degenerating and be- coming as salt that has lost its savour. In Mt. it has no evident connexion with the Beatitudes that it follows ; in Lk., however, it occurs in con- nexion Avith Avarnings of the danger of abandon- ing the folloAving of Christ after having com- menced, and serves to clinch those Avarnings Avith a final illustration. Moreover, this saying is also in Mk. (9^"), Avhere it seems to have been intro- duced by association with another reference to salt in the previous verse. Therefore it Avould seem to have been a floating logiun, Avhich natur- ally found its Avay into Mt.'s collection. In Mt. the saying about salt losing its savour is folloAved by that of the lamp under the bushel — a logion Avhich appears in Mk. (4^') and tAvice in Lk. (8^® 11^). None of these passages evinces much con- nexion Avith its context. It is to be observed that the second appearance in Lk. is nearer to Mt. than the first, since it has ' the bushel ' as the covering article, as also Mk. has, Avhile the first of Lk.'s renderings of it has ' a vessel.' Here again it Avould appear we have another floating logion. The solemn assurance that the LaAV cannot fail is not more intelligible in Lk. (16'^- ^^) than in Mt 5^** ; this, therefore, is rather exceptional. — The next of the Third Evangelist's departures from the order of the Sermon on the Mount in Mt. is Lk 12-58- 59 which corresponds to Mt 5^^- 2«. This is the advice to agree quickly Avith an adversary lest it be too late, and a serious judicial sentence have to be submitted to. In Mt. this folloAvs advice to be reconciled Avith a brother on grounds of the higher principles of Christ's teaching, Avhich forbid the quairelsome temper. In Lk. it follows the Avarnings of the approach of a day of reckoning. In neither place is it inappropriate. Perhaps it Avas spoken on two occasions. We must ahvays alloAV for that possibility. — The next three cases are more convincing. Mt. has the Lord's Prayer following Avarnings against hypocrisy in prayer, Avliich are associated Avith other cases of hypocrisy (Mt 6^"^*). The subject of this whole paragraph is unostentatious sincerity, as opposed to pretentious hypocrisy. In Lk. (IP'*) the Lord's Prayer is intro- duced after Christ's disciples have asked Him to teach them to pray, as John had taught his dis- ciples to pray. Thus it comes appropriately as a model prayer, Avhile in Mt. no form of prayer is immediately required Avhen the subject is privacy in prayer as against public display. Next, the warning against Avorldly anxiety (Mt 6^®'^^) has no direct connexion Avith the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. In Lk 1222-34 jt foUoAvs the Avarning against covetousness and the parable of the Kich Fool, Avhich Avere occasioned by one of the multitude appealing to Jesus to decide a
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question of inheritance between himself and his brother. — Lastly, the saying about the narrow gate (Mt 7^^" '^) appears in Lk. in reply to the question wliether they are few that be saved (Lk