Matthew 5:1

A mountain (τὸ ὄρος) The Rev. recognizes the force of the definite article, and renders "the mountain," that particular mountain in the place where Jesus saw the multitudes. The mountain itself cannot be identified. Delitzsch calls the Mount of Beatitudes "The Sinai of the New Testament." When he was set (καθίσαντος), following Tyndale Rev., more literally, when he had sat down (compare Wyc., when he had sete). After the manner of the rabbis, he seated himself ere he began to teach.

1 . a mountain ] Accurately, the mountain, the high land bordering on the Lake, behind Tell Hûm or Et Tabigah, which the inhabitants of those places would naturally call “the mountain” (see map). It was the Sinai of the New Law. Cp. Psalm 72:3 . he was set ] The usual position of a Jewish teacher. In the Talmud “to sit” is nearly synonymous with “to teach.” his disciples came unto him ] This may be regarded as the beginning of the Christian Church.

Matthew 5:1-2 . And seeing the multitudes — A vast concourse of people assembled from all parts to attend him, some with their sick to obtain cures, for he never rejected any who applied to him; some out of curiosity to see his miracles, and hear his extraordinary doctrine; some with a design to find fault and censure; and some, doubtless, to hear and be edified by his discourses, which seldom failed to make a deep impression on those who had any share of good sense or true piety: — the Son of God, beholding such a vast multitude of men, bewildered in the darkness of ignorance, and lost in sin and wretchedness, had compassion on them, and feeling in himself a strong desire to give them more particular instruction than he had yet done in the infinitely important matters of religion; that he might deliver what he had to say to them on this most momentous subject, with more convenience to himself and advantage to them, he went up into a mountain — Which afforded room for all, and where, addressing them from an eminence, he could be seen and heard by great numbers. And when he was set — After the manner of the Jewish doctors, who, to show their authority, were wont to sit when they taught; his disciples came unto him — To be instructed by him as a teacher come from God. By his disciples here, not only those strictly so called, viz., the twelve, who were afterward chosen to be his apostles, are intended, but as many of the multitude as were willing to learn of him.

And he opened his mouth — A phrase which, in the Scriptures, generally denotes the solemnity of the speaker, and the importance of what he delivers, and here signifies that he uttered the following weighty truths with great seriousness and earnestness. And taught them — As the great prophet and lawgiver of his church, the one way to present and future happiness, at the same time that he corrected those false notions of the Messiah’s kingdom which so generally prevailed, and which he foresaw would prove of destructive tendency to those who continued to be governed by them. Observe, reader! Christ thought it as lawful to preach on a mountain as in a synagogue; nor did his disciples doubt the lawfulness of hearing him wherever he thought fit to speak. Our Lord, it must be observed, pursues the most exact method in this divine discourse; describing, 1st, viz., in this chapter, the nature, excellency, and necessity of inward holiness; 2d, chap. 6., that purity of intention which must direct and animate our outward actions to render them holy; 3d, cautioning us against the grand hinderances of religion, and pointing out the chief means of attaining it: Matthew 7:1-20 ; Matthew , , 4 th, making an application of the whole, Matthew 7:21-28 .

Matthew 5:1-2 . Introductory statement by evangelist . Ἰδὼν δὲ … εἰς τὸ ὄρος . Christ ascended the hill, according to some, because there was more room there for the crowd than below. I prefer the view well put by Euthy. Zig.: “He ascended the near hill, to avoid the din of the crowd ( θορύβους ) and to give instruction without distraction; for He passed from the healing of the body to the cure of souls. This was His habit, passing from that to this and from this to that, providing varied benefit.” But we must be on our guard against a double misunderstanding that might be suggested by the statement in Matthew 5:1 , that Jesus went up to the mountain, as if in ascetic retirement from the world, and addressed Himself henceforth to His disciples, as if they alone were the objects of His care, or to teach them an esoteric doctrine with which the multitude had no concern. Jesus was not monastic in spirit, and He had not two doctrines, one for the many, another for the few, like Buddha. His highest teaching, even the Beatitudes and the beautiful discourse against care, was meant for the million. He taught disciples that they might teach the world and so be its light. For this purpose His disciples came to Him when He sat down ( καθίσαντος αὐτοῦ ) taking the teacher’s position ( cf. Mark 4:1 ; Mark 9:35 ; Mark 13:3 ). Lutteroth ( Essai d’Interprétation , p. 65) takes καθίσαντος as meaning to camp out ( camper ), to remain for a time, as in Luke 24:49 , Acts 18:11 .

He, I find, adopts the view I have indicated of the sermon as a summary of all the discourses of Jesus on the hill during a sojourn of some duration. The hill, τὸ ὄρος , may be most naturally taken to mean the elevated plateau rising above the seashore. It is idle to inquire what particular hill is intended.

V. (1) What is known as the Sermon on the Mount is obviously placed by St. Matthew (who appears in the earliest traditions connected with his name as a collector of our Lord’s “Oracles” or discourses) in the fore-front of his record of His work, as a great pattern-discourse, that which more than any other represented the teaching with which He began His work. Few will fail to recognise the fitness of its position, and the influence which it has exercised wherever the Gospel record has found its way. More than any other part of that record did it impress itself on the minds of men in the first age of the Church, and more often is it quoted by the writers of that period—St. James, and Barnabas, and Clement of Rome, and Ignatius, and Polycarp. More than any other portion, in recent time, has it attracted the admiring reverence even of many who did not look on the Preacher of the Sermon as the faith of Christendom looks on Him. Not unfrequently its teaching, as being purely ethical, has been contrasted with the more dogmatic character of the discourses that appear in St. John. How far that contrast really exists will appear as we interpret it. Two preliminary questions, however, present themselves: (1) Have we here the actual verbatim report of one single discourse? (2) Is that discourse the same as that which we find in Luke 6:20-49, and which, for the sake of distinctness, we may call the Sermon on the Plain?

Following the method hitherto adopted in dealing with problems which rise from the comparison of one Gospel with another, the latter inquiry will be postponed till we have to meet it in writing on St. Luke’s Gospel. Here it will be enough to state the conclusion which seems to be most probable, that the two discourses are quite distinct, and that each has traceably a purpose and method of its own. The other question calls for discussion now. At first sight there is much that favours the belief that the Sermon on the Mount is, as it were, a pattern discourse, framed out of the fragments of many like discourses. Not only is there a large element common to it and to the Sermon on the Plain, but we find many other portions of it scattered here and there in other parts of St. Luke’s Gospel. Thus we have:— -1Matthew 5:13 . . . Luke 14:34 -2Matthew 5:18 . . . Luke 16:17 -3Matthew 5:25-26 . . . Luke 12:58 -4Matthew 5:32 . . . Luke 16:18 -5Matthew 6:9-13 . . . Luke 11:2-4 -6Matthew 6:19-21 . . . Luke 12:33-34 -7Matthew 6:22-23 . . . Luke 11:34-36 -8Matthew 6:24 . . . Luke 16:13 -9Matthew 6:25 . . . Luke 12:22-23 -9Matthew 6:26-34 . . . Luke 12:24-31 -10Matthew 7:7-11 . . . Luke 11:9-13 -11Matthew 7:13 . . . Luke 13:24 -12Matthew 7:22-23 . . . Luke 13:25-27 In most of these passages St. Luke reports what served as the starting-point of the teaching. It conies as the answer to a question, as the rebuke of a special fault.