This discussion of the Sermon on the Mount is meant to present that Sermon in the light of the rest of Jesus' teachings, which show that he did not come to condemn you, but to save you.
The teachings in the Sermon were collected by the early church, with the writer of Matthew compiling them into one address from a mountain.
What I have tried to do is fish out the intentions or probable intentions of Jesus when he uttered these sayings.
For a discussion of issues concerning the writing of the Sermon, please see Appendix A: On the writing of the Sermon.
For another complete e-book, which includes the Sermon's teachings, please see The Secret Path -- A story of Jesus.
A few more points:
¶ The following discussion is by a layman who is not a Bible scholar, though the scholarship of experts is taken into account. Technical points are examined here and there, but we do not dwell on them overly much. Our purpose is to mine the Sermon [1*] for spiritual content.
¶ When you see Matthew, Mark, Luke or John in italic type, that tells you that The Book of Matthew, The Book of Mark, The Book of Luke or The Book of John is meant. If you see, say, Matthew 5:3-12, then you know that a specific passage in Matthew is meant (italics here are unnecessary). I try to avoid the practice of writing "Matthew says thus and such" because the idea that the apostle Matthew must have written the book of that name is only a conjecture of early church scholars. We do not know who wrote the book. Similarly for the other three gospels.
¶ I have generally stayed with the old-fashioned form of writing his to mean his or hers and so forth. Personally, I do not regard this usage as slighting women. Whenever possible however I use neutral words such as person rather than man if woman or man is meant. But I favor ease of reading over a relentless pursuit of such grammatical points. See the commentary on equality of women here.
¶ The King James version of chapters 5,6 and 7 of the Sermon appears here:
https://newziondays.blogspot.com/2020/01/sermon-on-mount-mt-chapters-567.html
¶ I recommend the English version provided by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The translation is up to date and expert and the commentary that accompanies the text is scholarly, yet succinct and readable. The commentary takes pains to be honest.
Conference of Catholic Bishops Bible
https://bible.usccb.org/bible
¶ In the following commentary, I do not give every verse or saying equal time. Rather, I use particular sayings and groups of sayings as stimulants for commentaries – some longer, some shorter, as seems appropriate. On occasion, I let some passages go by without specific remarks, although the commentaries, in my view, tend in general to cover all the sayings.
¶ Within the commentary, I have put Sermon verses, along with some (but not all) non-Sermon verses, into modern American idiomatic form; these interpretations should be regarded as paraphrases. You are encouraged to check the KJV and, as we know that the KJV is hardly the definitive version (though I do believe much of the translation was inspired), you may wish to view online other translations which take into account a wealth of painstaking modern scholarship.
¶ Some readers might find it helpful to SKIP the Scriptures and other matter with gold, light purple or pale green backgrounds. This material is meant to supplement the commentary. I would certainly hate to see someone give up a read-through because of too much extra material in the way.
¶ Rectangular braces enclose every footnote, as in [1a*]. The link takes you to the page holding the footnotes for the main page you are reading. Footnotes are not in sequential order but use of Control f (or equivalent) should make access easy.
¶ The reader will find a number of quotations from the late Bible scholar Bruce M. Metzger's writings in this commentary. All Metzger's books are excellent sources of Christian insight.
¶ The reader should feel free to scroll past blocks of supplemental Scriptures rather than let them be an obstacle. It's easy enough to go back and look at the verses with gold/yellow background at another time.
¶ The reader will find he may easily check Bible references by cutting (highlight with mouse stroke, followed by control c) and then pasting (control v) the reference into the browser bar and searching. Use control t or the equivalent to do your searches on a separate page so that you keep your place on these pages.
¶ Consider archiving this page via The Wayback Machine,
https://archive.org/web/
¶ Permission is granted to reproduce any or all of this commentary under the least restrictive of the Creative Commons agreements. Please feel free to invite comments to your site concerning this commentary. It is not necessary that I be kept informed.
The teachings in the Sermon were collected by the early church, with the writer of Matthew compiling them into one address from a mountain.
What I have tried to do is fish out the intentions or probable intentions of Jesus when he uttered these sayings.
For a discussion of issues concerning the writing of the Sermon, please see Appendix A: On the writing of the Sermon.
For another complete e-book, which includes the Sermon's teachings, please see The Secret Path -- A story of Jesus.
A few more points:
¶ The following discussion is by a layman who is not a Bible scholar, though the scholarship of experts is taken into account. Technical points are examined here and there, but we do not dwell on them overly much. Our purpose is to mine the Sermon [1*] for spiritual content.
¶ When you see Matthew, Mark, Luke or John in italic type, that tells you that The Book of Matthew, The Book of Mark, The Book of Luke or The Book of John is meant. If you see, say, Matthew 5:3-12, then you know that a specific passage in Matthew is meant (italics here are unnecessary). I try to avoid the practice of writing "Matthew says thus and such" because the idea that the apostle Matthew must have written the book of that name is only a conjecture of early church scholars. We do not know who wrote the book. Similarly for the other three gospels.
¶ I have generally stayed with the old-fashioned form of writing his to mean his or hers and so forth. Personally, I do not regard this usage as slighting women. Whenever possible however I use neutral words such as person rather than man if woman or man is meant. But I favor ease of reading over a relentless pursuit of such grammatical points. See the commentary on equality of women here.
¶ The King James version of chapters 5,6 and 7 of the Sermon appears here:
https://newziondays.blogspot.com/2020/01/sermon-on-mount-mt-chapters-567.html
¶ I recommend the English version provided by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The translation is up to date and expert and the commentary that accompanies the text is scholarly, yet succinct and readable. The commentary takes pains to be honest.
Conference of Catholic Bishops Bible
https://bible.usccb.org/bible
¶ In the following commentary, I do not give every verse or saying equal time. Rather, I use particular sayings and groups of sayings as stimulants for commentaries – some longer, some shorter, as seems appropriate. On occasion, I let some passages go by without specific remarks, although the commentaries, in my view, tend in general to cover all the sayings.
¶ Within the commentary, I have put Sermon verses, along with some (but not all) non-Sermon verses, into modern American idiomatic form; these interpretations should be regarded as paraphrases. You are encouraged to check the KJV and, as we know that the KJV is hardly the definitive version (though I do believe much of the translation was inspired), you may wish to view online other translations which take into account a wealth of painstaking modern scholarship.
¶ Verses with blue or turquoise background color are specifically from the Sermon.
¶ Verses with gold or yellow background color are supplemental verses from elsewhere in Matthew or other Scripture.
¶ Personal reminiscences have a light purple background.
¶ Miscellaneous blocks of text have a light green background.
¶ Some readers might find it helpful to SKIP the Scriptures and other matter with gold, light purple or pale green backgrounds. This material is meant to supplement the commentary. I would certainly hate to see someone give up a read-through because of too much extra material in the way.
¶ Rectangular braces enclose every footnote, as in [1a*]. The link takes you to the page holding the footnotes for the main page you are reading. Footnotes are not in sequential order but use of Control f (or equivalent) should make access easy.
¶ The reader will find a number of quotations from the late Bible scholar Bruce M. Metzger's writings in this commentary. All Metzger's books are excellent sources of Christian insight.
¶ The reader should feel free to scroll past blocks of supplemental Scriptures rather than let them be an obstacle. It's easy enough to go back and look at the verses with gold/yellow background at another time.
¶ The reader will find he may easily check Bible references by cutting (highlight with mouse stroke, followed by control c) and then pasting (control v) the reference into the browser bar and searching. Use control t or the equivalent to do your searches on a separate page so that you keep your place on these pages.
¶ Consider archiving this page via The Wayback Machine,
https://archive.org/web/
¶ Permission is granted to reproduce any or all of this commentary under the least restrictive of the Creative Commons agreements. Please feel free to invite comments to your site concerning this commentary. It is not necessary that I be kept informed.
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