Sermon on the Mount

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The Sermon on the Mount. Fresco by Cosimo Rosselli in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican , approx. 1481/82

The Sermon on the Mount ( Latin oratio montana ; also Bergrede ) is a text section of the Gospel of Matthew ( Mt 5–7  EU ) in the New Testament (NT), in which Jesus of Nazareth preaches his teaching. To the disciples who followed him on the mountain, Jesus reinterpreted the will of God revealed in the Torah . As a Jewish interpretation of the Torah, the Sermon on the Mount influenced Christianity as well as non-Christian thinkers and other religions.

Name and background

The traditional name "Sermon on the Mount" follows the location at the beginning:

“ 1 When Jesus saw the crowd, he went up a mountain. He sat down and his disciples came up to him. 2 Then he began to speak and taught them "( Mt 5: 1-2  EU )

With this, the author named Matthew underlined the fundamental importance of his teaching through a typological comparison with Mount Sinai : There, according to Ex 19 and Dtn 26 , Moses received the Torah from God, which he passed on orally to the Israelites as God's will. So here Jesus is equated with Moses as the representative of this will of God and his appointed 12 disciples are represented as representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel , i.e. the entire chosen people of God.

According to Mt 5.17  , the Sermon on the Mount is EU ; Mt 7.12  EU is not a new Torah, but its final interpretation. It was recognized by some Jewish authors of the 20th century as a genuinely Jewish interpretation of the Torah that was consistent with the essential teachings of the rabbis , then and now .

Emergence

Fresco The Sermon on the Mount
( Fra Angelico , 1437–1445)

The Sermon on the Mount has a clear parallel in the Gospel of Luke , in the " field speech " (Lk 6,17-49 EU ). In the field speech - in contrast to the Sermon on the Mount - three commandments are spoken of in a more severe form: the commandment to be poor , the commandment to love one's enemies known in Judaism and the prohibition of judging .

In addition, both Gospels have other things in common, some of which are literally identical, but these do not appear in the other Gospels. In New Testament scholarship, these correspondences have led to the assumption ( two-source theory ) that the two evangelists had an identical written source in principle, the so-called Logienquelle (source of verses), abbreviated Q. The source received this name in research because a comparison of the Similarities between Luke and Matthew shows that Q, in addition to a few brief narrative sections, must have mainly contained individually transmitted sayings of Jesus. The prevailing assumption is that the unknown authors of Q collected and wrote down orally transmitted sayings of Jesus. This collection of sayings was then revised by the authors of the Gospels of Luke and Matthew and integrated into their Gospel. This led to the fact that the originally individually handed down sayings of the Logia source, which often have only a loose context in terms of content, were compiled in the Gospel of Matthew into a coherent speech by Jesus on a mountain, the Sermon on the Mount. The two-source theory assumes that the sayings from Q, which are handed down in the Sermon on the Mount, are a historically valuable source that brings us close to the historical Jesus. How the editorial part and tradition are to be separated in detail is, however, controversial.

content

beatitudes

The Sermon on the Mount begins with a series of nine Beatitudes (macarisms) in Mt 5 : 3–12  EU . In terms of form, they are in the tradition of wisdom literature ("Good for him who ..."). Jesus associates them with poverty, grief, humility, meekness, the search for justice, mercy, a pure heart, peacemaking and a willingness to suffer because of persecution. The Beatitudes at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount differ from those in the Old Testament in several ways:

  1. Their accumulation is striking. While in the Old Testament seldom more than two of them follow one another, here there are nine in number.
  2. While the Old Testament almost without exception formulates factually in the third person ("Blessed is he who ..."), Jesus' Beatitudes are directly addressed to the second person.
  3. In contrast to the Old Testament, which defines conditions for the status of salvation in subordinate clauses , Jesus' words are short and clear.
  4. In contrast to the Old Testament, Jesus extends salvation for the present time and without limitation for all.

The so-called antitheses

This article or section needs to be revised: How can it be that explanations are presented here that are by no means consensus (Hebrew original, Jesus a Pharisee), without a single EN? It is nonsense to speak of an orally existing Mishnah in the year 30. The Mishnah is a work of literature that was codified around AD 200 and quotes authorities who worked after AD 70.
Please help to improve it and then remove this mark.

This is followed by the parables of the “salt of the earth” and “light of the world” 5, 13–16 EU , which impose on the followers to pay attention to visible effects (“do not put light under a bushel”).

This is followed by explanations about Jesus' relationship to “law and prophets” (5.17–20 EU ): not abolition, but fulfillment, which respects the wording (and is respected by some interpreters as literally complete observation).

This is shown in the following main part, the antitheses , on various topics: killing and reconciliation 5.21–26 EU , adultery and divorce 5.27–32 EU , oath and truthfulness 5.33–37 EU , retribution and love of enemies 5.38 -48 EU . Each time Jesus contrasts a (freely quoted) commandment of the Torah with a “But I tell you”. But since Jesus, as rabbi and Pharisee, explains the commandments, one cannot speak of antitheses. As a scholar, he had the right to give his interpretation of Torazites. With his interpretation he is firmly on the ground of Jewish faith, which can be seen from the fact that his interpretations agree with statements in the Talmud.

The idea of ​​the antitheses arises in the context of the translation of the Hebrew original. Since Jesus himself emphasizes the validity of the Torah , he cannot counter it with any antitheses . In the Mishnah , which was only available orally at the time around AD 30 , three contrary opinions from three very different rabbinical schools of law are listed for each mitzvah . So the antitheses were nothing new in rabbinical circles. But they are called rabbinical discussions and not antitheses.

theme Old Testament rule quoted by Jesus But I tell you ...
From killing You should n't kill. (5.21)

(Reference to Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 17: 8–9; 12–13)

Three threats: "Anyone who is angry with his brother" ... "But whoever says to his brother: You useless! Is guilty of the High Council, but whoever says: You godless fool! Is guilty of the infernal fire"
From adultery You shouldn't commit adultery. (5.27)

(Referring to Exodus 20:14)

Three threats: "Whoever looks at a woman lustfully," ... "If your right eye seduces you into evil," ... "If your right hand seduces you into evil," ...
About the divorce Anyone who releases his wife from marriage must give her a certificate of divorce. (5.31)

(Referring to Deuteronomy 24: 1)

Two threats: "Whoever dismisses his wife" ... "and who marries a woman who has been dismissed from the marriage" ...
From swearing You shall not swear perjury, and you shall keep what you have sworn to the Lord. (5.33)

(Reference to Exodus 20: 7, etc.)

A new demand: "Don't swear at all"
From retribution Eye for eye (5.38)

(Reference to Exodus 21, 23-25 ​​and Leviticus 24: 19-20)

Four demands: "if someone hits you on the right cheek," ... "if someone wants to take you to court," ... "if someone wants to force you to walk a mile with them," ... "whoever asks you give and whoever wants to borrow from you, do not reject them. "
From love to enemies Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. (5.43)

Love your neighbor (reference to Leviticus 19:18) hate your enemy (theology of the Zealots )

Two demands: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" ... "So you should be perfect" ...
other topics no reference to conventional rules Various demands, especially in contrast to hypocrites who have already received their wages. The most prominent section is likely to be the “Our Father” (6.9–13).

The sixth chapter contains warnings against externalization and hypocrisy (“your father who sees the hidden”; 6.1–8 EU ; 6.14–18 EU ), and in the center of the entire composition the father inserted as a “childlike” prayer of the new justice (6.9–13 EU ). This is followed by warnings and parables against wealth, “worry” and a lack of trust in the rule of God at 6.19–34 EU .

The seventh chapter begins with the prohibition of judging, which is explained by the logion of the splinter and the beam (7.1–5 EU ) (For the prohibition of judging formulated in the context of the Enlightenment and the religious implications, see also Moses Mendelssohn : It came an erosion of rabbinical authority). This is followed by a single word about the desecration of the saint (7.6 EU ), from which the winged word “throw pearls before swine” comes. The meaning of this statement is puzzling. Another parable about trust in prayer (7.7–11 EU ) as well as the “ golden rule ”: Everything that you expect from others, do them too! That is the law and the prophets. (7.12 EU )

The Sermon on the Mount closes with the warning about the “narrow gate” (7.13 + 14 EU ), the warning against hypocritical teachers of the faith (7.15-23 EU ) and the parable of building a house on rock or on sand for a life with principles the Sermon on the Mount or against it (7.24–27 EU ).

The introduction corresponds to the same conclusion: When Jesus had finished this speech, the crowd was very struck by his teaching; for he taught them like one who has authority, and not like their scribes. (7.29 + 30 EU )

Impact history

Depiction of the Sermon on the Mount in St. Matthew's Church in Copenhagen

Even the letter of James draws on the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount. The earliest church order of Christendom, the Didache , and also the church teacher Augustine also understand the text as unconditional instructions for action.

But Paul also reflected the need for a statehood supported by violence ( Rom 13  EU ). With the establishment of the imperial church , further theological mitigation efforts began, which relativized the oath ban, love of enemies and the renunciation of violence.

In the centuries that followed, the mining theory was increasingly understood as a Sermon on the Mount, as a proclamation of the Christian faith and understood as a “new” teaching and a Christian-ethical jewel, partly in contradiction to the text of the mountain teaching.

Radical Christian movements turned against all efforts to defuse the Sermon on the Mount in a realistic manner. Among them there were those who remained close to the church despite suspicions ( orders , saints ), on the other hand those who opposed the constituted church with the Sermon on the Mount and were persecuted for it (according to Mt 5.11  EU ) ( heretics : Waldensians , Cathars , Baptist ).

The Sermon on the Mount has at all times found resolute opponents, especially among those who took it seriously, who saw in it an exaggeration of what is humanly possible, a poisoning of true ethics or a slave morality ( Friedrich Nietzsche ). The vision of the Sermon on the Mount appears to Nietzsche as a religion of resentment, as the envy of the cowardly and inept who are unable to cope with life and then seek revenge by beatifying their failure and insulting the strong, the successful and the lucky.

The Lutheran Reformation responded to the Sermon on the Mount with the teaching of the two kingdoms : In the “spiritual” kingdom the gospel already rules, in the other (“worldly”) sin still rules. With this construction, Lutherans and other Reformation groups such as the Mennonites and other so-called peace churches argue about the necessity of the military up to the present day .

Classical interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount are basically divided into functional interpretations that emphasize the structure of their radicalism, and relativistic interpretations that limit the scope of the Sermon on the Mount.

  • Functional: The radicalism of the Sermon on the Mount as such has world-negating pacifists such as B. Leo Tolstoy (whose book The Kingdom of Heaven influenced Gandhi in you ) inspired, who emphasized her cultural and social critical impulse, as well as z. B. the neo-Marxist Ernst Bloch , who relied on the anticipation of an egalitarian society implied in the demands of the Sermon on the Mount. The functional interpretations also include the conception, especially in Lutheranism, in the sense of Paul's thoughts , that precisely the ideality of the law (tightened by Jesus) should lead to modesty and to the recognition of the superiority of God.
  • Relative: Sociologically, the Sermon on the Mount is relativized in the classical Catholic interpretation, which does not regard its demands as relevant for all Christians, but rather as " evangelical counsels " (consilia evangelica) limited to the group of people with a special obligation to obey. It is relativized situationally in the view of the advocates of "consistent eschatology " ( Albert Schweitzer et al.), Who ascribe Jesus 'demands only for a short time until the end of the world is imminent in Jesus' view ("interim ethics"). The return of the Sermon on the Mount to an abstract principle fits this; Schweitzer speaks z. B. of "heroic (m) moralism of Jesus", which one has to follow in a similar heroic way under changed conditions. Depending on the color of the representatives of this "situation ethic", this supposedly underlying principle can take on a very different shape.

In the German peace movement of the 1980s was the Sermon on the Mount - inspired by Leonhard Ragaz - by Dorothee Solle , Jürgen Moltmann and Franz Alt , the political theology can influence.

See also

literature

  • Bible. New Testament. (Mt 5–7)
  • Hans Weder : The "speech of speeches". An interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount today. 2nd edition, Theologischer Verlag, Zurich 1987.

Introductions

  • M. Dumais: Le Sermon sur la Montagne. Etat de la recherche, interpretation, bibliography. Paris 1995, ISBN 2-7063-0199-6 (state of research with further references)
  • Hermann-Josef Venetz : The Sermon on the Mount. Düsseldorf 1987.
  • Klaus Kühlwein : Chaos Master Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount. Verlag Kath. Bibelwerk, 1999.

Lexicon article

  • Gottfried Adam , Ursula Berner, Ulrich Luz : Sermon on the Mount. In: RGG 4 , Vol. 1, 1998, 1309-1315.
  • Hans Dieter Betz: Sermon on the Mount / Plain. In: Anchor Bible Dictionary Vol. 5, 1992, 1106-1112.
  • Christoph Burchard : Sermon on the Mount. In: EKL 3 , Vol. 1, 1986, 433-436.
  • Ingo Broer : Sermon on the Mount. In: New Bible Lexicon (NBL) Vol. 1, 1991, 272-274.
  • Volker Eid / Helmut Merklein / Louis Ridez: Sermon on the Mount. In: LThK 3 , Vol. 2, 1994, 253-258.
  • Gerhard Barth / Tor Aukrust: Sermon on the Mount I. New Testament II. Ethical. In: TRE , Vol. 5, 1980, 603-626.

Comments

  • Ulrich Luz: The Gospel according to Matthew. 1st volume: Mt 1–7 . Evangelical-Catholic Commentary I, 1. 5th edition Zurich / Neukirchen-Vluyn 2002. (most important German commentary on Matthew)
  • Helmut Thielicke : Life can begin all over again - a walk through the Sermon on the Mount, Quell Verlag Stuttgart.
  • HD Betz: The Sermon on the Mount. A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, including the Sermon on the Plain (Matthew 5: 3-7: 27 and Luke 6: 20-49) . Minneapolis 1995. (extensive commentary on the Sermon on the Mount)
  • WD Davies, DC Allison: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew . Vol. 1-3. Edinburgh 1988/1991/1997. (material rich)
  • Joachim Gnilka : The Gospel of Matthew I . Herder's Theological Commentary on the New Testament I, 1. Herder, Freiburg 1986 (Catholic commentary series)
  • DA Hagner: Matthew 1-13 . Word Biblical Commentary 33A. Dallas 1993
  • Franz Zeilinger : Between heaven and earth. A Commentary on the “Sermon on the Mount” Matthew 5–7. Stuttgart 2002 (practice-oriented).
  • Gerhard Maier : “The Gospel of Matthew. 1st sub-volume: Chapter 1214 “. Historical-Theological Interpretation (HTA). SCM-Verlag 2015. (scientific and practice-oriented)

structure

  • Dale C. Allison: The Structure of the Sermon on the Mount . In: Journal of Biblical Literature 106 (1987), pp. 423-445.
  • Günter Bornkamm: The structure of the Sermon on the Mount. In: New Testament Studies 24 (1978), pp. 419-432.
  • Joseph Kurzinger : On the composition of the Sermon on the Mount according to Matthew. In: Bibl 40 (1959), pp. 569-589.
  • Martin Vahrenhorst: The Sermon on the Mount as a directive to perfection: one more attempt to find the structure and the theme of the Sermon on the Mount. In: Logos - Logic - Poetry. Dedicated exegetical studies of God's biblical speaking. (FS Klaus Haacker) Leipzig 2007, pp. 115-136.

Impact history

  • U. Berner: The Sermon on the Mount. Reception and interpretation in the 20th century. Göttingen theological works 12. 1979, 3rd edition Göttingen 1985.
  • K. Beyschlag: On the history of the Sermon on the Mount in the Old Church . In: Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 74 (1977), pp. 291–322.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Kantzenbach : The Sermon on the Mount. Approach - impact history. Stuttgart 1982.
  • WS Kissinger: The Sermon on the Mount. A History of Interpretation and Bibliography . ATLA.BS 3. Metuchen, NJ 1975
  • Ulrich Luz: The Sermon on the Mount as reflected in its history. In: J. Moltmann (ed.), Nachstieg und Bergpredigt, KT 65, Munich 1981, pp. 37-72.
  • Martin Stiewe, François Vouga: The Sermon on the Mount and its reception as a short presentation of Christianity . New Testament drafts for theology 2. Francke, Tübingen / Basel 2001 ISBN 3-7720-3152-8 .
  • B. Stoll: De Virtute in Virtutem. On the history of the interpretation and impact of the Sermon on the Mount in commentaries, sermons and hagiographic literature from the Merovingian period to around 1200 . BGBE 30. Tübingen 1988
  • August Tholuck : Detailed interpretation of Christ's Sermon on the Mount according to Matthew . 3rd edition Hamburg 1845 (with interpretation history)
  • D. Wittmann: The interpretation of the peace instructions of the Sermon on the Mount in the sermon of the Evangelical Church in the 20th century . EHS.T 224. Lang, Frankfurt a. M. 1984

additional

  • Franz Alt : Peace is possible. The politics of the Sermon on the Mount. Munich 1983.
  • Eberhard Arnold : Salt and Light. Robertsbridge 2004.
  • Georg Strecker: The Sermon on the Mount. Göttingen 1984.
  • Wolfgang Erk (ed.): The forbidden peace. Reflections on the Sermon on the Mount from two German states. Stuttgart 1982.
  • Günther Schwarz : The Sermon on the Mount, a forgery? The words of the mountain doctrine in the original language of Jesus. Munich 1991, ISBN 3-927950-03-3 .
  • Emmet Fox: The Sermon on the Mount. Pforzheim 1949, ISBN 978-3-920780-17-7 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Sermon on the Mount  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wikiquote: Sermon on the Mount  - Quotes
Commons : Sermon on the Mount  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ Examples: Joseph Klausner : Jesus von Nazareth. 3rd edition 1952, p. 534; David Flusser : Jesus. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1968, p. 43f .; Geza Vermes : Jesus, the Jew. London 1973, p. 223; Pinchas Lapide : The Sermon on the Mount: Utopia or Program? 2nd edition, Mainz 1982, p. 15 and more often.
  2. ^ Eduard Schweizer : The Sermon on the Mount . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1982, p. 10.
  3. ↑ Christian Münch: Perlen vor die Säue (From the desecration of the saint) Mt 7.6 (EvThom 93) ( Memento from January 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) on the website of the research center “Parables of Jesus” at the University of Mainz, 2007 (access on January 8, 2016).
  4. ↑ Benedict XVI. Jesus of Nazareth. From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration , Herder, 2007, p. 128, ISBN 3-451-29861-9 .
  5. ↑ a b Gerhard Maier: HistorischTheological Interpretation . SCM R.Brockhaus Brunnen, Witten 2015, ISBN 978-3-417-29730-0 , The Sermon on the Mount - Introduction - 3. The ethical dimension, p. 235 : “Is the Sermon on the Mount Global Ethic or Christian Ethic? From Leo Tolstoy to pacifism, to Mahatma Ghandi and Franz Alt, there has been an uninterrupted series of interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount right up to the present, according to which it also applies to the state, indeed to all of humanity. "