Sermon on the mount (Hastings' Dictionary)

i, Origin and Transmission. 1, Historicity of the Discourse. 2. Circumstances of its Delivery. 8. Transmission and Translation. 4. Relative Authenticity of the two Accounts. 5. Present State of the Text. i. Interpretation. 1. Popular, Gnomic, and Figurative Style. 2. Effect of the Translation into Greek. 8, Theme of the Discourse and its Development. 4. The Chief Problems of Interpretation. a. The Beatitudes. b. The World Mission. ¢. Relation to the Old Testament. d, Inner Righteousness, e.

Unselfishness and Forgiveness. ft. Universal Love. f: Religious Worship. The Lord’s Prayer. #. Devotion to the Kingdom, Ps The Treatment of Others. The Duty of Righteousness. 6. The Relation of the Sermon on the Mount to the Teaching of Jesus as a whole.

Literature, The message of Jesus to men contained in the Sermon on the Mount can be essentially under- stood, and is valid and useful, apart from the historical, literary, and exegetical questions con- cerning it which are now receiving so much atten- tion, and which tend to overshadow the real significance and power of His teaching.

There are problems still unsolved regarding the origin and transmission of the discourse, problems also regarding the interpretation and application of some of its utterances; but the truth, the preach- ing, and the living of the Gospel have not to wait upon the results of such investigations.

The words of Jesus in this Sermon present an ideal of human life, founded upon religious truth and ethical prin- ciples, which has been and is intuitively recog- nized as the highest standard of life yet conceived, or even as the ultimate standard to which mankind can and must attain. They need not so much to be explained by men as to be appreciated, accepted, and lived by them. A sufficient understanding of the Sermon was not meant to be the possession of the few only.

In this teaching Jesus aimed at being universally intelligible ; and He was so, for through the Christian centuries the kind of life which He here describes has been the guiding star of civilization. If misconceptions as to the origin and interpretation of the discourse have at times