CHAPTER IV.

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT.

HAVING set apart his chosen ambassadors, it remained that Jesus should set forth the principles of his religion, give some such evidence of his divine right to teach as Near Capernaum. should be able to move the generation around Matt. v., vi., vii. him, and impart his spirit to those who were to infuse it into the world. He proceeded at once to this work. The first movement was the delivery of a discourse, which has been known generally as the "Sermon on the Mount," reports of which are furnished us by Matthew and Luke.

It would require a much larger volume than this to give the literature which has grown around the questions of the time and place of delivery of this "sermon," and whether Matthew and Luke report the saine or different discourses. And the literature of the sermon itself would make a library quite respectable in point of size. It is clear that much must be condensed.

Place of delivery.

The place was a mountain. It could not have been very far from the lake. The earliest tradition of the spot is as late as the middle of the thirteenth century. That makes it what is now called the "Horns of IIattin," between Tiberias and Mt. Tabor, seven miles from Capernaum, in a south-westerly direction. Dr. Robinson (Researches, ii. p. 307) gives the following description of this spot: "The road passes down to Hattin on the west of the Tell; as we approached, we turned off from the path toward the right, in order to ascend the Eastern Horn. As seen on this side, the Tell, or mountain, is merely a low ridge, some thirty or forty feet in height, and not ten minutes in length from east to west. At its eastern end is an elevated point or horn, perhaps sixty feet above the plain; and at the western end another, not so high; these give to the ridge, at a distance, the appearance of a saddle, and are called Kurun Hattin, 'Horns of Hattin.' But the singularity of the ridge is,

that, on reaching the top, you find that it lies along the very bor der of the great southern plain, where this latter sinks off at once, by a precipitous offset, to the lower plain of IIattin, from which the northern side of Tell rises very steeply not much less than four hundred feet. The summit of the Eastern IIorn is a little circular plain, and the top of the lower ridge between the two horns is also flattened to a plain. The whole mountain is of limestone." Dr. Stanley (Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 360) gives the following: "The tradition [of the Latin Church, which selects this spot as the 'Mount of Beatitudes '] cannot lay claim to any early date; it was in all probability suggested first to the Crusaders by its remarkable situation. But that situation so strikingly coincides with the intimations of Gospel narrative, as almost to force the inference that in this instance the eye of those who selected the spot was for once rightly guided. It is the only height seen in this direction from the shores of the Lake Gennesaret. The plain on which it stands is easily accessible from the lake, and from that plain to the summit is but a few minutes' walk. The platform at the top is evidently suitable for the collection of a multitude, and corresponds precisely to the level place' (Tónoν Tediou), (mistranslated 'plain' in Luke vi. 17) to which he would come down' as from one of its higher horns to address the people. Its situation is central both to the peasants of the Galilæan hills and the fishermen of the Galilæan lake, between which it stands, and would, therefore, be a natural resort both to 'Jesus and his disciples' (Matt. iv. 25, and v. 1), when they retired for solitude from the shores of the sea, and also to the crowds who assembled from Galilee, from Decapolis, from Jerusalem, from Judæa, and from beyond Jordan.' None of the other mountains in the neighborhood could answer equally well to this description, inasmuch as they are merged into the uniform barrier of hills round the lake; whereas this stands separate,-'the monntain,' which alone could lay claim to a distinct name, with the exception of the one height of Tabor, which is too distant to answer the requirements."

The question as to whether the discourse beginning in the fifth chapter of Matthew and that in the sixth of Luke be different or Reports by Matthew identical is quite perplexing, as there seem to be grave objections to both suppositions. That they are identical is believed by most readers upon a superficial in

and Lake.

spection, and is maintained generally by most German commentators. And then efforts must be made to explain the differences which occur in the two. In Luke we have only about one-third the matter given by Matthew, four of the beatitudes being “balanced by four woes," as Dean Alford notices; and some intro ductory sayings are recorded which do not appear in Matthew. That they are two different discourses is held by a number of writers, and among them Greswell (Dissert. xxvi.). Against this it is urged as improbable that he should have delivered two distinct discourses so nearly alike, and both so near the beginning of his public ministry. The beginnings and the conclusions in both discourses agree. They seem to be the same, and different. Matthew tells us that the sermon was delivered on a mount; Luke, that it was on a plain. If both histories be read carefully and without prejudice, I think the following will occur to the reader as the probable state of the case:

What we find reported by both Matthew and Luke must have been delivered during the same journey through Galilee, and at the close of that journey. What Luke reports, if it be not the same, must have been delivered immediately after the discourse Matthew gives; but his report is so connected as to compel the abandonment of the theory that it is a number of the apophthegms, delivered at different times, recollected by Matthew and strung together. The people had gathered in great crowds about Jesus. He went up into the mountain. Ilis disciples came to him. Others must have accompanied his disciples. He delivered the discourse which is begun in Matt. v. 3. When that was completed he commenced to descend the mountain. On the plateau below he found greater multitudes. He repeated some things he had just spoken, and added others, making together the speech which begins in Luke vi. 20. It is not right to speak of the former as esoteric and the latter as exoteric. There was nothing of that style in Jesus. All is outspoken truth-such truth as individual men in every stage of culture need. But it is to be admitted, to his more select and friendly audience he should have spoken more freely of the Scribes and Pharisees than to a promiscuous assemblage.

This statement of the case is, at least, a natural one, as all whe have preached to crowds in rural districts must know, and consists with all the major and minor incidents related by both historians