The Sermon on the Mount: An Exegetical Commentary

222 Pages·1988·15.197 MB·English

by  Georg Strecker

THE SERMON ON
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An Exegetical CommentarE
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EORG STRECKE
Translated by O. C. Dean, Jr.
The Sermon on the Mount
An Exegetical Commentary
GEORG STRECKER
TRANSLATED BY
O. C. Dean, Jr.
ABINGDON PRESS
NASHVILLE
The Sermon on the Mount
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT: AN EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY
Translation from the German language of Georg Strecker, DIE BERGPRE
DIGT (zweite auflage, 1985) with the approval of the Publishing House
Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Gottingen, West Germany. © Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, Gottingen.
English translation copyright © 1988 by Abingdon Press
Second Printing 1989
All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly
permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher.
Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to Abingdon Press,
201 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37202.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cata1oging-in-Publication Data
Strecker, Georg, 1929-
The Sermon on the mount.
Translation of: Die Bergpredigt. 2nd ed. 1985.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Sermon on the mount. I. Sermon on the mount. English. II. Title.
BT380.2.S8713 1988 226'.906 88-906
ISBN 0-687-37560-6 (alk. paper)
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the Revised Standard
Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946, 1952, © 1971, 1973 by the Division of
Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the
U.S.A., and are used by permission.
MANUFACTURED BY THE PARTHENON PRESS AT
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Contents
PREFACE............................................................. 7
ABBREVIATIONS................................................... 9
1. INTRODUCTION.................................................... 11
l.1 Literary-Analytical Presuppositions................................ 11
l.2 Types of Exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount......... 15
2. EXEGESIS............................................................. 24
2.1 5: 1-2 The Setting..... ............... ...... .............. ............ 24
2.2 5:3-20 The Opening of the Sermon on the
Mount......................................................... 26
2.2.1 5:3-12 The Beatitudes...................... ......... ....... ........ 27
2.2.2 5: 13-16 The Nature of Discipleship......................... 47
2.2.3 5: 17-20 The New Righteousness............................... 52
2.3 5:21-48 The Antitheses........... ................................... 61
2.3.1 5:21-26 The First Antithesis: On Killing.................. 64
2.3.2 5:27-30 The Second Antithesis: On Adultery.......... 70
2.3.3 5:31-32 The Third Antithesis: On Divorce.............. 72
2.3.4 5:33-37 The Fourth Antithesis: On Oaths.... ............ 77
2.3.5 5:38-42 The Fifth Antithesis: On Retaliation........... 81
2.3.6 5:43-48 The Sixth Antithesis: On Love of Enemy... 85
2.4 6:1-18 On Almsgiving, Praying, and Fasting.......... 96
2.4.1 6: 1-4 On Almsgiving.......................... .............. ....... 97
2.4.2 6:5-8 On Praying....... ................................. ............ 102
2.4.3 6:9-15 The Lord's Prayer......................................... 105
2.4.4 6: 16-18 On Fasting........................................ ............. 128
2.5 6: 19-7: 12 Individual Directives..................................... 130
2.5.1 6: 19-24 On Wealth..................................................... 130
2.5.2 6:25-34 On Anxiety.................................................... 135
2.5.3 7:1-6 On Judging.................................................... 141
2.5.4 7:7-11 On the Answering of Prayer........................ 148
2.5.5 7:12 The Golden Rule.......................................... 150
2.6 7: 13-27 Closing Admonitions and Parables.............. 155
2.6.1 7: 13-14 The Gate and the Way................................. 155
2.6.2 7: 15-20 The False Prophets....................................... 158
2.6.3 7:21-23 The Necessity of Deeds................................ 164
2.6.4 7:24-27 The Closing Parables: On the Wise and
Foolish Builders...... .............................. ..... 168
2.7 7:28-29 Epilogue......................................................... 172
3. OUTLOOK........................................................... 174
Bibliography............................................................................... 186
Notes........................................................................................... 191
Index........................................................................................... 221
Preface
To every new generation is given the task of asking what the
Sermon on the Mount means. In an age which more than any
other claims to champion the cause of peace, yet in which the
reality is one of confrontation between highly militarized
superpowers and of numerous regional military conflicts, it is
necessary to consider not only the religious, but also the
political dimension of the Sermon on the Mount and, not least
of all, the demand of its Preacher to become peacemakers.
Nevertheless~ the intention of the present volume is not to set
forth another topical interpretation of the Sermon on the
Mount. Its goal is rather-in the words of the subtitle of Hans
Windisch's investigation-to make a contribution to the
historical understanding of the Gospels and the problem of the
proper exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount. This will not be
done with the presupposition that still defines Windisch's
work, according to which historical exegesis can be separated
from the appropriation of its results. The exegetical history of
the Sermon on the Mount in recent years has shown that such a
separation has not been possible in any generation and,
indeed, would not even be desirable. It is rather a matter of
allowing room for the particularity of the text. This will make
apparent not only the gulf that separates the Sermon on the
Mount from our situation, but also the fact that the message of
the Preacher has unmistakable significance for our time.
Com parison with the ethical tradition of the rest of the New
Testament will confirm the uniqueness of the Sermon on the
Mount. The unconditional demands it makes are not limited
by reflection on the relationship of an ethical requirement to
the motivation for that requirement, as occurs in the letters of
Paul and in the Johannine writings. Moreover, the Sermon
comprises many layers of tradition. In its present form, it
can only be understood in connection with the theology of
the Evangelist Matthew, but its core reaches back to the
7
8 The Sermon on the Mount
proclamation of Jesus of Nazareth. In what follows, this thesis
will be substantiated as we look at individual passages. In the
process the theological richness of the Sermon on the Mount
will come to light with its complexity of tradition and religious
history, and it will become evident that today as well as then the
Sermon on the Mount lays a claim not only on the Christian
community, but also on humanity as a whole.
Concerning the origin of this book, I must report that the
problems of Sermon on the Mount exegesis have drawn me
under their spell ever since the preliminary work on my
redaction-historical examination of Matthew, Der Weg der
Gerechtigkeit. They have been treated again and again in
lectures and seminars and have found expression in a number
of articles. These reflections are incorporated here without
being expressly noted in every case. My earlier conception of
Matthew's theology has not basically changed, yet I believe I
have made some progress on the qu~stion of the authentic
Jesus tradition in the sense of a clearer understanding of the
connection-but also the distance-that exists between the
final form or'the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel
and the primitive tradition going back to Jesus.
The reader may become acquainted with this by reading the
final chapter, "Outlook," which might well function as an
introduction to the book. This translation is based on the
second German edition. I would like to express my gratitude to
Dr. O. C. Dean, Jr., for his very careful work and for his
proofreading of the quotations.
Gottingen, August 1987 Georg Strecker
Abbreviations
In addition to the abbreviations found on the standard list of
the Journal of Biblical Literature, the following are used in this
volume:
BDR F. Blass, A. Debrunner, and F. Rehkopf, Grammatik
des neutestamentlichen Griechisch (Gottingen: Vanden
hoeck & Ruprecht, 1976)
EK Evangelische Kommentare
EWNT Exegetisches Worterbuch zum Neuen Testament, ed. Horst
R. Balz and Gerhard Schneider (Stuttgart: Kohl
hammer, 1980-83)
FS Festschrift
FzB Forschung zur Bibel
GTA Gottinger Theologische Arbeiten
KEK Kritisch-exegetischer Kommentar tiber das Neue
Testament (= MeyerK)
KNT Kommentare zum Neuen Testament, ed. T. Zahn,
18 vols. (Leipzig, 1903-)
OTK Okumenisher Taschenbuch-Kommentar
TEH Theologische Existenz heute
TRE Theologische Realenzyklopiidie, ed. Krause, Milller, et
al. (Berlin, 1976-)
9
1 Introduction
1.1 Literary-Analytical Presuppositions
No proper exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount can ignore
the results of more than two hundred years of historical
critical research into the N ew Testament. One of these results
is the determination that the Sermon on the Mount in the First
Gospel is not a speech made by Jesus but the literary work of
the Evangelist Matthew, for between the historical Jesus and
the composition of the New Testament Gospels there is a
broad domain of oral and written tradition within the early
Christian communities. Here, under the changing conditions
of community thought and life, the gospel of Jesus was
interpreted, and the binding order for these communities was
established with reference to the authority of the risen Christ.
This tendency can be seen in the two source documents,
which-as the overwhelming majority of research assumes and
will also be presupposed in this volume-were used by
Matthew and Luke: the Gospel of Mark as the oldest of the
New Testament Gospels and the collection of sayings that is
called the Q source (= Q).
Around the year 70, the Evangelist Mark presented the
A.D.
life and message of Jesus in the form of a biographical outline
interpreted according to the history of salvation. Though his
work was available to his fellow Evangelists Matthew and Luke,
presumably in a slightly modified recension (Deutero-Mark),
Mark's influence on the Sermon on the Mount is, nevertheless,
relatively small, 1 since he passed on primarily narrative
material and not sayings. By contrast, the basic content of
Matthew 5-7 can be traced back to the Q source, as a
comparison with the Lukan parallel, the Sermon on the Plain
of Luke 6:20-49, will demonstrate. Not only the framework
(setting and epilogue) and the basic elements of the
composition, but also above all the essential units of tradition in
11