Matthew 5:1

§ 36. SERMON ON THE MOUNT

1. Seeing the multitudes Gathered together, doubtless with the understanding that a great discourse was to be uttered. As Luke informs us, he had spent the night previous in the Mount in solitary prayer. In the morning he called and formally chose his twelve apostles. Luke says he then walked down with the twelve to the level plain, or “table-land.” There it was that the mighty multitudes met him; from Tyre and Sidon north, from Judea and Jerusalem south, they had assembled in vast volume. He had prepared authority for his teachings by countless miracles. The loving multitudes pressed upon him, for power went forth out of him to heal them. At this point Matthew’s history commences, beginning with the opening words of this verse: seeing the pressing multitudes he went up into THE (not A, as in our translation) mountain.

What mountain this was is not said by either evangelist. Tradition, however, has selected a mount, which has been called from the event, “The Mount of Beatitudes,” which is thus beautifully described by Stanley, a writer not remarkable for ready credulity for tradition:

“The undulating table-land, which skirts the hills of Galilee on the east, is broken by a long low ridge rising at its northern extremity into a square shaped hill with two tops, which give it the modern name of ‘the Horns of Hattin,’ Hattin being the village on the ridge at its base. This mountain or hill for it only rises sixty feet above the plain is that known to pilgrims as the Mount of the Beatitudes, the supposed scene of the ‘Sermon on the Mount.’ The tradition 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 the 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 of 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’ ( τοπου πεδινου ) 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 Galilean hills and the fishermen of the Galilean lake, between which it stands, and would therefore be a natural resort both to ‘Jesus and his disciples’ 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 Judea, and from beyond Jordan.’ None of the other mountains in the neighbourhood 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 mountain,’ 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.”

From this description we see that there are, in the locality, three grades of elevation above the ordinary level of ground. First, the “table-land;” second, the broad area on the hill-top; from which rise, third, the “Horns.” We rather suppose that Jesus spent the previous night of devotion in one of the “Horns;” his inauguration of his apostles is upon the level hill-top; whence he descends with the twelve and meets the multitude upon the “table-land,” or level plain of Luke. Had we Luke’s account alone, we should infer that the sermon was delivered upon the “tableland,” which is, indeed, a part proper of “the Mount.” But from Matthew’s words, “seeing the multitudes, he went up into the mount,” we learn that Jesus led up the multitudes from the “table-land to the broad level upon the hill.” This he doubtless did for the high symbolic reasons that induced the choice of Sinai, Gerizim, Ebal, and Zion for scenes of sublime inaugurations. Herein it will be seen that we differ from Stanley in our identifying the “level plain” ( τοπαυ πεδινου ) with the “table-land,” rather than with the level “hill-top.” This view completely conciliates the preparatory statements of the three evangelists.

When he was set The Jewish rabbi sat in delivering instruction to his pupils. Disciples came And formed the inmost circle of auditors.