The sermon . . . on the mount?
Jesus set out into the hills from Capernaum on the edge of Lake Galilee. The hills around that western shore hardly count as mountains, as they barely rise more than 700m above the lake. The nearest true mountain is Mt. Meron, at 1,208 m, the highest peak in the area and second highest in Israel. This lies over 20 km NW of Capernaum up the Ammud valley. Whilst it would not be impossible to walk 20km in a day, tradition locates the Sermon much closer to Capernaum and amidst the Galilean hills.
5:1Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto the mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
5:2 He opened his mouth and taught them, saying,”
(Matt 5:1-2 WEB)
Ascending the mountain
The first two verses of Matthew 5, meticulously set the stage for what was about to happen. Jesus retired from the crowds and sought out a nearby hill, just as Moses had when the Ten Commandments were given on the first day of Pentecost. Then Matthew deliberately calls this Galilean hill a ‘mountain’, in order to emphasise the teaching’s relationship to the law-giving on Mount Sinai.
We don’t know for sure precisely which hill Jesus went up, but there are two primary candidates:
- the hill now venerated as the Mount of the Beatitudes;
- the saddle between the Horns of Hattin.
The former, a hill near the NW coast of the Sea of Galilee, is now marked by the octagonal Church of the Beatitudes. The Horns of Hattin lie about 20Km to the SW of Capernaum.
Jesus’ disciples had followed him up the mountain to learn from him, so he sat down, thus signaling, in the accepted manner of a Jewish teacher (a Rabbi), that they should pay attention.
Once Jesus was seated, Matthew says that he opened his mouth. Which was, within Judaism, the accepted way of indicating that something worth hearing was about to be reported.
. . . commentary continues with Matt 5:3-10
This page is just an overview. For a detailed analysis of Matt 5:1-2, with supporting material and citations, see the further notes on Matt 5:1-2.