Jesus appears to have retired from the crowds and to be addressing his disciples alone. However, Matt 7:28-29 suggests that the crowds were also aware of his teaching. There is an echo here of Moses trip up Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, an ascent upon which Aaron accompanied him, whilst the crowds kept their distance (Ex 19:24).
The use of ‘mountain’ rather than hill appears deliberate. It reinforces the events similarity to the Law giving on Mount Sinai (Deut 9:10-11) and therefore to emphasize this teaching’s relationship to the Ten Commandments. France notes that this could be intended to suggest that Jesus was a another prophet like Moses, although he personally considers this unlikely (France 1995, 107), for Jesus was giving God’s judgements, whereas Moses only received them. In his view, to fully equate Sinai and the ‘Mount’ of the Sermon, one must cast the disciples in the role of Moses whilst Jesus takes that of God.
Israel’s God was traditionally associated with mountains and hills, as is clear from 1 Kgs 20:23, where the men of Syria assume (to their detriment) that Israel’s God is a god of the hills. Thus, there was an association within the scriptures between mountains and the revelation of God’s righteous judgements. This can be seen at work in Psalm 36, where the psalmist claims ‘Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep. Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.’ (Ps 36:6b WEB)
The Messianic Psalm 72 predicts God’s judgements bringing prosperity (shalom) and righteousness from the mountains . . .
(Ps 72:1b-5 WEB)72:1 God, give the king your justice; your righteousness to the royal son.
72:2 He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.
72:3 The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people. The hills bring the fruit of righteousness.
72:4 He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will break the oppressor in pieces.
Jesus began to teach his disciples according to the
traditional manner of a
Jewish Rabbi. He ‘sat down’ to signal that his
disciples
should pay attention.
He then ‘opened his mouth,’ a phrase that indicates
that something worth
hearing was being said.
As Matthew has already presented Jesus as a prophet, the description of
him
opening his mouth carried further implications. In Ps 78:2-3 when
the
Psalmist opens his mouth, it is to speak in ‘dark
sayings’ (chiydah) that
he and his
audience have heard said and
have been told by their fathers.
78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,
(Ps 78:2-3 WEB)
78:3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
In the Antitheses, Jesus will take such things that people have heard said or been told by their fathers, and he will comment on their application. However, he will do so whilst offering a few ‘dark sayings’ of his own.
Psalm 78’s poetic parallelism equates the psalmists ‘dark sayings’ with parables, for both are statements with hidden meanings that are only accessible to the wise. Proverbs 1:5-6, confirms that the wise speak in riddles when it states that a man who gains wisdom will be better able to understand the riddles (chiydah) of the wise. Indeed, the wise would often use riddles to test one another’s wisdom, as when the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon or Sampson set a riddle for the 30 young men (Judg 14:12-13). The ‘dark sayings’ that the psalmist opened his mouth to utter were the words God gave through prophets. For in Numb 12:6-8 we find ...
(Num 12:6-8 HNV)12:6 ‘He said, “Hear now my words. If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream.
12:7 My servant Moses is not so. He is faithful in all my house.
12:8 With him I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see the LORD’s form. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”’
This passage contrasts the dreams and visions through which God spoke chiydah to most prophets with the way he spoke to Moses face to face. Moses received divine commandments in a readily intelligible form and simply passed them on, but the things God said through other prophets were riddles, designed so that only those with godly wisdom could properly understand them.
When a prophet opened his mouth, it was often to proclaim the chiydah of God. As the Lord said through Hoseah, “I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables” (Hos 12:10 WEB). We get another example of this when God instructs Ezekiel to tell a parable (Ezek 17:2, 24:3). Little wonder that, when Jesus opened his mouth, it was often to speak the parables of his Heavenly Father, wisely construed words that required Godly wisdom to understand them.
Davies and Allison note a bracketing structure, or inclusio, formed by the Greek (ἐδίδασκεν αὐτοὺς λέγων) in Matt 5:2 and (ἦν γὰρ διδάσκων αὐτούς) in Matt 7:29 (Byargeon 1998, 357). This inclusio places emphasis on the Sermon being a paramount example of Jesus’ teaching (Byargeon 1998, 357).
. . . commentary continues withMatt 5:3-10
Byargeon, Rick W. 1998. Echoes of Wisdom in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9-13). Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society Volume 41, 2:344-365
France, Richard T. 1995. The Gospel According to Matthew. In Tyndale New Testament Commentaries; ed. Leon Morris; Leicester:Inter-Varsity Press.