Reenacting the Way
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Jesus vs. Torah: How the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel redefined God’s Law

3/3/2017

8 Comments

 
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The way things are said often communicates more than what is said. We know this rule of communication is true when we are talking, but we often forget it when listening to Jesus’ written words in the Gospels.

If you have ever seen a “Red Letter” Bible, you know how easy it becomes to pick out the words of Jesus in the Gospels. You may also know that the Gospel of Matthew has a ton more red font than Mark. Why? Because Mark focuses more on Jesus’ activity while Matthew is focused on his teaching.

If you skim through Matthew in a “Red Letter” Bible, you will find a few long sections of uninterrupted red font. Sayings that Luke spread out across many chapters about Jesus’ life are gathered into lengthy sermons in Matthew. Most people have heard about the first one: the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). However, 4 other sermons have been formed out of Jesus’ sayings around common themes: Instructions for Disciples in Matthew 10, Kingdom Parables in Matthew 13, Dealing with Sin in the Church in Matthew 18, and the Judgment Sayings of Matthew 23-25.

In total, Matthew created 5 long sermons out of Jesus’ sayings. We know the 5 sermons were created intentionally because they all have the same ending: “when Jesus had finished saying these things” (Matthew 7:28; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1; 26:1). This literary marker gets the attention of the careful reader. It brings up the important hermeneutical question: Why did Matthew organize Jesus’ sayings into 5 sets of instructions?

​The Way God Gives Instructions

The Gospel according to Matthew organizes Jesus’ sayings into 5 sets of instructions to mirror the 5 books of the Law—the first 5 books of the Bible that Jews call “Torah.” Jesus’ words are being put on par with God’s words first revealed at Mount Sinai. That is significant. Jesus' teaching has become what Moses' instructions were: God's law for God's people. When put in that light, you can see the way Matthew’s Gospel structures Jesus’ sayings actually says quite a lot in itself.

The allusions to the laws of the first covenant become even clearer when you investigate the form and content of Jesus’ first and most famous sermon given on a mountain. Have you ever thought about the fact that Matthew situates the first long sermon on a mountain? Do you think it is intentionally meant to mimic God’s first giving of the Law on Mount Sinai? Absolutely it is. If you have overlooked that detail your whole life, it’s because you were not immersed in the Torah as a child and did not participate in the Law’s required Jerusalem pilgrimages to worship as an adult. The Jewish audience of Matthew’s Gospel wouldn’t miss these subtle connections between the Law of Moses and teaching of Jesus.

The Sermon on the Mount begins in Matthew 5:3-12 with the Beatitudes. Why? It’s not an historical accident. The beatitudes intentionally echo the blessings of Deuteronomy 28:1-14 that Israel proclaimed from Mount Gerizim after entering the holy land. According to Deuteronomy 27:11-12, Moses commanded half of Israel to stand on Mount Gerizim and recite the blessings of obeying God. It is believed the Israelites repeated this corporate act every seven years when they gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Booths (Deuteronomy 31:9-13; m. Sotah 7:8). Since the structure of the blessings and the mountain setting is similar for both Jesus’ beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12 and the traditional Jewish recitation of Deuteronomy’s blessings, the relationship must not be overlooked. The Gospel of Matthew is purposefully connecting the two events. What’s the purpose? Jesus is gathering Israel on a mountain to declare the new characteristics of those who will be blessed. The covenant requirements for God’s people are changing. Jesus is redefining Torah.
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​Jesus Did What Some Jews Expected
 
Some Jews expected a significant change to the Torah and Temple practices at God's next great act in history. The Dead Sea Scrolls recovered from the Qumran caves describe a community of zealous first-century Jews waiting for a climactic moment in salvation history. They expected God to rearrange the power structure, cleanse the Temple, and revise the Law of Moses.
 
The Temple Scroll (11QTS) records the expected changes to the Law. Columns 48-66 of the Temple Scroll provide a revised version of the Law (framed after Deuteronomy 12-26) designated for the time when a new Temple is constructed and a new Davidic king reigns in an age to come (see Wise, M. O. "Eschatological Vision of the Temple Scroll" JNES 49 [1990]: 155-172). Why should you care? Because…
 
Jesus did exactly what the Temple Scroll anticipated.
 
Jesus revised how teachers of the Law had told people to apply the Law of Moses. Whereas the Temple Scroll decided to apply priestly standards to everyone, Jesus attacks human traditions that distorted the original intent of the Law. He trashes specific regulations and instructions that are antithetical to God’s mercy, justice, and faithfulness in Matthew 5:31-47.
  • Divorce: Even though Moses created a written divorce certificate to protect the rights of a woman (Deuteronomy 24:1-4), Jesus made it clear divorce is not God’s plan (Matthew 5:31-32)
  • Vows: Since Jesus’ contemporaries had devised a complicated system of making public oaths that no longer honored the intent behind the commands about oaths in Deut 23:21-23 to do what you say, he called for an end to vows and a return to letting your “yes” mean “yes” and your “no” mean “no” (Matthew 5:33-37)
  • Retribution: Issuing punishments equal to the offence (“an eye for an eye” in Deuteronomy 19:21) had morphed from the positive outcome of ending cycles of vengeance to a negative outcome of excusing retaliation. So Jesus taught his followers to “turn the other cheek” and return good for evil (Matthew 5:38-42) to motivate oppressors to repent.
  • Enemies: Commands to annihilate enemies who attacked Israel (Deuteronomy 25:17-19) became an excuse to hate all foreigners. So Jesus instructed people to love and pray for enemies to truly embody God’s mercy (Matthew 5:43-47).
All these revisions to established practices that distorted God’s character lined up with Jesus’ thesis statement in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill it.” The Hebrew word “to fulfill” means “to obey” in Rabbinic teaching from Jesus’ day. “To fulfill the Law” means Jesus’ teaching better represented God’s intent behind the original instructions. That is what the Sermon on the Mount and the entire teaching of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel is doing. It redefines the Torah as people understood it. It redirects people to faithfully represent and enact God’s will on earth.
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​Expanding God’s Story beyond Jerusalem
 
Jesus reoriented the entire Jewish world. Jerusalem, the Temple, and the Torah had been the center of their theological and political world. Jesus was changing the loci of divine activity with his subtle yet powerful allusions to the Jewish world.
 
In Jewish tradition, Jerusalem was the “light of the world” (Isaiah 2:2-4; 42:6; 49:6; Micah 4:1-3; Sib. Or. 5:420-423; Gen Rab 59:5; Pesiq. R. 20:7). But Jesus expands that role. Jesus applies that title to anyone who follows his teaching: “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14-16). That changes a centuries-old storyline. It’s a new and radical revision to the story God is writing.
 
In Jewish worship at the Temple, every offering had to be sprinkled with salt (Leviticus 2:13; Ezek 43:24; Jub 21:11; 11QTemple 20). Salt was so integral to Israel’s obedience to the Law that it earned the label “salt of the covenant.” It became representative of proper worship to God and atonement for sin in the Old Covenant. But Jesus leaves interest in the Temple sacrificial system behind and calls his followers the “salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). What does that mean? Jesus’ followers become the way in which God’s forgiveness and proper worship can be brought to the entire world. That role nullifies the necessity of the Jerusalem Temple.
 
Jesus’ final blow to the Torah comes in a closing parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. He tells the story of a wise man who builds his house on the rock and a foolish man who builds his house on sand. The house built on a rock would make his Jewish audience think about the Temple on Mount Zion. Israel believed the Temple could not fall. God would not let his house crumble. But Jesus is undermining their beliefs in the same way Ezekiel had to challenge fake prophets who denied Jerusalem’s coming destruction (Ezekiel 13:8-16).
 
The house on the rock that does not fall when the storm comes is not Jerusalem’s Temple, but rather those who hear and do the words of Jesus. As Jesus states plainly, “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.” The one who changes his allegiance from the Temple and the current interpreters of Torah to become one who follows Jesus will remain. His words are the new Torah that will outlast the impending destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and its Torah-mandated sacrifices. That’s an unbelievably offensive claim to Jews in Jerusalem. No wonder the religious leaders there had him killed.

​Teacher of a New Torah

This structural and historical analysis of the Gospel according to Matthew dramatically elevates the significance of Jesus’ sayings. Matthew’s structure tells an informed Jewish audience that Jesus is the new Moses. His words are the new Torah. His 5 sermons now do what the 5 books of Moses did. The covenant is changing and therefore the content of God’s commands change as well, just like the Temple Scroll anticipated.

The Gospel of Matthew shows how Jesus’ ministry marks a new day in God’s relationship with his people. It is the only Gospel to describe how the veil inside the Temple ripped when Jesus died. It is a symbolic statement that the old way is gone, and the new way of directly encountering God through Jesus has arrived. The Temple’s role has been disrupted. The darkness, earthquake, and resurrections recorded in Matthew 27:45-54 were all eschatological signs of a change in the ages. Many Jews had expected those events when God stepped into human history to revolutionize the way he related to his people. And God sent those signs so they knew it was happening.

Jesus is the teacher of a new Torah. His words replace the books of Moses. His sacrifice undermines the Temple. His people become the locus of his presence rather than Jerusalem. They are the light of the world bringing a priestly message of atonement for all. The way Matthew’s Gospel organizes Jesus’ life for a Jewish audience makes all these moves clear.

We must pay careful attention to how and where his message is delivered, not just what is said, to understand its significance. Jesus doesn’t just add on some extra points to Mosaic Law. Jesus rewrote what God requires of you. He reenacted the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai and the recitation of blessings on Mount Gerizim to redefine God’s instructions for his people. He revised God’s Law to recapture the intent of God’s heart. That’s a big deal we better not miss. We better take those red letters as seriously as the Gospel of Matthew meant them.

​Article based on chapter from Dr. Paul Penley's forthcoming book
8 Comments
Anne Kraemer
9/18/2017 05:58:38 pm

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this article. No one has ever intimated or tied Matthew's gospel to a pattern in the Old Testament comparable in Torah to my understanding. But you have done so. I would very much like to read your book

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Martin Ryan
5/16/2018 04:24:02 pm

I learned a lot from this article, but have a couple of questions. Since Matthew is a book written primarily to Jews and to reveal Jesus as the Messiah, how do these ideas translate to Gentiles - who never had the Torah, never were Jews, and how do you understand Paul's writing in 2 Corinthians 3, where he refers to the commandments written on stone as the ministry of condemnation and death? I struggle with the idea that Jesus came to "update" the Law, as you seem to put it - "Jesus rewrote what God requires of you" - I wholeheartedly agree that the meekness, peaceableness, etc described in the Beatitudes should characterize our lives as believers - indeed, they are part of the fruit of the Spirit. How do you reconcile God "revising" the Law with Paul's emphatic statements that the Law brings death, and is the strength of sin? Thank you for any feedback and again, I enjoyed the article.

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Paul Penley (author)
6/24/2018 09:29:43 pm

Paul does say the “law brings death” in Romans, but he explains with great nuance that the Law is not the problem. Sin within us is the problem. As Romans 7:10-13 says, “I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. 11 Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. 12 But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. 13 But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes.” What the Law reveals about us shows us that we need JESUS. And JESUS taught us how to truly become what we couldn’t on our own with just the Law. Much more could be said, but I believe that answers your immediate question. Thanks for working hard to put all these pieces together that both Jesus and his followers put into the New Testament.

Charissa
8/16/2018 05:46:41 pm

This would all make a lot of sense except that God says of Himself that He does not change (Malachi 3:6), and He also warns His people to test any prophet who comes, and the test had to do with whether the prophet taught in accordance with Gods Laws (true prophet), or against His Law (false prophet). This is in Deuteronomy 13.

To be fair this is the only article on your site I have read, and perhaps you do not maintain that Jesus is God. If you do believe that Jesus is God (as He professed to be, see John 1), and He does not change, and Jesus is a true prophet (like into Moses), He absolutely can not have come to preach against (or add to or take away from) Gods Law. In fact, it seems far more likely the religious leaders wanted Him dead because He was constantly pointing out the ways in which they were following their own (manmade) laws at the expense of following God’s Law (see Mark 7). Note they had to bring in FALSE witnesses to testify against Him. They were attempting to have Him killed under the Deuteronomy 13 instruction.

Jesus is the Word made flesh... which is why He walked out His life living under Gods Law perfectly, He corrected those who weren’t keeping it and were teaching the people to do the same, and He preached and taught Gods Law. All of His teachings are Torah. He is the embodiment of the Torah, and we are told to walk as He walked (1 John 2:6) and that to love God is to keep His commands (1 John 5:3).

So I just can’t agree with your conclusion here, although I do appreciate your perspective regarding Matthew and the parallels between it and the Old Testament. I believe your conclusion relies too heavily upon the Temple Scroll assumptions of what the Messiah would do, and not heavily enough on what the Torah says the Messiah will do.

Reply
Paul Penley
8/16/2018 06:26:28 pm

Charissa -
Thanks for reading some of my biblical research. It can be difficult to put together each part of the biblical narrative into a logically consistent story. God’s character doesn’t change, but his methods of connecting with people in each culture to lead humanity towards his original desire do adapt to most effectively accomplish his unchanging mission. Deuteronomy 13, which you cite to undermine my conclusion that Jesus’ words are the new Torah from God, cannot be consistently applied today, or you would be calling for me to be stoned to death. You can’t pick out one part you can agree with, ignore another part of God’s instructions in Deuteronomy 13, and then argue that God’s instructions don’t change because God is consistent. That itself is inconsistent, violating your own stated principles. If you read Deuteronomy 13 closely, you will also find that “false prophets” are determined by whether or not their predictions take place, not how their teaching relates to the Torah. Ezekiel spoke of a radical change coming in terms of how people received God’s instructions. I did not explore Ezekiel or the broader OT prophetic trajectory that pointed to what Jesus did by replacing the Torah with his words since it is more commonly known than The Temple Scroll and blogs need to stay short. Thanks for thinking through these tough hermeneutical decisions with me.

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Ric Maxson
11/2/2018 01:41:14 pm

I was doing research for preaching the Beatitudes for this Sunday (per lectionary)...I found your article above most helpful in giving academic structure to my original musings. Coupled with your reply to Martin's comments re: the Law I don't have much else to do to round out my message. Thanks - Ev Xpistw, Ric

Reply
Bob Jackson
11/4/2018 11:50:31 am

Thanks for tackling this topic as many scholars seem to avoid it.
Charissa makes a good point and I would go further than you have.

In Mark 7 9-13 Jesus describes honoring your Father and Mother as a command of God. Look at how He describes the laws he mentions in the Sermon on the Mount. ‘You have heard that it was said’, no mention of God.

The laws on murder and adultery are inadequate and the laws on Divorce, Oaths and Retribution are plain wrong. God does not change, therefore I find it inconceivable that God gave these laws in the form we now have them. Jesus is obviously not talking about these flawed laws when He says Heaven and earth will pass away etc. You can imagine the confusion in the minds of the Jewish listeners as they hear this. Jesus then gives them and us the simplicity of God’s Eternal Law in the Golden Rule Matt.7:12. The Greek is more emphatic than most translations . . ‘this(οὗτος) indeed(γάρ) is(ἐστιν) the law and the prophets’. The NIV addition of - ‘sums up’ is not in the Greek.

As you correctly point out, Jesus has taken them up the mountain to reissue God’s Law in its uncorrupted form.

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Manohar James link
9/9/2020 03:08:30 pm

Beautifully expounded how Jesus unfolded the law in his sermon on the mount ! Fruits vs Roots. Jesus touched the root (the basis) of the law and redefined it. Thank you.

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