ON THE MOUNT - ON THE PLAIN - (Mt. VI Lk. vi 17)

BY

JINDRICH MANEK Prague

It is a well known fact that Matthew's on the Mount and Luke's Sermon on the Plain have much in common. Both follow approximately the same framework. Both preachings start with , both are closed with the parable of the two houses, one built upon the rock and the other on the sand. In both one is told not to repay evil for evil, not to judge, the , the words of the tree, which is known by its fruit, the rejection of the religion which employs only fine words. Some verses from Matthew's have parallels in the according to Luke elsewhere and not in the Sermon on the Plain. Yet there are not only similarities between Matthew's and Luke's conception of the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain. There are also differences. Luke's Sermon is briefer. Much of Matthew's material is absent in the . But in Matthew, too, also some of Luke's material is missing. One of the most remarkable differences between Matthew and Luke is in the places, where preaches this Sermon. Matthew locates this Sermon on the mount, while Luke locates it on a level place. What is the reason for this dissimilarity ? Is this difference already rooted in tradition (oral or written) or is it the work of the Evangelists ? Three possibilities must be taken into account: i) The sermon has from the beginning been connected with the statement that Jesus delivered it on the mount and Luke for some reason changed this statement. 2) The sermon has from the beginning been con- nected with the statement that Jesus delivered it on the plain and Matthew for some reason changed this statement. 3) The material, which Matthew uses in the Sermon on the Mount and Luke in the Sermon on the Plain had no topographical indication in tradition 125 and each of these Evangelists placed this sermon in a different setting. The first and second alternatives cannot be ascertained as we do not possess older documents containing the material, which Matthew and Luke presented in the Sermon on the Mount or in the Sermon on the Plain. We do not know if some previous oral or written tradition that served as the source for our contained or not the statement as to where Jesus delivered this sermon. Therefore we can only follow the third possibility and ask if there was any reason for leading our Evangelists to a different localization. Why does Matthew locate this sermon on the mount and Luke on the plain ? Is there any connection here with the estimation of the mountain and of the plain in the eyes of our Gospel writers ? When studying this question we must begin with the first part of the and consider the evaluation of the mountains in the books of the Old Testament. The best access to these questions is the study of the Old Testament eschatology. What is the standing of the mountains in the blessed future life? If mountains exist in the future world, they would be highly estimated because of the prescriptive function of biblical eschatology. In biblical religion judgment is pronounced over the present in the name of the final future that has the character of norm. The old e6n and the new are opposed to each other. Over the imperfect, the present, is placed the perfect, the future. There are some verses in the Old Testament according to which mountains will exist in the future. Let us quote a few examples! Is. ii 2-3a: "It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths."-Psalm lxxii 16: "May there be abundance of grain in the land; on the top of the mountains may it wave; may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may men blossom forth from the cities like the " grass of the field!" It is especially Mount Zion, which is seen as abiding for ever. It is written in Isaiah xi 9: "They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. "-Is. lxvi 20 : "And they shall