An annotated bibliography for the Sermon on the Mount (= SM) and the history of its interpretation

Daniel Patte presents four ways of looking at the SM as delineations of discipleship.

A. Ethical (Deontological. also "Historical").  Strecker and Kingsbury uses redaction-critical and literary-critical methods.
The SM is a Law that determines the boundaries of the Christian community. The SM expresses the reality of Mattthew's time in terms of Jesus' unique time with his original disciples. The SM is an absolute expression of God's eternal will by God's unique Son. It is a law (but not a legalistic one) that disciples need to perform, and it is urgent that they do so because the coming of the Kingdom of God is imminent.
Discipleship is the implementation of God's eternal will as revealed by Jesus. It is presented as a set of universal principles that constitute a code of behavior for the church and its members.

B. Narrative.  Edwards uses plot analysis.
The SM is a call to discipleship.  The SM contributes to transforming its hearers into disciples who are fully ready to carry out their mission.  (Matthew is the story of how the lowly servant of all becomes exalted Lord of all, and how fishers become novice disciples and finally full-fledged disciples, equipped to carry out their mission to fish for people).
Discipleship is seeking to continue Jesus' ministry — by performing good works that other can discern as expressions of God's goodness and that can encourage them toward discipleship.

C. Figurative.  Luz, Davies, and Allison focus on taking the Lord's Prayer as central to the SM.
The SM specifies what discipleship involves in view of the fact that the disciples live between two horizons:  the present (in which God's love as a caring Father is manifest) and the future (the ethical demands of the coming Kingdom of God).
Discipleship is a faith venture in intuitive ethical practice.  Jesus is the primary model whom disciples are to imitate.

D. Thematic.  Patte focuses on taking the "sound eye" as the controlling theme in the SM.
The SM focuses on moral discernment, which distinguishes faithful discipleship. Being a faithful disciple means being totally focused on the manifestations of God's goodness, the good works of people, and the hidden good in righteous people.  The person who has such vision knows what direction to go in — imitating God and anyone else who performs good works.
Discipleship is a faith venture in which disciples seek by faith to discover what they must do.

This is the culmination of Betz' decades of study of the Sermon on the Mount. It also includes commentary on the Sermon on the Plain. It is a large book.

An impressive commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, translated into English for the Hermeneia series.  This commentary discusses the meaning of each section with reference to Jesus, with reference to Matthew's community, and with reference to its influence.  Volume 1 contains the Sermon on the Mount.

 

Resources for history of the Stone-Campbell Movement, including the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Churches of Christ

“A man comes forth in Israel to make today’s prophetic vision tomorrow’s agenda; one for whom the teachings of Mount Sinai do not suffice because he wished to penetrate beyond to the original divine intent; one who, despite war and tyranny, dares to pursue the biblical love of neighbor to its ultimate consequence in order to brand all our souls with an ideal of human possibility that no longer allows us to be content with the threadbare, run-of-the-mill persons we are but need not be” (7-8).

“What are all the imperatives of the Instruction on the Mount if not a concerted call to absolute fulfillment of the Torah in its original meaning, the concrete teaching of the all-encompassing love of God and love of neighbor?” (37).

Commentary by one of the founders of form criticism.

A simple introduction to critical scholarship of the Sermon.

Davies argues for the strong Jewish roots of Jesus' preaching.

Bibliographical study.

Early studies by Betz.

I've just started, but I plan to create an annotated bibliography of Song of Songs interpretation here. More later...

This is an annotated bibliography of useful books and online resources for study of the historical Jesus. "Historical Jesus" is a term used to described what can be said of Jesus of Nazareth from a critical, historical perspective. Critical research into the historical Jesus is generally considered to have four phases.

1. The First Quest for the Historical Jesus was pursued primarily by nineteenth-century European Liberals, who sought to use gospel sources critically to write a biography ("Life of Jesus") to portray Jesus as he really was. Albert Schweitzer's research showed that most of this work tended to portray Jesus as a nineteenth-century European Liberal.

2. A period sometimes known as "No Quest for the Historical Jesus" followed, at least in Europe. Jesus scholars of this period typically considered it both historically impossible and theologically illegitimate to write a biography of Jesus. Rudolf Bultmann and Martin Dibelius are typical of this period.

3. The Second Quest (originally, the "New Quest") began in 1953. While agreeing that it was not possible to write a biography of Jesus in nineteenth-century terms, this quest considered it possible and necessary to discover what could be said about the historical Jesus. G|nther Bornkamm is typical of this period.

4. The Third Quest began in about the 1970s. Rejecting the anti-Semitism implicit in the Criterion of Dissimilarity, it places Jesus squarely within Judaism. It uses non-canonical texts as well as canonical texts, and it shows an interest in social history. While there is no real consensus in the Third Quest, there are noticeable tendencies. Some scholars (for example, E. P. Sanders and Gerd Theissen) see Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet and others (for example, Burton Mack and Dom Crossan) see him as a non-apocalyptic wisdom teacher. In addition, there are Third Quest dissenters (for example, Luke Timothy Johnson) who have a more conservative perspective.

This book is an early major study of the Third Quest of the historical Jesus.  It focuses on Jesus as a Jew. It emphasizes what Jesus did more than what he said.  In particular, it sees the "Cleansing of the Temple" as a key to understanding Jesus as an eschatological prophet who saw himself as God's last messenger before the coming of the kingdom.

This book was an early and influential criticism of the first Quest of the Historical Jesus. It is also famous for referring to the Gospel of Mark as "a passion narrative with an extended introduction."

Dom Crossan is a member of the Jesus Seminar.  This is a third-quest study. It depends heavily on the Gospel of Thomas and argues that the Gospel of Peter contains the most original passion narrative.  It presents Jesus as a Jewish peasant cynic, a non-violent, counter-cultural protestor who tried to move people into unmediated ("unbrokered") contact with God and one another. 

This is a major third-quest study, presenting Jesus as charismatic, non-apocalyptic healer and sage promoting "holiness as compassion." Borg is a member of the Jesus Seminar, and this was the first book-length study to emerge from the Jesus Seminar.

The critical study is the classic text from the early Second Quest of the Historical Jesus. As a Second Quest study, it puts a high priority on the Criterion of Dissimilarity. It is written for a popular audience.