Courses

This course aims to provide an in-depth study of this famous compilation of Jesus’ teachings. Emphasis will be placed upon understanding, as best we can, the Sermon on the Mount as its teachings would have been heard by its original, primarily Judean (οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι), audience living in a Greco-Roman context. Special emphasis will be placed on reading the text for the key core values promoted by Jesus by which one ought to live as members of the kingdom of God. 

This course is offered to students in the MDiv, MTS, Cert CS, and DPT. It may be used toward specializations in Biblical Studies, Church and Culture, Christian Worldview, and Pastoral Studies. 

Knowing 

• Describe and apply a methodology that enables reading the text for values 
• Discover the key values that are promoted or demoted by Jesus in the SOM 
• Analyze the basic structure of the SOM based on principled methodological principles 

Being 

• Reflect on how the values promoted in the SOM should guide how you and fellow Jesus followers ought to think, do, feel, and believe in relation to one another and in relation to the world (i.e., how it impacts morality [i.e., what is to be considered right/wrong, fair/unfair, noble/ignoble]) 
• Identify points of challenge/struggle in your own life and in the life of the Church where the values of Jesus promoted in the SOM and consider how those challenges/struggles might be overcome 

Doing 

• Describe significant contextual features (i.e., context of culture and context of situation) of Jesus’ world and of Matthew’s world and how these impact the interpretation of the SOM (e.g., honor and positive/negative shame; collectivism; etc.) 
• Analyze/exegete pericopes in the SOM with a view to the values that each promotes and/or demotes 
• Propose way(s) in which the values promoted in the SOM might apply to the contemporary Church, Western and/or non-Western 
• Critique a “popular” point of view on the SOM considering what you learn in this course