Sermon on the Mount transcript

[KevinK]

The Sermon on the Mount is the longest piece of teaching from Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus spoke these words to “multitudes” without amplification. This was before audio recording devices or even a quick way to write down his words in real time. The transcript first appears by the unknown author of Matthew 80 - 90 years after the words were spoken. How was it possible to accurately produce a transcript of his sermon?

 

[BartholomewB]

The Sermon on the Mount is the longest piece of teaching from Jesus in the New Testament.

The Farewell Discourse is longer, I think. In my NIV New Testament, Matthew 5-7 runs to a fraction over 7 columns, while John 13-17 is close to 10 columns.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

How was it possible to accurately produce a transcript of his sermon?

The shortest answer is that the Gospel authors were inspired by The Holy Spirit.

 

[MT1926]

How was it possible to accurately produce a transcript of his sermon?

I would second this…

The shortest answer is that the Gospel authors were inspired by The Holy Spirit.

However, I would also like to point out that the Bible doesn’t record everything Jesus said and did. If you add up the “literal” days mentioned in the Bible it comes to something like 3 months of Jesus’ 3 year ministry. That’s a lot of missing time their. Jesus and His disciples spent a lot of time together on the road walking and talking. That’s what they did back then since Ipods hadn’t been invented yet .

I believe Jesus would have not only explained all that He said but He would have pointed out examples of people living out the beatitudes on their journeys. The gospels show us repeatedly that St. Peter tended to be stubborn and thick headed and had no difficulty in questioning our Lord. I’m sure to the Apostles this wasn’t a one time event. Not only is it possible that Jesus gave the “Sermon on the Mount” more than once but I’m sure that Jesus also taught the Apostles how to live the Sermon before they were to teach others.

Hope this makes sense. Basically, it’s not hard hard to recreate a transcript of what was said when you have been living that transcript for the past 30 years.

Also, on a side note Matthew was most likely written within 30 years of the events. From my understanding writings withing the first 100 years of an event is GOLD to a historian.

God Bless

 

[Joe_5859]

The transcript

It’s not a transcript.

first appears by the unknown author of Matthew 80 - 90 years after the words were spoken.

That’s debatable. Some put the composition of Matthew much earlier (and written by Matthew—who was there).

The Gospels do not record history the way that we write history in the U.S. today. It’s not necessarily an official transcript of the exact words Jesus used.

A few observations, though. Jesus went around preaching and teaching for three years. I have known people who do a lot of teaching/public speaking. They repeat themselves. They use stories. And people remember them. I can think of a few occasions where I have seen the same person give the same talk so many times that I can basically give it myself.

It’s not difficult for me to imagine that Jesus would have repeated certain teachings and parables to different audiences. And the apostles who were with him would have heard these stories multiple times. Now, setting aside arguments about the date and authorship of the Gospels, whether it was written by Matthew in 50 or 60 AD or written by a disciple of Matthew in 80 or 90 AD, even that disciple would have heard Matthew speak on these things many times and would have similarly committed these things to memory.

Keep in mind, too, that the people of this time did not have all the distractions or the excuses to be lazy (ahem…Google…ahem). So they would have been much more apt to remember the words of Jesus. Even more so when he use stories, or when he structured his teaching in ways such as with the Beatitudes.

Add the Holy Spirit to the mix who inspired the sacred authors, and it doesn’t seem far-fetched at all that Jesus’ words would be accurately recorded in the Gospels. Whether or not it is a word-for-word transcription of a singular sermon is a moot point.

 

[stpurl]

The society of the time was not a literate society, by and large. People’s memories were trained, if you will, to listen closely and to remember accurately.

 

[KevinK]

Verbatim for decades?

 

[Joe_5859]

Why not? People still recall famous speeches made by Abraham Lincoln. The first Christians witnessed Jesus rise from the dead. I’m pretty sure they would be motivated to share his sermons and parables more frequently than an hour every Sunday morning.

I don’t particularly feel it is necessary, though, that the Gospel writers captured Jesus’ words verbatim. That doesn’t make them any less trustworthy or historical.

 

[TheLittleLady]

In time before printing presses or mass literacy, we relied on memory. The human mind is capable of great things. This TED talk explains the ancient memorization techniques:

https://www.ted.com/search?q=memory+palace

 

[stpurl]

Why not? Do you think human beings are less capable than a mechanical recorder when it comes to a few paragraphs’ worth of memorization?

 

[veritatisstella]

How was it possible to accurately produce a transcript of his sermon?

It wasn’t a transcript because the Gospels are written in Greek and Jesus would have spoken Aramaic. Perhaps some of Jesus’ sayings are recounted word-for-word in translation, but not all of it has to be word-for-word to be a true representation of what He said originally. What we can be sure of is that the Evangelists accurately captured the meaning of His words when they wrote down His speeches, and that He really did say those things, albeit not in the exact same words.

 

[kill051]

The society of the time was not a literate society, by and large. People’s memories were trained, if you will, to listen closely and to remember accurately.

Exactly! I was just about to make this same comment, but you beat me to it. There is good reason to believe that, for all our vaunted intellectual prowess in the twenty-first century, the average person’s mind was actually far livelier and capable two thousand years ago than it is now. Thanks for pointing this out!

 

[KevinK]

I don’t particularly feel it is necessary, though, that the Gospel writers captured Jesus’ words verbatim. That doesn’t make them any less trustworthy or historical.

It is important when whole doctrines hang on a single word.

 

[KevinK]

It is self evident than humans are less capable than a mechanical recorder that can play something back thousands of times. What are you talking about? Memorizing paragraphs of speech in real time? You have to be kidding.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Yes, a trained person can shuffle a deck of playing cards and memorize their order in 16.96 seconds.

Watch the TED talk I linked above.

Memory is a learned skill, it used to be vital!

 

[stpurl]

Oh please. Examine the text, friend. "Blessed are the x. . .the first three words are the same starts for much of the text. “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, oh hey, those are the same also. You don’t think that people didn’t discuss this ‘in real time’, going over and over the salient points? You are just so gosh darned determined to look for something, ANYTHING to seize on to justify your own disbelief that you can’t even imagine that some 'credulous people from before the DARK AGES could not only meet you intellectually, but surpass you.

 

[BartholomewB]

The Sermon on the Mount is not just the Beatitudes. It’s three whole chapters of Matthew’s Gospel, adding up to over a hundred verses.

 

[veritatisstella]

to justify your own disbelief

It is not “disbelief” to think that the Sacred Scriptures do not recount Jesus’ words verbatim. In fact, it goes against common sense to believe it is verbatim because 1) the Gospels are written in Greek when Jesus spoke Aramaic; and 2) different Gospels give slightly different wording of His speech. If they were trying to be verbatim, there would be complete concordance.

It doesn’t have to be verbatim to be a true rendering of the words of Jesus, and no one here is denying that the Gospels are a true record of His sayings. Please refrain from accusing others of disbelief.

 

[ShowersofRoses]

The entire Bible, including the Sermon on the Mount, is inspired by the Holy Spirit and contains exactly what God intended for us to know.

And I completely agree that people’s memories used to be MUCH better than ours. They would recite the Scriptures over and over and memorize them and pass them down orally to their children.

There are a couple of beautiful scenes in the movie The Nativity Story when they show families repeating the story of Elijah and how he heard God speak to him in a still, small voice. I mention it because it shows in a small way how stories were passed down orally.

One of the main goals of ancient Jewish education was memorizing the Torah. How many people can do that today, or bother trying? People not long ago used to be so much better educated than us…memorizing long passags of Shakespeare and other poets.

The disciples spent three years being mentored by Jesus. Do you think He gave the Sermon on the Mount once and never discussed it with them again? I highly, highly doubt that. I would assume they were pondering and discussing and memorizing it as they heard Him repeat the Sermon over and over in the various villages.

When Matthew finally sat down to record his Gospel, I think he could hear Jesus’ voice quite clearly in his mind. I’m sure he had no trouble at all accurately recording Jesus’ message.