NT251 The Sermon on the Mount
Overview
Dr. Jonathan Pennington zeroes in on one of the most important texts studied throughout church history: the Sermon on the Mount. He gives a detailed exposition of the biblical text, covers historical interpretations, and provides direction for reading the sermon according to its structure.
Top Highlights
“I think the main gist of it, from Matthew’s use of ‘fulfill,’ is to show that the true meaning, the true intent, the true eschatological consummation of what God did in the past is now coming into fruition in Jesus.” (source)
“But the artistry of Matthew is found in the fact that he is really careful about putting stories together into acts and cycles, and putting together major blocks of material in a way that it really is communicating at something that is deeper and more profound and larger than just the level of the individual story.” (source)
“Sermon on the Mount, in fact, along with all biblical ethics, corresponds largely with this Aristotelian virtue-ethics view, with some caveats that I’ll give you in the next segment. That is, that it’s not just about a duty. It’s not just about the right or wrong things to do. It’s not just about principles to be done, but that God sees and cares about us being a certain kind of person. He cares about our disposition. He cares about us being motivated at the heart level about doing what’s right, and that—once you say it that way, I hope you can see that that’s consistent all throughout the Bible.” (source)
“The first seven Beatitudes are all, again, about a disposition of heart. The eighth and ninth Beatitudes turn the corner and introduce something that in a way is very, very odd. That—to talk about human flourishing seems like that means your vineyards are growing, your children are all healthy, your marriage is good, you’ve got a lot of money in the bank account (or big sheepfolds, in the ancient world), and that seems like that’s what human flourishing may be. But part of the radicality of what Jesus is teaching—it’s very radical—is that to be makarios, to be in God’s favor, and more importantly, even to flourish, looks like being one who often encounters suffering.” (source)
- Title: NT251 The Sermon on the Mount
- Author: Jonathan T. Pennington
- Series: Logos Mobile Education
- Publisher: Lexham Press
- Print Publication Date: 2014
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Courseware
- Subjects: Education › Sermon on the Mount; Education › Sermon on the Mount--Criticism, interpretation, etc; Sermon on the Mount; Sermon on the Mount › Criticism, interpretation, etc
- Resource ID: LLS:NT251PENNINGTON
- Resource Type: Courseware Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-02-12T04:49:27Z
Dr. Jonathan T. Pennington is the associate professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He also served as a visiting professor at Southeastern Seminary, as well as the Institute of Biblical Studies in Orlando, Florida and Melbourne, Australia.
He earned a BA in history and his teaching certificate from Northern Illinois University, and his MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he also taught Greek for two years as an NT fellow. For five years, he also served as the associate pastor at the Evangelical Free Church of Mt. Morris in northern Illinois.
He holds a PhD in New Testament studies from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland (in St. Mary’s College), where he wrote his thesis, “Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew,” under the supervision of professors Richard Bauckham and Philip Esler. Dr. Pennington is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Tyndale Fellowship (Cambridge), the Institute for Biblical Research, and the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies. He’s published a variety of articles, reviews, and Greek and Hebrew language tools, as well as books like Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew (Brill),Cosmology and New Testament Theology (T&T Clark), and Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction (Baker Academic).