Understanding the Sermon on the Mount

the long version

These three chapters have been the most popular in the entire Bible. Anyone who has the curiosity and patience to study the indices of biblical quotations in the Church Fathers of the first three centuries will discover that Matthew 5 was quoted far more frequently than any other chapter in the Bible, while chapters 5-7 were quoted more frequently than any other three consecutive chapters. While innumerable commentaries have been written on individual books of the Bible, the Sermon on the Mount is one of the few sections within a book selected for special detailed study. The Sermon has long been recognized as the classic statement of one aspect of the Christian tradition. - Prologue.