Sermon and Woes

The Sermon on the Mount begins with beatitudes, and the Olivet Discourse begins with Woes.  As N. T. Wright and others have shown, the two series are similar in a number of particulars.  The connections between the two discourses continue after the beatitudes/woes section, evident in significant verbal repetition.  To wit:

“Kill”: Jesus uses the verb in 5:21  After that it comes up only in Matthew in 19:18, until we get to 23, where it describes what scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites do (23:31, 35).

“Hell” ( geenna ): Used 7x in the book, 3x in ch. 5.   It’s found in 10:28; 18:9, and then as the destination of the disciples of the Pharisees and of the Pharisees themselves (23:15, 33).

“Altar”: Found in 5:23-24; 23:18-20, 35.

“Gift”: In 5:23-24, then 3x in ch 23:18-19.

Swearing by God’s throne comes up in both 5:23 and 23:22.

The sermon lays out a righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the scribes.  In fact, it is a righteousness that in many particulars directly opposes the “righteousness” of the scribes and Pharisees.