The Rabbi on the Mount: How Jesus' Judaism Clarifies the Sermon on the Mount

by Phil Weingart

You can't interpret scripture properly without understanding its context--and Jesus' Judaism is the bedrock of the context.The Sermon on the Mount does not read like a sermon to most people. It looks more like a winding, lazy river of unrelated platitudes. No announced topic, no bullet points, no summary... But that's not how it really is. To Jewish students of an authoritative Rabbi of the Second Temple Period, it may have been surprising but it made perfect sense. Rabbi Jesus, following a pattern common for Rabbis, was preparing His students for the community of the kingdom of God, and they got the message. He was doing it for us, the Church that He knew He was planting, as much as He was doing it for them. Phil Weingart, a Jewish lay teacher in a Christian denomination, has gathered details from history, scripture, and the writings of the Jewish sages of Jesus' day that illuminate what Jesus would have meant by many of the things he said in the Sermon on the Mount, and explain how his students would have taken his words. Learning the facts about Jesus' Jewish culture and the religion out of which He was speaking sheds much-needed light on this crucial teaching by the Master.

219 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 26, 2019

Reviews

[Maggie Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of us subconsciously process what we read and hear through our own perspectives on language. That perspective is often based on culture and personal experience, as well as the slang and verbal hyperbole of the era in which we were adolescents. That unique take on language can cause stumbling blocks and miscommunications even with people we know well, so when we are applying it to the words of people who lived long ago and far away, in a completely different culture, it can make understanding what is being said difficult.

Rabbi on the Mount helps us bridge the gap between ancient Israel and today so we can hear what Jesus was actually saying in the Sermon on the Mount. This perspective gave me a whole new understanding of Jesus' sermon, one which helps me know how best to obey what the Lord was telling us to do that day. I can't recommend this enough.

[pam lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Study of faith

Start of a foundation of the Christian faith from the Jewish beginnings. Explains where some of the teaching and thoughts were formulated and who Christians came from.

[Evan Minton]

This is a fantastic commentary on Matthew 5-7 a.k.a Jesus' Sermon On The Mount. Mr. Weingart shows how a knowledge of the cultural context of Jesus' Jewish upbringing and background shed light on what he was teaching in the Sermon On The Mount. It was an engaging read for sure. If biblical studies are your thing, this needs to be in your library.