Sermon on the Mount: A Beginner's Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven

by Amy-Jill Levine

The Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7, contains some of Jesus most profound and most memorable teachings. What might these teachings have mean to his disciples, and to the others who first heard them? How do they enhance our reading of the rest of the Gospel of Matthew, and how do they speak across the centuries to listeners today? How, if we pay careful attention to his words, does Jesus provide us a road map to living as God would have us live?



In Sermon on the A Beginner's Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine introduces the major topics in the Sermon on the Mount, explains historical and theological contexts, and shows how the words of Jesus echo his Jewish tradition and speak forward to reach hearts and minds today.

This book provides a rich and challenging learning experience for the individual reader and also makes a wonderful, six-week group study with the additional Leader Guide, DVD, and 40-day readings

Genres: Theology, Religion, Christianity, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Faith, Christian

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 4, 2020

About the author

Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies and Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and Department of Jewish Studies. Her books include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus; Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi; four children's books (with Sandy Sasso); The Gospel of Luke (with Ben Witherington III); and The Jewish Annotated New Testament (co-edited with Marc Z. Brettler). Her most recent books are The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (co-authored with Marc Z. Brettler), Sermon on the Mount: A Beginner's Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven; and The Kingdom of Heaven: 40 Devotionals. In 2019 she became the first Jew to teach New Testament at Rome's Pontifical Biblical Institute. Professor Levine, who has done over 300 programs for churches, clergy groups, and seminaries, has been awarded grants from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Institutions granting her honorary degrees include Christian Theological Seminary and the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest.

Reviews

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a bit more esoteric than the previous ones that we've done in the study group, but still quite approachable and enjoyable. The author is a Jewish professor at a Christian college and brings a fresh, unique perspective to Jesus' words (he was, after all, a Jewish man himself). Her drawing from Jewish culture and the Torah - both things that Jesus himself was also drawing from, brought an entirely different sort of point of view - one I've never really seen in a purely Christan Bible study.

[Robert Kauffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A home run!

If I may be so bold "AJ" your sense of clarity in your writing is remarkable. I needed this book, with our current world situation being what it is, this book was uplifting, educational, and revealing I got to see thing's through a different set of eyes. I have gained a new perspective one I will carry forward into the future.

[Cathryn Conroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite writers about the New Testament is an Orthodox Jew. Amy-Jill Levine is an Orthodox Jew by faith and a renowned New Testament scholar by profession so who better to explain the nuances of Jesus's sayings as they relate to the Hebrew scriptures, what we Christians call the Old Testament? After all, Jesus was a Jew talking to other Jews. Knowledge of the Old Testament is essential for understanding the New Testament, and Levine is a marvelous teacher.

Best of all, she is both witty and wise. For example, Levine says the Sermon on the Mount, found in the Gospel of Matthew in chapters five to seven, could easily be retitled "A Sampling of Jesus's Greatest Teachings." Go read (or re-read) these chapters from Matthew, and you will no doubt realize the brilliance of this assessment. We learn that the kingdom of heaven is not some abstract place, but rather occurs here on Earth right now when we take Jesus's words to heart and live them.

Among other things, the book explains the meaning of the Beatitudes, practicing piety, finding your treasure, and living into the kingdom.

I think the best chapter is the one on the Lord's Prayer, which Levine adamantly concludes is a prayer for anyone, Christian or Jew. Some Christians (and Jews, for that matter) may be surprised by what she says, defining it as a "magnificent Jewish prayer, echoed in a number of other Jewish prayers still used to this day." The "Our Father" is not only for Christians. It's for everyone. Amen to that!

I have read the New Testament in its entirety eight times (and counting…I get to the end and start over), but reading this book made me see the Sermon on the Mount in a totally different way. That's exciting!

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and Amy-Jill Levine.
She has helped me so much. As a United Methodist Christian who is also coming from a Jewish background, but I'm not Messianic, this book is so helpful and I hope I can help others by reading it.
Thank you

[Debbie Babbage · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this as part of a small group study. AJ is wonderful showing us the connection of Jesus’ teachings with the Jewish scriptures and teachings. Full of rich information, I recommend it for personal or group study. The video that goes with the book is very informative too.

[Ginny Whitehouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Offers deep and accessible insights to Sermon on the Mount

Amy-Jill Levine’s viewpoints as a Jewish scholar of Jesus are both refreshing and invigorating. Great book for group or individual reading.

[Charlotte Place · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for a book study/Bible study that our pastor was leading. We read a chapter a week and then met via Zoom to watch a short video by the author, Amy-Jill Levine, and then discuss our reading. It was very interesting and insightful to study the Sermon on the Mount from a Jewish perspective!

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amy Jill Levine, what an inspiration! I will read more of your books. Uplifting with hints of humor along the way. Loved it.

[Lgloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

A refreshing and insightful look at the Sermon on the Mount from a Jewish scholar’s perspective.

[Earline Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

recommend

This was a very good group Bible study! Even though the sermon is familiar , Amy Jill Levine offers new insights and examples to open new doors or create deeper thought.

[Steve LaMotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good entry for someone into the Sermon on the Mount. Levine’s Jewish background brings in quite a few sources that bring the text alive in their Jewish-ness.

[Jake Pettit · Rating 1 out of 5]

Made it through exactly 37 pages of this trite and shallow garbage masquerading as research. DNF.

Levine approaches the Sermon on the Mount as a nice collection of Jewish stories that are definitely not true, but provide an opportunity for Levine to tell us to be nice to one another.

In these first few pages Levine describes Matthew as a clever storyteller (but not someone inspired by the Holy Spirit or given special apostolic authority). She redefines “poor in spirit” as not just humility, but someone who “recognizes they are both the beneficiaries of the help of others and part of a system in which they are to pay it forward” (um… what?). She breezes past an interpretation of Ghenna as describing the annihilation of the soul, but provides exactly zero textual evidence, analysis, or recognition of other takes on this highly-contentious theological issue. She reduces Jesus’s statement on lust to “at the least, thoughts of physical mutiliation should put a damper on sexual desire” (really, nothing more to add on this highly-complex and powerful teaching?). And finally, the DNF straw for me, she redefines the greek word “porneia” to mean “not only infidelity but also desertion, spousal abuse, loss of affection, the coming to terms with a person’s sexuality or gender identity,” all with zero linguistic or historical evidence to bolster her interpretation.

Poorly written, even more poorly researched, and stuffed with confident opinions presented as solid theology. Don’t waste your time.

[Scott Rushing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best introductions to the Sermon on the Mount that I have read. It is billed as an Introduction, and yet my one disappointment is that it should be longer. For example, Levine does not address all of the Beatitudes.

[Lou Florio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by the coeditor of the Jewish Annotated Bible, Dr. Levine gives us a very helpful look at the Sermon on the Mount through Jesus’ Jewishness. This book is an engaging read, helpful for one’s preaching, teaching, or application to one’s life.

[Dayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt the Renowned author leaves a few stones unturned. Bart Ehrman in his book “Misquoting Jesus” qualifies the woman at the well story and another, which Levine breezes over without comment.

[Sanjuro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The word "guide" in the subtitle is a good description of this book's content. It is not at all a commentary, though in some ways it shares many features with popular level commentaries. This book is very much for beginners, but is enjoyable to read for anyone looking to have their hearts encouraged. Levine is a humble and insightful writer, and the book serves the purpose of feeding the soul, even if the material is old for those of us who have been reading on the sermon for a long time.

The book receives a good score for two reasons:
1. It accomplishes its purpose of guiding beginners with accessible but interesting writing.
2. It offers fresh insights on a Jewish Jesus from a Jewish perspective, in ways that honor Christian teaching while challenging some of its assumptions.

I did have two issues with the book.
1. Levine presents a "Jesus-within-Judaism" interpretation. This is one I share, and which I also defend in my own book on Matthew. However, she almost defends this in total, as though Jesus was Jewish in the ways most Jews might expect. He was just "one more interpreter" among his contemporaries. I've always found Donald Hagner's view, that Jesus was a Jew who also innovated in ways that would bother his contemporary Jews, to be more satisfying of the evidence. Jesus was an interpreter, and not extra muros from Judaism, but he was still an innovator. He wasn't looking to replace Judaism, but he still believed it needed redemption. Christian teaching too often removes Jesus from his Jewish milieu, but sometimes I think Levine holds him too close to it.
2. Levine is pastorally sensitive, and cares deeply that we minister to people with our interpretations. As a former pastor, I agree, but there were instances where I think this pastoral sensitivity affected Levine's interpretations too much. For example, when describing "the meek" in the beatitudes, she states that it is ok to hold CEOs accountable to humility, but that it is inappropriate to do so with people who are poor and struggling. That to tell people who have been humbled by life to be humble risks doing damage to them. However, I would argue that this imports human concerns of class into Jesus' intentions, and I'm not convinced this is right. We have examples, such as 4QInstruction, of Jewish teachers telling poor people to be humble. Humility is a universal need, and I think the poor and the rich both need to hear this lesson, even if it is applied in different ways. If we are instructed well in the way of the master, we move beyond a preoccupation with class and its effects, and we see the need for meekness in a myriad of situations.

Scot McKnight wrote of Levine, she "has the gift of getting under the skin of Christian theologians while gently helping them to grow in their faith." Well, she never gets under my skin, because I welcome her insights and I think she has helped a lot of us grow. I do not always agree with the lengths to which she places Jesus squarely into his Jewish milieu, but I also disagree with the extent to which Christians remove him from it - so maybe one day we'll strike a better balance, and I think Levine will have played a big part in that. This is a helpful book for all beginners who want to better understand the sermon on the mount.

[Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite British comedies is The Vicar of Dibley, and one of my favorite episodes is the pilot, where Geraldine explains why she became a vicar--she read the Sermon of the Mount and it changed her life. I always wondered how and why. So, when Amy-Jill Levine published The Sermon on the Mount, I couldn't wait to sign up for a study with my church group.

Amy-Jill Levine is a professor New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School, and I love to take her classes. She has an easy and clear way of discussing biblical translations and history. This books is a beginner's guide; Levine even says that what she hopes will happen is that after reading the book, we will continue to study how the sermon plays out.

Levine breaks down these chapters in Matthew to The Beatitudes, The Extensions, Practicing Piety, Our Father, Finding Your Treasure, and Living into the Kingdom.

Barbara Brown Taylor reviewed it better than I could, " Reading it with Amy-Jill Levine has been a born-again experience, renewing my faith that scripture always has more to reveal to me--especially when I study it with a such a brilliant teacher."

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book for Sunday School. It is excellent.

The author approaches the Sermon from a historical perspective, a Jewish perspective, and a practical perspective.

So Jesus, being a good Jew, said these things - and Matthew may also have gathered them into one place although they may not have been said all at one time. The author indicated that the Sermon would be the thesis and then the rest of Matthew were examples of how to live according to the Sermon.

This book has six sections, all focusing on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7). One section dealing with the Beatitudes, one section dealing with the Lord's Prayer, and then the other four sections dealing with the other sayings (not in that order).

In reading the Sermon on the Mount, there's not as much emphasis on "being saved" as much as it is "how do we live as if we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven and all are God's children?"

It's an excellent book and I've highlighted a LOT. I'm also going to have to read it on my own pace as opposed to for Sunday School.

[Kim Shay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most Evangelicals don't know much about the Jewish context of the Scriptures. Reading Levine's book made me quite aware of this. Levine is Jewish, and she's knowledgeable about it. She is not just Jewish in name only. Reading the Sermon on the Mount through Jewish eyes helped me see many things that I'd never seen before, and helped me cast aside many things that aren't helpful.

Levine talks about having "one foot in the kingdom." Disciples live with one foot in the kingdom. It is a helpful, powerful way of viewing spiritual formation.

Evangelicals will likely cringe because Levine does not believe in hell as eternal torment; she is an annhiliationist. Furthermore, she does not believe we are totally depraved. That will cause some to shut the book. But whoever does that will be missing out on a rich way of understanding these passages in Matthew.

It has been a while since I have encountered a writer from whom I want to hear more. I want more from Levine, and I want more understanding of the Jewish roots of Christianity.

[Brad Dell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted so badly to love this book. Levine is hilarious, humble, sharp, and we need more Jewish perspective on Jesus’s teachings. But, similar to her parables book, she at times seems so driven to be a contrarian that she disagrees with traditional Christian interpretation only for the sake of disagreeing.

Her arguments at times defy logic and run counter to other pieces of NT scripture. For example, she says Jesus is actually saying to pray for tomorrow’s bread yet also says he’s hinting at the manna symbol of daily bread … but you couldn’t pick up manna for tomorrow, you could only take the day’s portion. This is one example among many.

I love her and what she’s trying to do, but unfortunately I think some might come away from this read only feeling more confused about what “contradictory Christ” had to say. Still, though, she raises questions and that ain’t bad.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've really liked and appreciated several of Amy Jill-Levine's books already, and while I did enjoy this, it left me wanting more. Her discussion of Christ's sermon includes genuine insights, but as the book is super short and stays at a popular-level style, it doesn't go as deep into any one topic as I wished.

That said, Jill-Levine's signature humor (sharp and biting) is definitely here, and she also levels incisive criticisms as some popular readings of the Sermon in Christian circles, which are really helpful. She also draws very fascinating intertextual connections to other parts of Matthew's Gospel, as well as prophetic OT texts, that bring out textures of the Sermon that are easy to miss. So it's worth a read, but with some tempered expectations.

[Rob O'Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent devotional or sermonic introduction to the theme, message and cultural context of the Sermon on the Mount. Levine blends her Jewish background with her Christian scholarship to craft a reading of the Sermon that not only aligns with the traditional focus of the Sermon as a primer on discipleship but pushes deeper to unpack the numerus allusions and references to the Hebrew scriptures and the Jewish religio-cultural system that Jesus grew up in. She effectively re-imagines all commonly-held notions about the Sermon to provide a clear argument as to what the Sermon is actually about and not just what we want it to be about. I would highly recommend this little gem!

[Rrshively · Rating 5 out of 5]

A J Levine comes from a Jewish background so can give insight as to the cultural context of the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. However, her greatest contribution is giving the reader a different slant or insight into many of the passages. From describing those "poor in spirit" as those with great humility to giving us the tools to discriminate between false prophets and true religious leaders by looking at their fruits and comparing them to the fruits of the spirit, we get numerous ways to view discrete parts of the Sermon on the Mount. Read it yourself to get many insights to this well known scripture.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have both the paperback and the audio version of this book. I read it as part of a Bible study run by my pastor.

Levine does a great job of breaking down each part of the Sermon on the Mount and explaining things. Some of the sections were a bit tough to grasp, but she was so very thorough. I felt like I learned a great deal - not just about the Sermon itself, but also where Jesus and his followers were coming from and the world they lived in. I'm looking forward to our final session of the study.

[Lbech · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, incredibly good. Bringing Judaism and Christianity together

This is my second book by Dr. Levine. I am a retired pastor and I wished I had this book when I was in seminary. Dr. Levine explains the Judaic background to everything Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, things we Christians think belong to us alone. I have a much better understanding of how close Christians and Jews should be in living our faiths. We ought to celebrating what we share.

This explanation of those few chapters in Matthew should be our guide for living the faith we have.

[Shannon Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love everything AJ does. She's a fascinating speaker, and my favorite quote from her is that "Christians come to the Bible to end a conversation, Jews come to the Bible to begin a conversation." I did this book as part of a Lent study. She is so knowledgable and infuses her writing with humor. If you've heard her speak, she writes exactly how she talks, so I can actually hear her speaking to me through her writing. If you haven't participated in a study of her work, I highly recommend any of her books. She's wonderful.

[crwx · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book and for me, it was very helpful in understanding the Sermon on the Mount against the backdrop of Judaism. I would recommend this to anybody who has an open mind and wants to really understand the principles behind Jesus' message. The author has a good sense of humour and this was very enjoyable to read.

I would not recommend this book if you are hardline on the following doctrines:
- sola scriptura
- sola fide / faith over good works
- consider the Epistle of James to be heretical or to be ignored

[Jennifer Ingrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, Amy is a wonderful writer and has a great respect for Jesus and the Jewish faith to which he belonged. I’m always learning new things when I read her works. Understanding Christianity definitely means understanding the context in which Jesus lived and taught boot. I don’t Think you can do that without returning to ancient Jewish perspectives and beliefs. Well done and I do recommend this for any one who wants a deeper dive into the sermon on the mount. This is for beginners. And I guess I am one! I found it easy to consume and I also learned a lot.

[Sara Pantazes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Biblical texts contained within the Sermon on the Mount sound familiar to many, but Amy-Jill Levine's work in this book shows that their depths are far greater than our familiarity with them indicates. Levine is a scholar, and that comes through in all of her books, but I found this one easier to digest than previous works. Her interpretation of Scripture is smart, sharp, and compelling. Great read for a church small group.

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read with a church book group — I enjoyed reading a chapter a week and discussing the ideas, interpretations, scholarship and translations that Levine offers. Her particular background and wide knowledge base makes this informative in a linguistic and historical sense, but also it illumines these verses and shows them as relevant outside of a Christian theology or tradition. I appreciate that she is open and thoughtful in her interpretation.