Parables and Rhetoric in the Sermon on the Mount: New Approaches to a Classical Text

Parable research has to a large degree ignored the Sermon on the Mount (SM) - and research on the SM has vice versa overlooked the parables. The fact that more than one third of the SM employs parabolic language influences interpretation of the text and as a result opens up a new approach. Ernst Baasland makes this, along with the sermon s rhetoric, the focus of his study in this volume. He shows that the rhetorical features impact greatly on the interpretation of the text with the overall rhetorical structure illuminating the entire composition. Insights into the rhetoric of the SM therefore serve to challenge the source problem in a new way.The parables and rhetoric of the Sermon on the Mount clarify its religious and philosophical setting. These factors, coupled with an examination of parallels in Jewish and Graeco-Roman literature, lead to a better understanding of this classical text and its philosophy of life being gained.