The Best Cure for Christianity Is Reading the Bible, Essay No. 2

Matthew 5: Highly prized, but deeply flawed, Jesus-script 

 
Christian clergy and theologians—drawn to their profession by devotion to Jesus—are committed to the idea that the gospel accounts of their lord must be true. Hence they have no trouble claiming that the words of Jesus in the gospels were based on eye-witness accounts and/or reliable oral tradition. Yet there is no evidence—reliable, verifiable, objective evidence—to back up this claim.
 
 
Indeed there are multiple reasons to doubt it, prominent among them that the gospels were written decades after Jesus died—and none of the authors identify their sources. There is a strong consensus that Mark was written first, probably about forty years later, by an anonymous author. Matthew, Luke, and John followed, with the latter perhaps as late at early second century. 
 
Matthew 5 is the first chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, followed by chapters 6 and 7. The Sermon on the Mount is commonly considered by the devout as the pinnacle of wisdom—Jesus at his best. But there are good reasons not to take this idea seriously.
 
Reason Number 1:
 
If this sermon is based on eyewitness accounts and/or reliable oral tradition, why did the author of Mark’s gospel leave it out? How could such an important sermon not have been brought to his attention? It is missing as well from John’s gospel. When Luke—again, the author is anonymous—created his gospel, he wasn’t satisfied with this sermon as presented in Matthew. Luke left out much of Matthew 5, and changed the wording. More on this later. 
 
Some scholars, for a long time, have admitted that the gospels were written—so long after the death of Jesus—to advance the cult agendas of their authors. They cannot be classified as history, since they contain so many superstitions and so much magical thinking. Hence we can accept that they are literary constructs. 
 
Richard Carrier has stated this reality bluntly. He notes that the Sermon on the Mount…
 
“…is a well-crafted literary work that cannot have come from some illiterate Galilean. In fact, we know it originated in Greek, not Hebrew or Aramaic, because it relies on the Septuagint text of the Bible for all its features and allusions…These are not the words of Jesus. This famous sermon as a whole also has a complex literary structure that can only have come from a writer, not an everyday speaker.” (On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt, pp. 465-466)
 
So the devout need to consider the possibility that the Sermon on the Mount is, in fact, Jesus-script created decades after Jesus died—by someone who had no way at all of knowing what Jesus actually taught. 
 
Reason Number 2:
 
Any devout Christian who reads chapter 5 carefully, critically, knows very well that so much of it doesn’t make sense, is bad advice, and qualifies as cult extremism. 
 
After the opening sections of chapter 5, that is, the Beatitudes (which will be considered in Reason No. 3), we find examples of cult fanaticism. It would appear that the author of Matthew’s gospel firmly believed that the Jesus-religion that he championed was still very much a part of Judaism. So in 5:17-20 we find his stark warning that not a single rule mentioned in what we call the Old Testament can be dismissed or ignored. This is awkward for many Christians who want to distance themselves from so much of the brutality they find when they read the Old Testament: “Well, that’s the old law that Jesus replaces.” It’s hard to make the case for that in view of this text in the Sermon on the Mount, which concludes with the warning: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  (5:20)
 
When I was a Methodist pastor—for nine years, in two parishes—I became painfully aware of the folks in the pews who were bitter rivals. They couldn’t stand each other. Moreover, there are now more than 30,000 different, quarrelling brands of Christianity. How could things be this way when the Jesus-script in chapter 5 condemns such behavior? 
 
“So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”  (5:23-24)
 
One of the most brutal sections in this chapter is 5:27-30. Matthew seems to have had little understanding of human sexuality. For him, sexual arousal = lust. Getting horny is one of the things that drives human reproduction; it’s built into us. Yet Matthew would have none of it:
 
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (5:27-28)
 
Of course, we can look on this as just plain silliness, but then comes the brutality: 
 
“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.” (5:29-30)
 
It has been common to treat this as metaphor, but that’s a pathetic way of excusing brutality. Do the devout really want to continue to claim that the Sermon on the Mount as a pinnacle of wisdom? Tear out your eye, cut off your hand? Who would want to follow a fanatic who said such deranged things? How does this not qualify as cult extremism? It belongs in the same category of crazy as “drink the Kool-Aid.” 
 
The last time I checked, most Christians I know are not pacificists. So they must ignore this text from their famous sermon:
 
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.” (5:38-42)
 
Is there any other Bible text that is ignored as much as this one? Moreover, Matthew contradicts himself here. His Jesus-script earlier in this chapter was a proclamation that no Old Testament laws can be ignored, yet here he explicitly overrules the rule stated in Exodus 21:23-25 about eye-for-eye, tooth-for-tooth. 
 
The Jesus-script in 5:31-32, on divorce, and in 5:33-37 on oaths is also largely ignored by the devout. 
 
Reason Number 3:
 
The author of Matthew added the Sermon on the Mount to correct what he felt was a deficiency of Mark’s gospel, that is, it has little ethical teaching. But it would seem that the author of Luke’s gospel wasn’t all that pleased with this extensive Jesus-script created by Matthew. He even relocated it to a level place, as opposed to a mountain (Luke 6:17). He abbreviated it in places, for example, Matthew’s nine beatitudes become four in Luke, and Luke changed the wording. Matthew’s “blessed are the poor in spirit” becomes “blessed are the poor” in Luke. Matthew’s “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” becomes “blessed are you that hunger now” in Luke. 
 
For those who want Jesus-script to be the true words of Jesus, how is it that Matthew and Luke didn’t agree on what exactly Jesus said? 
 
Matthew ended chapter 5 with a little burst of cult fanaticism, verse 48, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Loyalty to the cult was a supreme value—and behaving as perfectly as their god was also a clear expectation. 
 
The Sermon on the Mount does not at all deserve the high praise that is often heaped upon it…by folks who have not bothered to read it carefully, thoughtfully, critically. 
 
 
 
David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes:
·      Guessing About God (2023),
·   Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also available. 
·     Everything You Need to Know About Prayer But May Not Want to Admit (2025)
 
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
 
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.