1. The Sermon on the Mount only appears in Matthew\u2019s gospel. In Luke, the sermon is given not on a mountain, but a \u201clevel place\u201d (6:17), and is frequently referred to as the Sermon on the Plain. These two sermons share some material, but diverge greatly. Attempts at harmonization argue that Matthew and Luke record two different sermons, but most believe that the authors are working from shared sayings that have been put together in different ways. Most of what is in Matthew\u2019s Sermon is found scattered about in different narrative contexts in Luke. Mark and John contain almost none of what is in Matthew\u2019s sermon.
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\n2. In Matthew, the location of the sermon on a mountain is significant for the typological parallel that he is drawing between Moses and Jesus. Luke is not making this parallel at all. <\/p>\n
3. The Sermon is not a public address, but is rather given to the disciples away from the \u201ccrowds.\u201d <\/p>\n
4. The Beatitudes differ between Matthew and Luke in significant ways. In general, Luke\u2019s versions are more concerned with social and political positions of powerlessness, eg., \u201cblessed are you poor\u2026.Blessed are you that are hungry.\u201d In contrast, Matthew is generally interested in more spiritualized versions of these sayings, eg., \u201cblessed are the poor in spirit\u2026blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness.\u201d Further, Luke\u2019s version contains a set of \u201cwoes\u201d along with the beatitudes that warn against the rich, the full, those who laugh, and the well esteemed (6:24-26). <\/p>\n
5. Matthew\u2019s Jesus\u2019 attitude toward Torah\/Law is extremely positive, and possibly explicitly anti-Pauline. When Matthew\u2019s Jesus says, \u201cThink not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them,\u201d (5:17), he seems to object to Christians who interpret Jesus\u2019 message as the end of the Law. Matthew goes further with a Jesus who not only upholds the Law, but goes further with it by adding to it. This would certainly include observance of kosher and circumcision, the main issues under dispute in Pauline Christianity. \u201cWhoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven\u2026unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.\u201d (5:20)<\/p>\n
6. One of the most controversial of Jesus\u2019 sayings in the Sermon is his uncompromising prohibition of divorce (Matt 5:31-32), a saying also known to Mark and Luke (Mk 10:11-12; Luke 16:18). Paul also knows this saying, and is one of the only sayings of Jesus he references, and provides a caveat which essentially nullifies the prohibtion, permitting divorce and providing instructions for those who do so (1 Cor 7:10).<\/p>\n
7. The so-called Lord\u2019s Prayer contains some key differences between Matthew and Luke, with Matthew generally expanding on the sayings that Luke records, as he had done with the beatitudes. The conclusion in the KJV of Matthew 6:13b, \u201cfor thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, amen\u201d is most certainly a later addition to the text. Interestingly, 3 Nephi 13:13 includes this line.<\/p>\n