The Mount, Location Of Jesus' Sermon

A hill with a plain

View to the Horns of Hattin © Darko Tepert / Source:Wikimedia Commons, licence: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic.

The plain below the peak can be clearly seen on the right of this picture.

The location of the Sermon on the Mount is often referred to as the Mount of the Beatitudes.

Matthew places Jesus in Galilee when he delivered the Sermon (Matt 4:23-25). However, from attempting a harmony of the Synoptic Gospels, one may suggest that Jesus was in Capernaum immediately prior to delivering the Sermon and returned their directly afterwards. This is consistent with a location amongst the hills along the NW shore of Galilee. The precise location in which the Sermon was given cannot be established with certainty. However, their are two reasonably strong candidates.

A tradition suggestion, traceable at least back to the fourth century C.E., suggests that the Mount was in the area now marked by the Church of the Beatitudes. This broad hillside lies amongst the hills to the north west of the Sea of Galilee, a little over 1 Km west of Capernaum.

A second suggestion, traceable back to the thirteenth century C.E., proposes the twin peaked Karn Hattin (Horns of Hattin) as an alternative (Fenlon 2009, n.p.). This lay further inland to the west and forms a slightly more substantial peak than the hills adjacent to the shore of Galilee, but it again had a level area below a hilltop. However, with the Horns of Hattin lying some 20 Km SW of Capernaum, and, with Jesus only intending to teach his disciples, it is questionable why that site might be chosen in preference to a site on Mt. Hermon, which lay a similar distance to the NW.

Given that the Sermon on the Mount appears to be Jesus’ clarification of the Ten Commandments, also that Matthew develops the theme of Jesus being a prophet like Moses (France 1995, 85), it seems quite reasonable to assume that Matthew described a hill as a mountain for the theological effect, thereby identifying the event with the law giving at Sinai. However, not all scholars would agree with this conclusion (e.g. see France 1995, 107).

Scholars who wish to identify the Sermon on the Mount with the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20-49)must reconcile Jesus’ ascent of a hill to give the Sermon on the Mount with his descent before giving the Sermon on the Plain. Thus they tend to favour sites with a wide level area just below a hilltop, such as those mentioned above.

References

Works on the Sermon on the Mount that were consulted during the construction of this site, but not specifically referenced on this page, are listed in this Bibliography of sources. The dictionaries, encyclopaedias, general commentaries, and language studies that were consulted are noted in this List of Reference Works. Appropriate copyright declarations for all the bible versions used on this page may be found in the List of Bible Versions Used. Translations of ancient authors that have been used are identified in the List of Ancient Authors Consulted.

Works specifically cited on this page are as follows:

Fenlon, John Francis. 1907. Mount of Beatitudes. No pages. In vol. 2 of The Catholic Encyclopedia New York: Robert Appleton. Cited 4 Aug. 2009. Online: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02369a.htm.

France, Richard Thomas. 1995. The Gospel According to Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary in Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Edited by Leon Morris. Paperback reprint edition. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press.