Page 103 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

The hermeneutics Jesus employed had its roots in the mercy of God. By his preaching, Jesus

challenged the “politics of holiness,” those regulations delineated in the holiness code. 138 It was

their ethos, their way of life. They chose separation to live out this ethos, separating themselves

from anything that could defile the attainment of holiness. Jesus purposefully challenged the

politics of holiness because it had made Israel unfruitful and unfaithful. 139

In his preaching, Jesus taught new ethics and attitudes based upon a communal life

grounded on a new relationship with God. The content of the Sermon on the Mount concurs this

relational understanding well. 140 Jesus challenged the casuistic laws and their applications that

“obfuscate the original intent of the divine covenant.” 141 In his preaching, Jesus taught the intent

of the Torah, i.e. new attitudes of heart rather than methodical compliance to rules. The love

command of Jesus becomes the “Magna Carta of the Kingdom of God,” because it best portrays

this ethical prescription of Jesus and structures it essence. 142

138 Borg, New Vision, 151-65.

139
For an example, see Lk. 10: 25-37.
140
For an example, See Leland J. White, “Grid and Group in Matthew’s Community: the
Righteous/Honor code in the Sermon on the Mount,” Semeia 35 (1986), 69. He analyzes the
content of the Sermon on the Mount. He reports that “More than half the sermon is explicitly
devoted to the presentation of a community code. Further investigation of the forty-eight verses
in which norms are presented or explained, shows that twenty-seven (56%) govern internal group
relationships. Eleven (23%) govern relationships outside the community. Ten (21%) govern what
might be taken personal conduct or attitudes. Thus we find a community code in which
community life is the dominant and merely personal conduct clearly subordinated to social
obligations.”

141
Snyder, Inculturation, 18.

142
Stein, Method and Message, 103.