Matthew 5:1

Matthew 5:1 and Matthew 5:2 are the first two verses of the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The verses introduce the Sermon on the Mount that will be recited in the next several chapters. The previous verse mentioned the large crowds "from Galilee, and from the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan" who followed Jesus to witness him healing: these verses present Jesus as seeing the crowds and going up onto a mountain to begin teaching.

The original Koine Greek, according to Westcott and Hort, reads:

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

The World English Bible translates the passage as:

In other English translations, the Geneva Bible, New International Version and God's Word Translation refer to "a mountain", whereas the Revised Standard Version and the New American Standard Bible refer to "the mountain". For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 5:1-2

The reference to going up a mountain prior to preaching is considered by many to be a reference to Moses on Mount Sinai. Lapide feels that the clumsy phrasing implies that this verse is a transliteration from the Hebrew, and that it was an exact replica of a passage describing Moses. Boring notes that the reference to Jesus sitting may be an allusion to Deuteronomy 9:9, where in some translations Moses is described as sitting on Mount Sinai.St. Augustine in his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount supported the Moses parallel. He argued that this symbolism shows that Jesus is giving a new set of precepts to supplement those of Moses. In his later writings, such as the Reply to Faustus, he backs away from this view.

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