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Mat_5:1. See on the Sermon on the Mount, the exposition of Tholuck, ed. 5, 1872. [Achelis, Die Bergpredigt, 1875.] Luther’s exposition (sermons of 1530), which appeared in 1532.
τοὺς ὄχλους ] see Mat_4:25. The evangelist does not determine either the time or place precisely, yet he by no means agrees with Luk_6:17.
The μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ are not the twelve apostles (Fritzsche, Hilgenfeld), against which Mat_9:9 is already decisive, but, besides the first four that we selected (Mat_4:18 ff.) His disciples generally, “qui doctrinam ejus sectabantur,” Grotius.
εἰς τὸ ὄρος ] The article is not indefinite: upon a mountain (Luther, Kuinoel), which explanation of the article is always incorrect (Bengel on Mat_18:7), but also not generic; upon the hilly district, or on the heights (Ebrard, Bleek), as ὄρος in the singular (on the plural, comp. Mat_18:12, Mat_24:16) in the N. T. is always only a single hill, as in classical writers; but τὸ ὄρος designates that hill which is situated in the place, where Jesus saw the ὄχλους . Comp. Joh_6:3; Euth. Zigabenus: τὸ ὄρος τὸ πλησίον . Others (Fritzsche, de Wette) make it the well-known hill; comp. Delitzsch: “the Sinai of the New Testament;” Ewald: “the holy hill of the gospel history.” These are arbitrary presuppositions, opposed to the analogy of Mat_14:23, Mat_15:29. It is a misuse of the article, however, to assume that in the Gospels the same mountain is always designated by τὸ ὄρος (Gfrörer, heil. Sage, I. p. 139; B. Bauer; Volkmar). Tradition points out the “mount of beatitudes” as near the town of Saphet; see Robinson, Palestine, III. p. 485. Comp. also Schubert, III. p. 233; Ritter, Erdk. XV. 1, p. 387; Keim, Gesch. J. II. p. 236.