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Without disregarding the value of a diachronic approach, priority is given to a synchronic understanding of the Sermon on the Mount in its present form. Emphasis on diachronics, or even a shuttling between the diachronic and the synchronic, tends to cloud the holistic message that the Sermon was intended to convey to its real-world Syriac audience. The situation of that audience and its bearing on the content of the Sermon on the Mount are discussed. Compositional and thematic aspects of the Sermon are highlighted, such as its position within the macro-structure of Matthew, the author’s predilection for triads, the inner structure and theme of the Sermon. It is proposed that the basic theme of the Sermon on the Mount is the very special identity of Jesus’s end-time community and that its main purpose is the shaping and affirming of that identity. Contrary to the normal view that there are presently nine beatitudes, stylistic as well as contentual considerations indicate that the so-called ninth beatitude is in reality an actualising and personalising amplification of the eighth. Aspects of the antitheses such as their significance, the Jesus of the antitheses, and, finally, the Lord’s Prayer also receive attention.

This article rejects the view that Paul’s reference to “the keeping of the commandments of God” in 1 Corinthians 7:19b alludes to the requirement to observe the full Torah for believers from the ’Iουδαῖοι. At the same time it critiques the interpretation that reduces the phrase to something less than full Torah observance. In the prevalent understandings of 1 Corinthians 7:19 Paul’s reference to the keeping of God’s commandments is either diminished to a set of requirements for Christ-believers, or interpreted as a reference to the Torah with a different set of requirements for believers from the ’Iουδαῖοι (full Torah observance) and Gentiles (limited Torah observance) respectively. From the context of the Corinthian correspondence this article concludes that enough of the freedom from the Torah for all believers can be established to render the prevalent interpretations implausible. In comparison with Galatians 5:1–6 (esp. 5:3) and Romans 2:12–29 (esp. 2:25), it interprets 1 Corinthians 7:19 as a pejorative, shorthand reference to the requirement to do the whole Torah, a requirement that would be a logical consequence of an “old age” attitude that reverts back to outward and external identity markers. Hence, this article argues that Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:19 is suggesting the following: “It is all or nothing; if practising circumcision were essential for those called by God, so would be the keeping of the whole Torah.”