Auf der Spur einer „Grundsatzrede“ vor der Bergpredigt

Abstract The thesis of an Inaugural Speech is widely accepted. To neglect its existence will substantially weaken the “two-source theory”. The exact content, the genre and rhetoric of the speech have, however, not been investigated sufficiently. Is Luke’s Sermon on the Plain in fact identical with the historical Inaugural Speech? Do also parts of the Q-material in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount originate from this speech? A new approach is to differentiate four groups of traditions in the Sermon on the Mount: a. the Inaugural Speech = common material in Luke and Matthew; b. the Q material in the Sermon on the Mount; c. “The triple-tradition”; d. the “Sondergut” in Matthew and Luke. A precise and comprehensive reconstruction of the Inaugural Speech as such is hardly possible, but the genre and the rhetorical outline of the Speech can to a large extent be reconstructed. The parallels in Mark, the Gospel of Thomas and particularly in the Epistle of James and in Justin’s Apology can also illuminate the genre and text behind Matthew and Luke. Reconstructions often have an element of speculation. Due to the existence of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and the Sermon on the Plain in Luke a reconstruction is necessary, possible and fruitful – at least if we take the parallels, the genre and the composition into account.