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The Sermon on the Mount The Sermon on the Mount is believed to be a sermon given by Jesus of Nazareth to his disciples, as recorded in chapters 5-7 of the Gospel of Matthew. The words epitomize Jesus moral teachings in the context of the Mosaic Law. While biblical literal interpreters believe these verses represent an accurate record of an actual speech given by the historical Jesus, critical scholars take it to be a compilation of sayings attributed to Jesus, some historical, some not. Recent scholarship has led some to conclude that the sermon was meant as a summary of Jesus' teaching for Matthew's Jewish-Christian audience. It emphasizes the need for continued obedience to most of the precepts of the Mosaic Law, and to go beyond the required major commandments. Some Christians believe that the Sermon on the Mount shows Christ as initiating a "New Covenant." That covenant effectively nullified the old Law of Moses. To many readers, the sermon contains the central tenets of Christian discipleship and is considered as such by numerous religious and moral thinkers, such as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Martin Luther King, Jr.. Its teachings have also been one of the main sources of Christian pacifism. The best-known portions of the open-air sermon comprise the Beatitudes, found at the beginning of Matthew's reportage. The sermon also contains the Lord's Prayer and the injunctions to "resist not evil" and "turn the other cheek." Also, there is Jesus' version of the Golden Rule. Other lines often quoted are the references to "salt of the Earth," "light of the world," and "judge not, lest ye be judged." It concludes with an admonition not only to hear Jesus' words, but to do them, a teaching which some commentators find to be at odds with the Pauline emphasis on faith in Jesus as opposed to works as the key to salvation. The Gospel of Matthew groups Jesus' teachings into five discourses, of which the Sermon on the Mount is the first. Those accepting the ancient church tradition of Matthean authorship take the sermon as what it purports to be (Matthew 5:2), namely the actual words of Jesus given on the occasion described. Critical scholars tend to see portions of the Sermon on the Mount and the parallel Sermon on the Plain in the Gospel of Luke as having been drawn from a common "sayings source" document known as Q. Tending to confirm this idea is that fact that some of the sayings can also be found in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas. However, others argue that the parallels in Luke tend to be very loose, and that the Gospel of Thomas could have borrowed the verses either from Matthew or Luke.