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In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had one example of perfectness to recommend to us, our Father in Heaven. After his resurrection and glorification, the Savior could also offer himself as a perfect example. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

ABSTRACT: Matthew 5:48 (“Be ye therefore perfect . . .”) is a salient passage of scripture for Latter-day Saints because of its seeming focus on becoming like God, a key doctrine of the Latter-day Saints faith. But what insights do we gain from analyzing its ancient Jewish context by comparing it to a parallel verse in Luke 6, by examining the verses immediately preceding it, and by considering the Greek grammar of the passage and the ancient meaning of the word translated as perfect in its various contexts? This essay explores these interpretive angles as well as surveys how this verse has been interpreted by Latter-day Saint leaders and scholars.

KEYWORDS: perfection, Judaism, New Testament, love, mercy

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” In past decades and generations when this verse was used by Latter-day Saints in a Church-meeting talk, read from a lesson manual, or discussed in a seminary lesson, its context was often universal or general. In other words, the discussion or treatment of this verse sometimes lacked specifics regarding the word perfect, what Jesus might have meant, or what the previous verses contain that might be relevant to the content of Matthew 5:48. That’s at least our experience in the 1990s in seminary and early 2000s institute classes. The verse could refer to perfection in any number of things—all commandments, deeds, thoughts, and so on.

So Jesus in that verse was often seen as commanding his followers to be perfect in a kind of swing-for-the-fence effort—to strive to match God in all his perfections as much as possible. For the first author of this essay, that was the very message in his missionary farewell talk years ago, an address that was approved by the bishop after he reviewed the material. The verse has often been used to motivate people to do what God commands or do what the culture emphasizes as important: read scriptures daily, attend church, abstain from harmful substances, observe the Sabbath, pray, fast, pay tithes, minister, fulfill callings, follow the prophets, attend the temple regularly, bridle passions, keep thoughts clean, dress modestly, avoid using profane language, and so on.

In this essay we discuss the primary ways Matthew 5:48 has been interpreted in a modern Latter-day Saint context and how an ancient Jewish contextual reading might add to our interpretive possibilities.

Prophetic Caution and Nuance to “Being Perfect”

We cannot assume that the more rigid, perfectionistic interpretation was the only way that the verse was understood in previous generations. That was just our experience. However, this approach to Matthew 5:48 does seem to have some wind at its back throughout Latter-day Saint history. For example, we read the following in a 1910 issue of the Millennial Star: “It should be plain to every one that nothing short of perfect obedience to all the laws of God will bring the blessings which are predicated on those laws. . . . Only by this means may we become ‘perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect,’” citing Matthew 5:48.[1] In 1935 the general publication for the Church at the time, the Improvement Era, printed this on the subject: “It should be the aim of every Latter-day Saint to strive to perfect himself as urged by the Savior. While perfection in this life may appear to be impossible of attainment, to approach it as nearly as possible is not only desirable but it is our duty.”[2] Here the sentiment of the author is that Jesus taught his audience to “strive” for perfection, holistically, and even if it “may appear to be impossible,” it is our duty to try.

A similar message was conveyed in 1948 by Elder Antoine R. Ivins, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy. He expressed a desire to live close enough to the Spirit so that he “never would say or do a thing” that would offend another person. He continued: “We must strive for [perfection]. . . . It was held out as a goal to us, and the nearer we approach perfection in that respect the greater will be our joy and our happiness.”[3] Elder Richard L. Evans not only agreed that Jesus taught holistic perfection, but he added that he understood Jesus as saying that perfection is possible, that it’s not just an exaggerated theory meant to motivate followers of Christ: “It isn’t enough to be just as good today as we were yesterday. We should be better. The Lord doesn’t deal in theories. When he says perfection is possible, we’d better be improving.”[4] More recently, a member of the Seventy posed this question concerning Matthew 5:48: “What if becoming ‘even as [He is]’ is not figurative, even in our mortal condition? What if it is, to some degree, attainable in this life?”[5]

This message isn’t necessarily a wrong or bad one. After all, most religious systems contain an ethical ideal that its adherents should strive to fulfill, and Judaism of the first century is no exception. However, this ethic can be approached in ways that make it a source of significant stress for some people. Fulfilling the impossible standard of being fully like God now is potentially crippling, both mentally and spiritually. Consequently, it seems that while Latter-day Saint leaders generally have not outright dismissed this interpretation, some of them have cautioned about it or qualified it in some way. For example, as far back as 1853, Brigham Young taught the following:

Those who do right, and seek the glory of the Father in heaven, whether their knowledge be little or much, or whether they can do little or much, if they do the very best they know how, they are perfect. It may appear strange to some of you, and it certainly does to the world, to say it is possible for a man or woman to become perfect on this earth. It is written, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” . . . This is perfectly consistent to the person who understands what perfection really is. If the first passage I have quoted is not worded to our understanding, we can alter the phraseology of the sentence, and say, “Be ye as perfect as ye can,” for that is all we can do, though it is written, be ye perfect as your Father who is in heaven is perfect. To be as perfect as we possibly can, according to our knowledge, is to be just as perfect as our Father in heaven is.[6]

Like Brigham Young, more recent Church leaders have attempted to contextualize the word perfect to mean something other than “error-free.” For example, in 1995 President Russell M. Nelson addressed Matthew 5:48 directly. He suggested that our comprehension is lacking if we think Jesus is asking us to be perfect in the sense of “eternal perfection,” which “is reserved for those who overcome all things and inherit the fulness of the Father in his heavenly mansions. [That category of] perfection consists in gaining eternal life—the kind of life that God lives.” However, he suggested that “mortal perfection” can be achieved, meaning we can “strive to be . . . perfect in our sphere” and even attain perfection in some ways, such as by “being punctual, paying tithing, keeping the Word of Wisdom, and so on.” He then provided meanings of the Greek word ��é���𾱴Dz�, stressing that “the word does not imply ‘freedom from error’ . . . [but rather] is the eternal expectation.”[7] President Nelson’s 1995 sermon, titled “Perfection Pending,” was rearticulated in 2017 by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland in his sermon “Be Ye Therefore Perfect—Eventually.” Concerning Matthew 5:48, Elder Holland noted, “Every one of us aspires to a more Christlike life than we often succeed in living.” Like Elder Nelson, he urged his audience to “persevere” without becoming overwhelmed with feelings of guilt for falling short in the quest for perfection, which will not be “complete” or “finished” until “somewhere in eternity.”[8]

Elder Holland’s take is similar to what earlier Apostles taught. President Joseph Fielding Smith explained that “salvation does not come all at once; we are commanded to be perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. It will take us ages to accomplish this end, for there will be greater progress beyond the grave, and it will be there that the faithful will overcome all things.”[9]

Matthew 5:48 and the Book of Mormon

Latter-day Saints also have a perspective on this verse from our own unique canon. In his visit to the refugees and survivors at Bountiful, Christ shared similar teachings to the Sermon on the Mount. One of the many small deviations from Matthew 5–7 comes at the close of the sermon. Christ adds himself to the concluding formula: “Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect” (3 Nephi 12:48). According to Matthew, Christ gave the admonition in Matthew 5:48 (which refers only to the Father’s perfection) well before his death and resurrection. Gospel scholar Daniel H. Ludlow observed that Jesus “had one example of perfectness to recommend to us,” our Father in Heaven. “After his resurrection and glorification,” Ludlow continued, “the Savior could offer himself as an example also.”[10] Thus, Christ’s addition of “even as I” suggests that perfection in its fullest sense is attainable only as a resurrected being, something President Nelson confirms: “Resurrection is requisite for eternal perfection.”[11]

Over the two centuries since the Book of Mormon was published, Church leaders have interpreted Jesus’s updated admonition in a variety of ways. The most typical, our obligation to strive for perfection in this life, aligns with Latter-day Saint commentary on Matthew 5:48. For example, George Q. Cannon quoted that verse and asked, “How could we be [perfect] if man did not have the power within him, through the agency which God has given him, to be thus perfect.”[12] Nearly a century later, another General Authority, Elder Bernard Brockbank, echoed Cannon’s remarks: “The Lord also commanded man to build godlike perfection into his life.”[13] Another Church leader expressed similar ideas after quoting 3 Nephi 12:48:

Something important occurred between the time He taught this sermon to the people in the Holy Land and when He taught it to the people of ancient America. In the meantime, He went through His Gethsemane, where He drank the bitter cup and did not shrink. We too should strive for perfection, bear up under our problems and our sorrows, remain faithful to the end, and not shrink.[14]

Elder Neal A. Maxwell considered this verse and others to imply a process of becoming, which even Jesus experienced. “Jesus grew from ‘grace to grace’ until He received a fulness. (See D&C 93:13.) This is so helpful, especially in view of how the Father and the Son have encouraged us, afresh, to become more like them by developing the requisite qualities in our lives. (See Matt. 5:48; 3 Ne. 12:48; 3 Ne. 27:27.)”[15]

While a few general conference speakers have mentioned 3 Nephi 12:48 in context with what precedes it (e.g., Ulysses Soares, “The Savior’s Abiding Compassion,” October 2021), it seems that the primary method of interpreting this passage is identical to that of Matthew 5:48: perfection in all things—perfect like Christ and God.

Matthew 5:48 in an Ancient Jewish Context

In considering an exegetical, even ancient “Jewish” approach to the verse, we must first examine the meaning of the word perfect (��é���𾱴Dz�) in its early Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts. The word ��é���𾱴Dz� carried a broad range of meanings in ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish literature. In Greco-Roman literature, the term was used in the context of educational advancement. Students started as beginners but eventually progressed to the highest stage, called “perfection.” The term did not mean “without error” but “most mature.” An example is a physician who has “reached the limit of professional ability” and thus is ready to treat patients with the highest confidence. The Greek word was also used in relation to the “might” and “efficaciousness” of Deity. Biologically, the word denoted a “fully grown” adult.[16]

New Testament usage of ��é���𾱴Dz� often reflects a sense of “undivided” attention to God’s will, of being “wholly” invested in fulfilling God’s law or “completely” devoted to a cause. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament offers the following conclusion regarding ��é���𾱴Dz�: “One does not find in the New Testament any understanding of the adjective in terms of a gradual advance of the Christian to moral perfection.”[17]

Salvation does not come all at once. It will take us ages to accomplish this end, for there will be greater progress beyond the grave, and it will be there that the faithful will overcome all things. Painting by Wilson J. Ong. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

The Hebrew equivalent of the word ��é���𾱴Dz� is ���峾î��. This word carries similar meanings throughout the Hebrew Bible.[18] Although it means “without blemish” regarding sacrificial animals, its use in contexts of a religious, moral, or ethical nature “suggests neither sinlessness nor particularistic obedience to a specific legal system. . . . The word denotes conduct that is right, benign, upstanding, and just, whether expressed as a single act or in a general way of life.”[19] The word thummim comes from this root. Urim and Thummim can mean “light and truth” or “revelation and piety.”[20] This sense of truth or piety is not interpreted in light of perfect piety or perfect truth. In the Hebrew Bible, ���峾î�� is used to describe Abraham and Job as men of “integrity,” “innocence,” and “devotion” (Job 8:20; 9:21).[21] As with the New Testament, the Hebrew Bible does not use this word to refer to a quest for perfection, as in striving to become like God in every way while progressing through mortality.

In light of these meanings, a few conceptual renderings of Matthew 5:48 might be as follows: “Be ye therefore mature,” “Be ye therefore mighty,” “Be ye therefore efficacious,” “Be ye therefore wholly invested,” “Be ye therefore completely focused [on the task at hand], even as your Father which is heaven is completely focused [on the task at hand].”

The question, then, is, What is the “task at hand”? To what did Jesus want his followers to be “true,” “wholly invested,” or “totally devoted”? In adherence to the entirety of Christian living? In their thoughts? In their actions? The verse itself provides an explicit answer. In the King James Version, the third word in the verse is therefore. This word, in both Greek and English (in fact, in every language), refers to what preceded it.[22] If a child comes home from school, walks in the door, and says to his mother, “Therefore, Mother, I am tired,” his mother would be confused because the word therefore suggests that some information should have come before it. Perhaps we might teach our students that every time they see therefore in scripture, they should immediately look at the previous verses for an informing context. In the case of Matthew 5:48, if the therefore refers to the previous verses, then they should be included with verse 48 in our seminary lessons, BYU religious education courses, sacrament meeting talks, and lesson manuals, but they rarely, if ever, are. In a large majority of cases, verse 48 is divorced from its broader literary unit. Here is the full passage:

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:43–48)

Even without a knowledge of Hebrew and Greek (or Greco-Roman and early Jewish contexts), the reader of the KJV can clearly understand Jesus’s message. Be perfect in what? The answer is in loving others! Notice the emphasized words and phrases in the preceding verses. Here Jesus is sermonizing on love, especially the exhortation to love one’s enemies. If his followers love their enemies, then they will be “children of [their] Father which is in heaven” (v. 45). Said another way, they will be “even as [their] Father which is in heaven” (v. 48). Jesus explains that loving friends is easy. Even gangsters—or tax collectors,” in this sermon[23]—love those who love them back. But if Jesus’s followers love those who hate them, then they are doing as God does.[24] Further, Jesus defines perfect later in the same Gospel: “If you wish to be perfect [��é���𾱴Dz�], go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor” (Matthew 19:21 New Revised Standard Version). The use of ��é���𾱴Dz� here would seem to be understood most accurately by putting it into the context of the sentences around it. Rather than a call to be perfect in every way, the meaning seems to be connected with Jesus’s teaching on how we should treat our neighbors, in this case “the poor.” This fits well with the reasoning that ��é���𾱴Dz�, as used in Matthew 5:48, also can be interpreted in relation to how we love our neighbors.

What evidence is there to support reading Matthew 5:48 as the culmination of this small set of verses, as opposed to the culmination of the entire sermon? (1) If Jesus had intended this statement to encompass the entirety of his sermon—and thus to be the culmination of the entire Christian worldview—he would have uttered it at the end of his sermon (corresponding to the end of chapter 7). (2) the author of Luke separates this group of verses from all the other mini-sermons that the author of Matthew combines into one long sermon that later became known as the “Sermon on the Mount” (Luke 6:27–36). (3) Some ancient Greek manuscripts, like Codex Vaticanus (the earliest New Testament manuscript, dating to the mid-fourth century), show through punctuation and paragraph demarcation that verses 43 through 48 are part of the same small unit—that verse 48 is to be understood neither as a culmination of the entire sermon in chapter 5 nor as an independent, standalone verse (i.e., our equivalent of “Scripture Mastery”).[25]

In this reading, Jesus is telling his followers to consider, first and foremost, other people. Yes, technically, how we treat others is a concerted focus on ourselves—our personal actions, but the point is to look outward at forgiving and loving those whom we do not think deserve our love. The author of Luke understood this interpretation, as demonstrated in his retelling of Jesus’s mini-sermon on love (i.e., the parallel to Matthew 5:43–48):

But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other. . . . For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. (Luke 6:27–29, 32–37 KJV)

The author of Luke finishes Jesus’s sermon on love with more precision than does the author of Matthew: “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father is merciful.” Luke places the contextual meaning back into Jesus’s mouth. Luke, not using the word ��é���𾱴Dz�, chose a conceptual synonym. Instead of “being completely devoted to loving others,” as in Matthew, Luke expressed it as “be merciful.” Either way, we don’t get anything close to “without error” in a holistic sense. The message is to emulate God’s character—in this case, show mercy and love to other people. The author of Luke also sandwiches the “be ye therefore” verse (v. 36) between Jesus’s mini-sermon on love (vv. 27–35) and the Golden Rule (v. 37). This teaching of Jesus is demonstrably and unequivocally about how one must treat other people. This saying of Jesus also circulated among the later rabbinic sages. Rabbi Abba Saul said, “Be ye like Him: just as He is gracious and compassionate, so be thou gracious and compassionate.”[26]

Note also that the author of 1 John 4:18–21 (KJV) uses the word ��é���𾱴Dz� in relation to loving one’s neighbor: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.” Notice that in explicitly stating that Jesus commanded his followers to love others, the author of 1 John uses ��é���𾱴Dz�, which is from Matthew 5:48 and Luke 6:36. In this reading, Jesus’s main message is to “be ��é���𾱴Dz�,” or better conceptualized, “be unwavering” in love and kindness toward other people.

The way Matthew and Luke present this directive makes sense, given the Israelite context. The wording of Matthew 5:48 and Luke 6:36 comes from the Hebrew scriptures. The context is holiness. We find similar passages in Leviticus: “For I am the Lord your God; sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy” (11:44); “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (19:2; compare 21:8). This principle of imitating god is called imitatio Dei—“the life of godliness”[27] or the “imitation of God.” These verses demonstrate that God expects the nation of Israel to live holy lives, meaning that they are not to emulate the local impure populations but to imitate God in separating themselves from impurity. This is the larger context of the book of Leviticus, given the repeated emphasis on refraining from behaving like the other nations. This idea is explicitly stated in Leviticus 20:26: “You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and I have set you apart from other peoples to be Mine.”

The author of Deuteronomy understood that to be a holy people requires following the Lord’s lead to love their neighbors and assist the least among them: “He [the Lord] doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:18–19 KJV). Like the verses in Matthew, this passage explains that because God loves the fatherless, the widow, and the stranger, so should his people.

In addition to the contextual readings, preeminent Jewish New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine explains the Greek grammar of this verse. In the Greek text of Matthew 5:43–48, “be perfect” does not appear in the imperative form. In other words, it’s not a command.[28] Rather, it is a future indicative. It is an if-then statement. Thus, a better translation of Jesus’s entire chain of thought would be “If you love your enemies as God loves his enemies, then ‘you will be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.’” In fact, verse 45 illustrates this very notion; if you love your enemies (v. 44), then “ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven” (v. 45). As demonstrated by this if-then structure, Jesus is not calling on his followers to undertake a quest for perfection that would necessarily make some of them anxious and neurotic.

Takeaways

The content of Matthew 5:48 (and Luke 6:36) has been understood and interpreted in various ways in Latter-day Saint history. In an ancient Jewish context the message is to love one’s enemies and neighbors. In a modern, Latter-day Saint context, the message centers on the doctrine of becoming like God and perfecting oneself (i.e., following the commandments). Latter-day Saints far and wide have found this verse helpful in emphasizing the doctrine of becoming like God because of the presence of the word perfect in the verse, as translated by the King James translators.

The point of this brief article is not to imply that there is “one way” to interpret a scriptural passage. We see a wide array of approaches to this verse that illustrate the beauty, richness, and complexity in scriptural interpretation. The interpreter on one occasion can be hyperliteral, attending to the first-century Jewish context and Greek language, and on another occasion massage the text in creative ways to emphasize a modern principle or application. Regardless of which method or approach our Latter-day Saint teachers choose, we stress that interpreters and teachers of this passage need to know the difference between the various approaches that we have discussed. They also need to be transparent with their students regarding the method they are employing. In addition, they must know how their methods of interpretation might be used or misused by others.

We hope that by introducing an exegetical reading of Matthew 5:48, we might add to the ways Latter-day Saints can utilize this verse. The common Latter-day Saint reading is an appropriate method of interpretation if it doesn’t drown out other ways of interpreting the scripture. We hope that all the various approaches can be taught and emphasized to our Latter-day Saint students and audiences.

Notes

[1] Edgar M. Wright, “The Efficient Are Rewarded,” Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, December 1, 1910, 758–59.

[2] “Ward Teachers’ Message for June, 1935,” Improvement Era, May 1935, 313.

[3] Antoine R. Ivins, in Conference Report, April 1948, https://archive.org/details/conferencereport.

[4] Richard L. Evans, in Conference Report, October 1969, https://archive.org/details/conferencereport.

[5] Scott D. Whiting, “Becoming like Him,” conference talk, October 2020, www.churchofjesuschrist.org.

[6] Brigham Young, in Journal of Discourses (Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1854–86), 2:129–30 (December 18, 1853).

[7] Russell M. Nelson, “Perfection Pending,” conference talk, October 1995, www.churchofjesuschrist.org.

[8] Jeffrey R. Holland, “Be Ye Therefore Perfect—Eventually,” conference talk, October 2017, www.churchofjesuschrist.org.

[9] Joseph Fielding Smith, Gospel Doctrine (Deseret Book, 1939), 132.

[10] Daniel Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the New Testament: The Four Gospels (Deseret Book, 1982), 55.

[11] Nelson, “Perfection Pending.”

[12] Journal of Discourses, 26:188 (September 28, 1884).

[13] Bernard P. Brockbank, “God’s Way to Eternal Life,” conference talk, October 1973, www.churchofjesuschrist.org.

[14] Royce G. Derrick, “The Way to Perfection,” April 1989 general conference, www.churchofjesuschrist.org.

[15] Neal A. Maxwell, “‘Called and Prepared from the Foundation of the World,’” April 1986 general conference, www.churchofjesuschrist.org.

[16] For a thorough discussion of ��é���𾱴Dz� in ancient literature, see Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, eds., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Eerdmans, 1999), 8:49–87.

[17] Friedrich and Bromiley, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 77.

[18] G. Johannes Botterweck, Helmer Ringgren, and Heinz-Josef Fabry, eds., Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 2006), 15:699–711.

[19] Botterweck, Ringgren, and Fabry, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, 15:707.

[20] Botterweck, Ringgren, and Fabry, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, 15:706.

[21] Botterweck, Ringgren, and Fabry, Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, 15:707–8.

[22] See William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, and Frederick W. Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (University of Chicago Press, 1958), 781–82.

[23] “Toll collectors, or tax farmers (�ٱ��ô�Բ���), engaged in bidding wars for the right to collect additional taxes at elevated rates for Rome, probably through the transportation of material goods. It was this dishonest practice that likely caused Pharisees to consider toll collectors to be impure. Another reason for this impurity may be that collectors worked closely with non-Jews and were in direct contact with Roman coins, which contained idolatrous images.” Trevan G. Hatch, A Stranger in Jerusalem: Seeing Jesus as a Jew (Wipf & Stock, 2019, 160).

[24] Unknown to us during much of the writing and research phase of this article, Frank F. Judd Jr. had come to a similar conclusion in his 2010 essay “ʻBe Ye Therefore Perfect’: The Elusive Quest for Perfection,” in The Sermon on the Mount in Latter-day Scripture, ed. Gaye Strathearn, Thomas A. Wayment, and Daniel L. Belnap (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2010), 123–39.

[25] See Codex Vaticanus, Vat.gr.1209, folio 1240, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1209/1244. To be sure, not all ancient manuscripts contain the same paragraph demarcations.

[26] Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 133b.

[27] Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16 (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 731.

[28] Amy-Jill Levine, Sermon on the Mount: A Beginner’s Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven (Nashville: Abingdon, 2020), 4–5.