In a free paraphrase, however, an attempt is made to give the meaning of the ancient writer's central idea in modern and colloquial language for our own culture. This is done by judiciously changing his thought-forms and cultural expressions into those easily intelligible and familiar to us today. For example: "You are leaders with no insight! You are very concerned with tiny details! But you don't care at all about the really important things! … You reptiles! You bunch of snakes! You're all headed for the judgment of the fiery trash-heap!" (Compare Matthew 23:24,33)
In this present study, we show that the Sermon on the Mount is itself essentially Jehovah-Jesus' inspired "paraphrase" of His Own ancient Decalogue as previously published by Him to Moses on Mount Sinai. For in His Sermon, Christ re-presented the exact meaning of the Ten Commandments of the Mosaic Law, by infallibly paraphrasing them into the thought-forms and cultural ideas of His Own contemporary culture a millenium-and-a-half later.
